Climate Action Collaborative: Does building benchmarking actually work?

What comes to mind when you think of large greenhouse gas emissions sources? Air travel? Tailpipe emissions? Oil and gas drilling, or other forms of energy production?

To the layperson, buildings can be an unsuspecting yet substantial emissions source. In the United States, combined residential and commercial buildings’ total energy consumption accounts for roughly 40% of greenhouse gas emissions. In Eagle County, that combined total is even higher, with buildings producing 51% of greenhouse gas emissions.

So, how do we ensure that the structures we inhabit are having less of an impact on climate change and our environment? Well, the consensus for existing structures is that there are two ways to go about reducing building emissions: improvements in energy efficiency, and substituting clean energy technologies in lieu of fossil fuels for energy consumption. Let’s focus on that first objective, energy efficiency improvements, driven by building benchmarking.

What is building benchmarking?

According to the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, building benchmarking is the practice of comparing the measured performance of a single building’s energy use relative to other similar buildings, with the goal of informing and motivating performance improvements. The idea with benchmarking is that you can’t manage what you can’t measure, and voluntary benchmarking and benchmarking ordinances are picking up traction in the climate realm.

On June 8, 2021, the State of Colorado passed House Bill 21-1286, “Energy Performance for Buildings,” requiring all owners of buildings over 50,000 square feet to report their annual energy use to the Colorado Energy Office using ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager. To give some local context, this law will require 79 buildings in Eagle County to benchmark. 

Support Local Journalism

Donate

ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager then compares your building’s energy performance to similar buildings nationwide and provides you a 1-100 score, with a score above 50 meaning better than average. This score allows you to identify underperforming buildings to target efficiency improvements, as well as identify best practices from more efficient buildings, all working to drive down inefficiencies, improve health and safety, combat climate change, and save on energy costs.

Does building benchmarking actually work?

It’s quite well known that energy efficiency improvements save energy users cost over time. So, how successful is benchmarking in aiding this? In 2018, Energize Denver reported that energy use was cut by 4.5% by 2016-17 reporting buildings, saving owners and tenants $13.5 million in 2017. In 2019, it was reported that benchmarked buildings cut energy use by 0.4% on average annually since 2016. If Energize Denver meets its goal of 30% energy reductions by 2030, it will save building owners $130 million per year in energy costs.

What would this look like in our community?

The Climate Action Collaborative has been exploring the benefits of building benchmarking for some time. We started a voluntary benchmarking program with B3 Benchmarking, and as of 2021, we’ve successfully benchmarked 55 buildings in Eagle County. Now, we’re hoping to expand our benchmarking reach. Following in the footsteps of the State of Colorado, Front Range communities, and Aspen’s Building IQ, we’re exploring the possibility of benchmarking more buildings above certain square footage.

To lull the sensible concerns from building owners, it’s important to share that the cost of benchmarking primarily falls on municipalities and the state to implement ordinances, and building owners and tenants reap the benefits of energy savings down the line. All this requires of building owners is to submit their building’s data to the free ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager website, and take advantage of learning about their building’s performance and how to improve energy efficiency in the future. Additionally, between the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, there is ample available funding for communities like ours to reduce our building energy footprint.

We care about the input of our community members as we charge ahead on climate action, and we would love to hear from you. What are your thoughts on benchmarking? Do you have any excitements or concerns to share? Burning questions you’d like answered? Please reach out to me at ginam@walkingmountains.org and we can set up a time to chat.

Gina McCrackin is the Climate Action Collaborative manager at Walking Mountains Science Center. The Climate Action Collaborative is working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Eagle County 50% by 2030 and 80% by 2050.