ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager is a web-based benchmarking tool developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that allows you to benchmark the energy performance of your buildings. It has been adapted for use by Canadian users and includes, Canadian weather data, postal codes, metric units and other data specific to Canada. It is a valuable management tool that is used to compare, measure and track energy use over time, and calculate valuable metrics that can help identify under-performing buildings and set investment priorities.
ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager has been widely adopted across Canada because the tool:
- Is free to use
- Stores data securely
- Is accessible from any web browser
- Has free training and online support
- Promotes recognition through ENERGY STAR certification
- Compares your ENERGY STAR score to national sample of similar buildings
- Can benchmark energy, water, and waste & materials use
- Offers data exchange services through utilities (BC Hydro and FortisBC)
Understand the ENERGY STAR score: The 1-100 ENERGY STAR score is an easy way to compare your building’s energy performance to similar buildings across Canada. A score of 75 means your building performs better than 75% of buildings, while a score of 50 represents median energy performance. This is based solely on energy performance, not water and waste & materials. Benchmarking is a best practice for all buildings, but not all building types are eligible for an ENERGY STAR score at this time. See the Natural Resources Canada website for a list of eligible buildings types.
Data Exchange Services: Benchmarking your building is made easy with the data exchange services integrated with ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager. This web service is a way for utilities to interact directly with Portfolio Manager’s database, eliminating the need to manually enter consumption data into the application. In BC you can connect buildings in your portfolio to both BC Hydro and FortisBC (natural gas) to have your utility data automatically uploaded. See the following pages for more information on connecting to your utilities in Portfolio Manager.
For more Information on ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager, visit the ENERGY STAR website.