First came energy benchmarking as a way to encourage buildings’ energy efficiency. Then came voluntary building energy audits to identify energy waste and hasten energy efficiency improvements. But as climate change has led to more frequent and destructive natural disasters, a growing number of state and local governments have turned to building performance standards (BPS) as a way to mandate compliance with targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions from buildings.
To support the efforts of building owners and managers seeking to cut emissions and avoid fines under BPS, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently launched a web-based tool that enables users to explore aggregate energy use data from more than 150,000 commercial and multi-family buildings.
The new Data Explorer tool will help building managers unlock potential savings based on the data from Energy Star Portfolio Manager, an energy benchmarking platform for commercial and multifamily buildings. Data Explorer is the latest in a suite of tools from EPA to help propel the adoption of energy-efficiency practices through market-based information.
With Data Explorer, users can quickly understand the way the energy use of buildings in Portfolio Manager varies based on the type of building, where it is located, its size and a variety of key metrics. Building owners and managers can access more granular comparative metrics to see how their buildings perform against similar buildings in their area, and policymakers can view and download energy use metrics at the local and state level to refine building performance policies.
Dan Hounsell is senior editor for the facilities market. He has more than 30 years of experience writing about facilities maintenance, engineering and management.
