Benchmarking 101

Building Performance Foundations

What is Building Energy Benchmarking?

Benchmarking is the process of measuring a building’s energy consumption, and often water consumption and waste generation, in order to understand performance, track changes over time, compare performance with other buildings, and identify possible problems.

Benchmarking may be done in order to comply with state & local requirements or on a voluntary basis to support internal targets or simply better manage a buildings’ systems.

Benefits of Benchmarking 

There are a number of reasons why every large building should benchmark its performance: 

  • Understand building performance.

  • Identify issues or opportunities to reduce energy use

  • Comply with state and/or local laws

  • Get recognized as a high-performance building

  • Evaluate performance across a portfolio

  • Track the impact of investments to improve performance

  • Calculate emissions for voluntary or required reporting

How to Benchmark Your Building

A Range of Options and Support

The primary tool that building owners use to benchmark building performance is ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager (ESPM). ESPM is a free tool that supports tracking of energy, water, and waste. You simply enter information about your property and its use (such as occupancy rate), and utility data, and ESPM will calculate a range of metrics, such as energy use intensity. For eligible property types, ESPM will give the building an ENERGY STAR Score, which ranks the building against similar properties on a scale of 1 to 100. Properties that achieve an ENERGY STAR Score of 75 or greater are eligible for the ENERGY STAR certification.

Other tools, such as our Benchmarking Platform can integrate with ESPM and provide an additional layer of support and data quality assurance.

Many building operators do benchmarking on their own, but there are also third-party service providers who can handle this work and provide additional support.

Starting in 2026, the California Building Performance Hub will offer benchmarking support at no cost to property owners. If you are interested in learning more, please use our Contact Form to request assistance. Also, keep an eye out for our Office Hours schedule, coming soon.

Benchmark with ESPM

ENERGY STAR has many ESPM training resources on its site, so here we give a brief overview to understand what’s involved. For more detailed training, this is a good place to start.

Step 1: Create a free ESPM account.

Step 2: Create your building, including information about the property (such as property type and building size), and building use (such as operating hours and occupancy rate). This data collection worksheet can help you collect the necessary information.

Step 3: Enter utility data for at least the previous calendar year. This data can be entered manually using utility bills as a reference. Many utilities offer an easier way to import whole-building data into ESPM. Here are links for several major California utilities: LADWP, PG&E, SDG&E, SMUD, SoCal Edison, and SoCalGas.

Step 4: Use the included data checker tool to check for errors.

Step 5: Report data to the city, county, or state with jurisdiction (if required). There are two ways to do this, and the jurisdiction will have information on their website. You can use our list of state and local benchmarking policies in California to find out whether your building is required to report benchmarking data, and a link to instructions on how to report.

Step 6: Analyze performance and apply for ENERGY STAR Certification, if applicable. See more information below on how to understand your building’s benchmarking report.

Benchmark through the Hub

The Hub’s Benchmarking Platform provides a no-cost solution that layers onto ESPM and offers superior data validation and analysis. Account creation and many features of the platform are free, and additional services are available in paid tiers. Click here for more detailed information.

Step 1: Enter your building information into ESPM as shown above (steps 1-2).

Step 2: Create a free Measurabl account.

Step 3: Link your ESPM account with Measurabl’s platform and authorize data sharing. Measurabl will sync with ESPM. Measurabl’s support team can assist with onboarding and integration if needed.

Step 4: Connect Measurabl to your utilities. Measurabl can connect directly to many utility providers for automatic data uploads to reduce manual entry and improve data accuracy. Set up utility data feeds in Measurabl to reduce manual entry and improve data accuracy. Review data sync status in Measurabl to ensure all meters are reporting correctly.

Step 5: Analyze Performance and Track Compliance. Leverage Measurabl’s tools to set goals, get performance insights, and monitor progress. Additionally, Measurabl’s compliance dashboard tracks reporting deadlines and requirements.

Benchmark with Help Desk Support

Starting in 2026, California building owners and managers can use the Hub contact form to request no-cost technical support, including support for benchmarking.

Understanding Your Benchmarking Report

Energy Use Intensity (EUI)

Energy Use Intensity (EUI) measures the energy use per square foot and is one of the most common ways to understand the energy efficiency of a property. It comes in a few different varieties:

Site EUI - This metric uses the energy as it appears on the building’s utility bills with electricity, natural gas, and any other fuel converted to kBTU, divided by the total square footage of the building.

Source EUI - Source energy includes losses incurred in generating power from fossil fuels. It requires calculation with a conversion factor (something that is built into ESPM already).

Weather-normalized EUI is used to account for major variations in weather relative to a typical year. This is also built into ESPM by default. Other normalization factors are included in ENERGY STAR Score but not in EUI metrics.

Greenhouse Gas Intensity (GHGI)

Greenhouse Gas Intensity measures a property’s emissions per square foot. GHGI can be measured for OnSite emissions only, which includes only emissions associated with fossil fuels used on site and refrigerant leakage, or Total emissions, which also includes emissions associated with generation of all electricity used on site.

ENERGY STAR Score

ENERGY STAR Score is a relative rating for a building’s efficiency on a scale of 1 to 100, with 50 representing the average EUI of the similar buildings, normalized for a variety of buildings’ varying business characteristics. Higher scores equate to higher performance, and buildings with a score of 75 or higher are eligible for ENERGY STAR Certification.

Benchmarking Resources