Are You Ready for Benchmarking Season 2020?

Hope so. City and state mandate deadlines are approaching, some sooner than others. Last year’s introduction of AB 802 mandated benchmarking for the entire state of California on residential buildings over 50,000 sq. ft. Until this year, the Golden State only required municipalities (cities and counties) to track and record energy performance on residential buildings. This bill now adds greater number of buildings to the data in the EPA’s ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager. Granted, this adds to operations costs on property spreadsheets already battling rent control and the nation’s highest number of regulations in the country. On the reverse side, adding more data in the ENERGY STAR provides actionable knowledge for operators in a state embroiled in soaring energy costs, rolling blackouts and mandated reduction/tiered pricing on utilities (water and electricity). What does this mean for the residential industry? Benchmarking is the process of measuring a property’s energy and water usage, and comparing this consumption with other similar properties within a specific region. The standard, as defined by EPA, is derived from a target established by a control group of properties. Portfolio Manager ranks available whole building energy and water usage data, noting property type and size, weather fluctuations, occupancy, available amenities, and mechanical, electrical and plumbing configurations. Benchmarking is performed as mandated, but is often also required for certain financing options and as a measure of an overall corporate sustainability. Benchmarking creates live metrics on how a property scores against a predetermined standard of efficiency. Benchmarking is simple, but the process is not always straightforward. One would think that collecting the building characteristics would be fairly easy, yet questions about a property’s gross square footage or even the number of available parking spots can be challenging to accurately answer....