“A benchmark is basically figuring out where you and your building are from an energy use perspective. The benchmark that we put together in our certified benchmark process looks at the energy use of your building over a 12-month period. So, you get all the seasonal ups and downs over that annual calendar period.

An Energy Use Intensity (EUI) is an industry standard metric that gauges a building’s energy use over a year as a function of size and use or activity type.

So, your EUI is really what your benchmarking is: a snapshot in time over an annual calendar period of utilities divided by your square footage.”

“While having smart building analytics can make benchmarking and tracking your building performance easier, you don’t need that to figure out your EUI.

The utility usage data needed for an EUI can come directly from the utility bills or through the federally administered EPA portal called Energy Star Portfolio Manager. Which means, with the customer’s authorization, we’re able to leverage that portal to pipe data into our system to help us calculate the energy-use intensity.

For a benchmark to be MacDonald-Miller certified, our energy engineers verify data inputs, normalize data based on local weather patterns, and compare against ASHRAE Standard 100 targets to ensure a reliable report for advising on how to meet state and city performance standards.”

“Once MacDonald-Miller has completed the certified benchmark, that allows us to work with our customers to help them determine next steps. That could be the next step towards compliance with Clean Building Performance Standards, the next step towards reducing the energy use of your building, and the next step towards making your occupants more comfortable in the building.

There are two main pathways. If your benchmark shows that your energy use is under the standards target per the law, then you can move on towards maintaining general compliance, which is ultimately creating an operations and management plan and energy management plan for the building.

If your benchmark shows that you’re over the target, energy efficiency measures will need to be implemented in order for you to remain compliant with the regulations. However, this doesn’t always mean massive projects. Sometimes buildings are just a little over target, and major capital improvements, or major system upgrades are not required.

Which is the primary reason to work with an expert who can guide you through all your options, whether simple, operational solutions or capital planning, we can find simple solutions to get that building to target.”

“There are punitive penalties to non-compliance that start at $5,000 and can go to as much as a dollar per square foot. However, the legislation around clean buildings is designed for reduction, not penalties which is why you have options like alternative compliance pathways.

That can be an exemption. That can also be an investment criteria pathway, which ultimately means you’re sharing your plans and commitment to make investments in your building to reduce the energy use over time. These conditional compliance or investment criteria pathways require a plan and capital allocation from the owner, to implement these energy efficiency measures over time.

There are also incentives available in the market for the buildings that are well over target, sometimes through the utilities and sometimes through jurisdictions. One of the things we’re doing here at MacDonald-Miller is making sure that we are on top of all options and all incentive pathways to support our customers in seeking, finding, and applying for these incentives to support that journey towards compliance.”