Energy Benchmarking
Seattle's Energy Benchmarking Program (SMC 22.920) requires owners of non-residential and multifamily buildings (20,000 sf or larger) to track energy performance and annually report to the City of Seattle by April 1st of each year.
How to Comply
Benchmark with ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager to annually report by April 1st. Learn about disclosure and enforcement.
Save Energy
Compare your building's energy performance to others in Seattle and get started saving energy and money.
Why Benchmarking is Required
Learn more about the ordinance, our data analysis and reports, and how Seattle benefits from benchmarking.
NEWS
2017 Building Energy Performance Data Now Available
Seattle's Energy Benchmarking Ordinance directs the City to annually share building-specific data with the public beginning with 2015 data. Building data is now available online for 2015, 2016, and 2017.
- Find additional information on data transparency and summary data tables here.
- Explore the 2015 and 2016 data on our data visualization site here.
New Benchmarking Analysis Summary Report for 2014-2016 Data
The Office of Sustainability and Environment released a new summary report that highlights key building energy and emissions metrics for buildings that benchmark their buildings. The report shows that benchmarked buildings have reduced emissions and saved energy from 2014 to 2016, but that the City's building boom means more savings are needed to meet our ambitious climate goals.
- Explore the report here.
- If you have questions, please contact us at energybenchmarking@seattle.gov.
Updated 1-100 ENERGY STAR Scores in August 2018
The U.S. EPA is updating performance metrics in Portfolio Manager in August 2018. Refreshing the ENERGY STAR scale and other related performance metrics is part of EPA's procedure to keep pace with current U.S. building performance. The August 2018 update will be reflective of market performance per the latest U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) survey. When the performance metrics are updated, ENERGY STAR scores, on average, are expected to go down as most building types in the United States over the last ten plus years have become more energy efficient.
If you currently have a building with an ENERGY STAR score of 75 or higher, you may still apply for ENERGY STAR certification now-EPA will continue to assess applications on the pre-updated scores if submitted by July 26, 2018.
For more information and details on the Portfolio Manager ENERGY STAR score update and certification timelines visit www.energystar.gov/scoreupdates.