What is Benchmarking ordinance?
A benchmarking ordinance is a local or state law requiring owners of covered buildings, often starting with government-owned ones, to report annual energy and sometimes water use in a standard tool.
Who reports, and why public buildings go first
Ordinances set a floor area threshold and list the property types covered. Governments usually lead with their own portfolio at a lower threshold: Los Angeles covers City-owned buildings from 7,500 square feet against 20,000 for private ones, and the first DC BEPS cycle covers District-owned buildings over 10,000 square feet against 50,000 for private ones. Benchmarking saves nothing by itself; it ranks buildings so retrofit budgets go to the worst performers.
Metrics a benchmark produces
- Site and source EUI: annual energy divided by gross floor area.
- The 1 to 100 ENERGY STAR score for eligible property types: 50 is median performance, and 75 or higher marks a top performer that may qualify for certification, per ENERGY STAR.
- Water use, where the ordinance collects it, as New York and Los Angeles do.
Ranking a public portfolio between filings
Aqueduct ranks every site in a portfolio by water use intensity per square foot and per visitor, and by electricity against each site's expected baseline. The device Health tab reports connection rate and battery or capacitor voltage, so a facilities team sees which building's data has gaps before the annual export.