ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager – Join the energy benchmarking movement and start saving energy today.

What is ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager?

ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager is Canada's only standardized, free, national energy benchmarking tool. It was developed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and, in response to industry feedback, adapted by Natural Resources Canada for use in Canada. Portfolio Manager was officially launched in Canada in the summer of 2013. It offers a secure online platform to track and assess energy and water consumption across an entire portfolio of buildings, calculate a building's energy performance, compare it with similar buildings and monitor it over time. Using Portfolio Manager can help unlock energy and cost savings opportunities by providing the information required to set investment priorities, identify under-performing facilities and verify efficiency improvements in the commercial and institutional building sectors.

Why benchmark with Portfolio Manager?

Building energy benchmarking is a proven energy management best practice that enables organizations to save significantly on their energy bills. Using Portfolio Manager to track your building's energy consumption offers a host of benefits, some of which are:

• Determining an ENERGY STAR score and the Energy Use Intensities, both of which are based on the Survey of Commercial and Institutional Energy Use (SCIEU).
• Supporting the business case for investment in energy efficiency.
• Allowing you to set your own energy baselines and goals, and tracking your progress toward those goals.

  Studies show that benchmarking saves money

  • A study by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency showed that buildings that benchmarked saved an average of 2.4% per year.^Footnote1
  • A study in California found that energy benchmarking prompted energy efficiency investment in over 60% of participants.^Footnote2
• Tracking the cost and expected savings of energy efficiency upgrades, and enabling you to compare anticipated results with actual results.
• Offering you several ways to benchmark your building's energy use: by tracking a single building's energy use, comparing several buildings in your portfolio, or measuring the building's energy performance against national medians for 86 commercial and institutional building types.
• Providing a fair assessment of the energy performance of a building, relative to its peers, taking into account the climate, weather, and business activities. This data can support national, regional and local sustainability action plans.
• Enabling you to share property information and management with other users, by having your service provider upload your energy data automatically, creating customized reports, and submitting your benchmarking data directly to third-party energy programs.
• Enjoys widespread recognition and use, with thousands of Canadian buildings registered since the 2013 Canadian launch.

ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager is endorsed and used by many key building sector stakeholders who have a vested interest in best practices in energy management such as key associations, environmental certification programs, provincial and municipal governments.

Is Portfolio Manager compatible with other benchmarking tools?

Even if you're already benchmarking with another system, you can consider adding Portfolio Manager to your toolbox. As the only Canadian tool that is based on a robust national data set, Portfolio Manager complements many other building management and verification programs that you may already be using. By taking advantage of all the tools at your disposal, you can develop the best possible efficiency programs for your buildings and support a healthier Canadian environment.

Who can benefit from using Portfolio Manager?

In short, everyone. With national median energy use intensity values available for 86 building types and the ability to track energy use and calculate an energy use intensity value for any building type, Portfolio Manager can benchmark your building's performance no matter what kind of building it is. In addition, ENERGY STAR scores offer a quick and convenient way to assess building performance for eligible building types in Canada.

How do I get started with Portfolio Manager?

You can start benchmarking your first building in just a few simple steps:

1. Visit our Portfolio Manager Access Page, at www.nrcan.gc.ca/energy/efficiency/buildings/energy-benchmarking/3693, and use the Access button to go to the Portfolio Manager log-in page.
2. Fill in the required information to create your free account.
3. Enter basic building information (street address, year of construction and contact information).
4. Enter building use information (gross floor area and key operating characteristics for each property use).
5. Enter energy use information (at least 12 consecutive months of utility bill data for each fuel type). Your local utility or energy management service provider may be able to help you.

Contact us!

Natural Resources Canada manages ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager in Canada. We offer training, information and other resources on benchmarking with ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager in Canada. Our monthly newsletter, Heads Up: Building Energy Efficiency, is the best way to keep in touch with all the latest information and updates related to our programs. Our web site offers plenty of additional information and resources: www.nrcan.gc.ca/ENERGYSTARPortfolioManager.

Contact us with any questions or if you have a benchmarking success story to share with us:

• E-mail: info.services@nrcan-rncan.gc.ca
• Toll-free: 1-877-360-5500
• National Capital Region: 613-992-3245