The Canadian Licensed Professional’s Guide to ENERGY STAR certification

The Canadian Licensed Professional’s Guide: Understanding the Roles and Responsibilities for Verifying Commercial Building Applications for ENERGY STAR® Certification provides everything licensed professionals need to know about verifying applications for ENERGY STAR certification for commercial and institutional buildings. It has been adapted for Canada and outlines the step-by-step process and is required reading if you’re verifying applications for ENERGY STAR certification.

Download the Canadian Licensed Professional’s Guide. (PDF - 1.48 MB)

In addition to the guide, ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager should be your first stop to access a wealth of information on the application process.  Please be sure to consult with the tool’s Canadian adapted interface for information to support the Canadian ENERGY STAR certification application process.

Eligibility requirements for licensed professionals

To verify applications for ENERGY STAR certification, you must:

• Possess a valid license in any Canadian province or territory or U.S state as a Professional Engineer (P. Eng) or Registered Architect and be in good standing;
• Have solid knowledge of building equipment and systems, energy use in buildings,  ASHRAE Standards 55 and 62.1, and the IESNA Lighting Handbook; and
• Understand all applicable provincial or territorial engineering or architectural licensure laws, professional ethics requirements and regulations prior to offering or performing services in a jurisdiction. 

You don’t need to hold a license in the same jurisdiction as the building you’re verifying, and you may be an employee of the company applying for the ENERGY STAR.

Only licensed professionals who meet all of these criteria are eligible to verify applications for ENERGY STAR certification.

Audits

On a regular, ongoing basis, NRCan will randomly pull applications in the review process to undergo an audit. NRCan uses this audit and quality assurance process as a way both to protect the integrity of the ENERGY STAR brand and to improve the application process and supporting resources. Our objective is to confirm that all energy data and building use details within an application have been entered correctly into Portfolio Manager and properly verified during the LP’s site visit. Examples of information that NRCan asks for include:

• Copies of all the utility bills and invoices for fuel purchases within the period of performance;
• Documentation and/or explanation of how the building use details were verified;
• Documentation and/or explanation of the measurement and calculation methods used to assess the indoor environmental quality.

At the time an application is selected for audit, NRCan sends audit documents and instructions on how to complete them to the LP who verified the application and to the primary contact for the application. The LP then has two weeks to submit all audit materials to NRCan. As a best practice, records related to an application for ENERGY STAR certification, including utility bills and documents used to support the verification of building use details, should be kept for two years from the date on which the ENERGY STAR was awarded.

NRCan takes this seriously

Should an LP be found to have falsified information on a building’s application for ENERGY STAR Certification, NRCan reserves the right to rescind the certifications of buildings verified by the LP, to restrict the LP’s signing authority under the ENERGY STAR certification program, and to pursue recourse through the engineering or architectural professional licensing authority granting that individual’s license.

Additional resources

• ENERGY STAR benchmarking – Frequently Asked Questions
• Benchmarking training resources
• What’s new with ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager?
• Registry of ENERGY STAR-certified buildings
• Energy Benchmarking Data Snapshots

Program updates

The best way to keep informed of updates to Portfolio Manager activities is to sign up for our monthly newsletter Heads Up: Building Energy Efficiency. Still have questions? Please contact us at info.services@nrcan-rncan.gc.ca.

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The ENERGY STAR and PORTFOLIO MANAGER names and the ENERGY STAR symbol are trademarks registered in Canada by the United States Environmental Protection Agency and are administered and promoted by Natural Resources Canada.