Title: Reading
Course: GFM 102 Technical Aspects of Energy, Resources & Conservation > Section: GFM 102 Technical Aspects of Energy, Resources & Conservation

Reading

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Developing A Benchmarking Plan

Benchmarking energy performance helps energy managers to identify best practices that can be replicated, either within a building or across a portfolio of buildings. Benchmarks can be reference points for measuring and rewarding good performance. They allow an organization to identify top-performing facilities for recognition and to prioritize poorly performing facilities for immediate improvement.

The experiences of USAA Real Estate Co., an organization with buildings across the country, illustrate how benchmarking can inform the whole energy management process: Until USAA Real Estate benchmarked its holdings, the company’s management believed its portfolio of buildings to be highly energy-efficient. However, initial results indicated that there was room for improvement. The company went on to benchmark 100 percent of its space. That effort, in turn, led to changes in energy management practices and building upgrades that resulted in more than $10 million in energy savings over a five-year period through 2007. USAA Real Estate was named an ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year every year from 2003 through 2007.

Any type of building can benefit from benchmarking. The Marriott hotel chain relied on benchmarking as part of its full circle approach to observing energy performance and improving energy management systems and procedures. As a result, Marriott’s hotels save $4.5 million annually in energy costs. In a totally different environment, energy benchmarking has become a staple of the Seaford (Delaware) School District’s Energy Management Program. Building improvements flowed from the critical first step of benchmarking to find and eliminate energy waste within the schools.

Benchmarking starts with a plan that identifies goals, defines the scope of the project, suggests appropriate metrics of performance, and recommends potential partners. As the project proceeds, managers collect data about their facilities, normalize the data, and ensure that the data and any assumptions made are valid. Energy use is influenced by a variety of factors, each of which should be accounted for to provide valid comparisons.

At a specific building, for example, the data can be normalized for weather, occupancy levels, or tasks that affect energy use. Normalizing creates a level playing field that avoids an apples to-oranges type of comparison. Although this sounds like a complicated task, the ENERGY STAR tools make normalizing the data straightforward.

Benchmarking results provide pointers to follow-on efforts to improve energy performance and energy management. Energy managers can use the results to screen their portfolio of facilities regularly to decide where to do on-site energy audits, to identify which sites would provide the greatest return from tune-ups and retrofits, and to remind local managers about energy efficient behaviors. Benchmarking also enables managers to compare performance to external data. In addition, energy managers can use benchmarking data to motivate action in employee energy-awareness campaigns and to communicate good results to the general public.

Click here to download the Building Upgrade Manual from Energy Star Program of the Department of Energy.
Click here to access the Wikipedia page on Benchmarking Defined.
Click here to download the How to Benchmark Your Building Portfolio Manager from Energy Star Program Portfolio Manager of the Department of Energy.
Click here to download the Portfolio Manager Quick Start Guide from Energy Star Program Portfolio Manager of the Department of Energy.