Building Benchmarking

The compliance process for the Village's Energy and Water Benchmarking ordinance is simple:

• Register your property in ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager
• Enter your utility data for the calendar years of 2022, 2023 and 2024
• Share your data with the Village of Oak Park
• That's it!

For more detailed instructions and tutorials on Portfolio Manager, visit the Building Performance Helpdesk.

• Buildings that benchmark save an average 2.4% on utility costs annually.
• High performing buildings are more attractive to tenants! ENERGY STAR rated buildings earn a 2.5% rental premium, have 9.5% higher occupancy rates and have a 16% higher resale value than lower performing buildings.
• Help the Village meet the goals of the Climate Ready Oak Park plan.
• Get recognition from the Village!

Oak Park is following a best practice to improve commercial and multifamily energy efficiency, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and lower utility costs through the process of annual benchmarking. The Village’s Energy and Water Benchmarking ordinance requires that all buildings over 10,000 square feet report their annual energy and water usage through the EPA’s ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager. Benchmarking compares each building with similar buildings and ranks performance against a national median. Benchmarking alerts a building manager if their building is underperforming, allowing them to make upgrades or repairs and offers the ability to track progress resulting from efficiency actions and investments. When benchmarking data is made public, as it is in Oak Park, it allows renters and tenants to choose locations which are higher performing and will have lower utility costs.