Building Benchmarking
The Village's Energy and Water Benchmarking Ordinance requires buildings 10,000 square feet and larger to report their annual energy and water consumption using ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager.
The 2024 reporting deadline has passed! If you still need to report, please enter your 2023 data by March 30, 2025.
Oak Park Benchmarking Map
Compliance Process
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.
Technical assistance
The Village hosts a series of workshops to assist property owners and managers in reporting their annual energy and water consumption:
Benchmarking 101
This one-hour, online training will provide an overview of how to gather and submit building energy and water data for buildings to comply with the Village of Oak Park's Energy and Water Benchmarking Ordinance. During this training attendees will learn how to set up your FREE account in ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager, how to set up your building profile, and how to collect and enter your whole building's monthly energy and water use data. All levels of knowledge and experience with benchmarking and energy management are welcome!
Need technical assistance?
Click here for the Benchmarking Help Desk
- Benchmarking Data Collection - Commercial Properties
- Benchmarking Data Collection - Residential Properties
Why should I benchmark my building?
- 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!
Benchmarking background
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.
