Cooperatives Information
Benchmarking

Benchmarking has been used in business to compare one's business processes and performance metrics to industry bests and/or best practices from other industries. Dimensions typically measured are quality, time, and cost. Improvements from learning mean doing things better, faster, and cheaper. 


Energy Benchmarking takes energy usage data from utility bills as well as basic information about the building, its size, operation, and location and derives a set of parameters that can be used to compare the energy use of different building in the same area, or in different regions.  Building energy performance can be compared against historic or theoretical norms.


Benchmarking utilizes software like EPA’s Portfolio Manager: http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=evaluate_performance.bus_portfoliomanager.  The user keys in basic building data and at least 12 months historic energy usage data to create a baseline.  Because schools are different sizes, ages, and have different occupancies, the data is normalized to adjust for the effects of temperature variation from averages, and based on occupied building area and number of students.  Portfolio Manager rates each school on a 0-100 scale relative to similar buildings nationwide.  A rating of 50 indicates that the building, from an energy consumption standpoint, performs better than 50% of all similar buildings nationwide, while a rating of 75 indicates that the building performs better than 75% of all similar buildings nationwide.

Benchmarking is a useful analytic tool.  The old saying “you can’t manage what you don’t measure” certainly applies to school energy use.  Once baselines for schools have been developed, there are several important uses:

  • Manage energy usage in all buildings
  • Compare performance among buildings in system to determine high and low performers
  • Prioritize energy efficiency and investment strategies
  • Track program impacts
  • Estimate carbon footprint
  • Gain ENERGY STAR label

Benchmarking Resources