You are required to comply if your building has (1) more than 50,000 square feet of gross floor area, and (2) no residential utility accounts or more than 16 utility accounts. These are referred to as “disclosable” buildings. a. Are there any exemptions to the reporting requirement? You are not required to report to the Energy Commission if: Your building is a condominium. Your building has between 1 to 16 residential utility accounts. Your building did not have a certificate of occupancy or temporary certificate of occupancy for more than half of the calendar year for which reporting to the Energy Commission is required. Your building is scheduled to be demolished one year or less from the reporting date. Your building has over half of the total area used for scientific experiments, manufacturing, or industrial purposes. Your building was benchmarked pursuant to a local program listed on the Energy Commission’s benchmarking website. b. What is considered “industrial”? Industrial properties include spaces adapted for uses like assemblage, processing, and/or manufacturing products from raw materials or fabricated parts. Warehouses and distribution centers are not considered industrial and are required to comply. c. Is compliance required for government-owned buildings? Except for buildings owned by the federal government, compliance is required for government-owned buildings. d. Is compliance required for strip malls or open-air shopping centers? Compliance is required for each individual building that has more than 50,000 square feet of gross floor area. Separate buildings that have the appearance of being a single building due to a continuous façade should be treated as individual buildings. If a single building within the strip mall or open-air shopping center encompasses over 50,000 square feet, then that individual building will need to comply. e. Does my building square footage include parking areas? When calculating your square footage in determining if you’re required to comply, covered parking structures should be included while open and uncovered parking lots should be excluded. When entering your gross floor area into your Portfolio Manager account, there’s a separate field for parking so you can separate the parking area from your self-reported area.

Benchmarking requires building characteristic information, occupancy information, and energy use data. a. What sources of energy are to be reported? Electricity, natural gas, steam, and fuel oil consumption are required. However, Portfolio Manager also includes fields for propane and other forms of energy that you can input and track. b. What information is required for submission and compliance? Basic building and ownership information will be needed, such as name of the owner, address, and contact information. Additionally, the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager instructions list the specific required information for varying building types. Each building type has different requirements—for example, a fast food restaurant and a hospital use energy very differently and have different information that is required to collect. To streamline the process of collecting data, you can visit ENERGY STAR’s website to download a data collection worksheet of all the information you’ll need to fill out for your specific property type. c. How do I benchmark if my building was only occupied recently and doesn’t have 12 months of data? Your building is exempt from reporting if it did not have a permanent or temporary certificate of occupancy for more than half of the calendar year being reported. Otherwise, reporting is required, and you should include as much energy use data as you have

There is a provision in the regulations for the state program allowing for buildings reported under a local benchmarking program to be exempted from reporting to the state. Any programs that have received such an exemption will be listed on the Energy Commission’s benchmarking page. For buildings located in jurisdictions with programs listed on this page, benchmarking and reporting to the local jurisdiction will also fulfill compliance with the state program.

The first year of data for each group of disclosable buildings (2018 for buildings with no residential accounts, and 2019 for buildings with 17 or more residential utility accounts) will not be publicly disclosed. Beginning in the second year for each group, information reported each year will be publicly disclosed, to allow current and prospective building owners and tenants better understand the buildings in which they live and work. a. Is the public reporting intended to shame property owners for high energy use? No. We hope this information will help current and prospective building owners and occupants make better-informed decisions regarding purchasing, leasing, maintenance, and upgrades. b. What building information will be made public? The Energy Commission may make available: Building address, including county, latitude, and longitude Year built Gross floor area and property floor area (buildings and parking) Property or building name, if any Open “comments” field for the building owner or owner’s agent to provide additional information about the building ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager property ID Percentage of space occupied (occupancy) and number of occupants Number of buildings (if served by one common energy meter without submetering) ENERGY STAR score for eligible buildings Monthly and/or annual site and/or source energy used by energy type Monthly and/or annual weather-normalized site and/or source energy use intensity Monthly and/or annual peak electricity demand Total greenhouse gas emissions