Voluntary Building Benchmarking Program

What is Building Benchmarking?


Benchmarking is a way to review and track the energy and water performance within buildings to ensure the building is using energy and water as anticipated. By measuring the energy performance of buildings, owners can get a better sense of how to efficiently manage their buildings and identify opportunities to reduce energy waste. 

Benchmarking utilizes two types of information: utility meter consumption and building characteristics. This information helps buildings owners and occupants understand the overall building performance, compare to other local buildings, and identify opportunities to save money. 

Roseville Voluntary Benchmarking Program


The City of Roseville is launching a voluntary building benchmarking program in 2021 and encourages building owners across all industries and professions to participate. Building owners with buildings over 25,000 square feet are especially encouraged to start benchmarking. 

Like many other municipalities, Roseville continues to work towards meeting sustainability and climate goals. In Roseville, large commercial buildings are significant energy users, consuming 86% of citywide greenhouse gas emissions from buildings. Targeting these largest energy users is a strategic way to move the City towards its energy goals. The first step to reduce energy waste is to develop awareness of building energy performance through the building benchmarking program. Many benchmarking programs are already in effect in the Twin Cities, and have shown some preliminary success in reducing energy waste.

Benefits of Benchmarking


  • Performance transparency for building owners, operators, and municipal leaders aiming to achieve energy and climate goals
  • Peer comparison creates a frame of reference for setting and achieving further performance goals 
  • Annual and ongoing public recognition for highest and most improved performers
  • Helps the City of Roseville meet energy goals and reduce its overall greenhouse gas emissions 
  • Provides a forum for sharing operational best practices to increase building performance across the country
  • Helps building owners find ways to save energy and money in utility costs. It also creates demand for energy efficiency in the property market. 
  • The building benchmarking data can help inform local policy and programs within the City, and help Roseville to target further energy efficiency initiatives. 

How to Participate


Step 1: Gather Building Data


Step 2: Create an Account in the City of Roseville ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager


  • Create a Portfolio Manager account.
  • Add building(s) to your account. In “My Portfolio”, click “Add a Property” and follow the instructions on how to add a building. Watch this video for instructions.
  • If your building has a parking area or parking garage, find more information on how to set those up on the EnergyStar Portfolio website.

Step 3: Find and Attach your MN Efficient Buildings Collaborative ID


  • Each building that reports energy and water performance has a unique ID, called the MN Efficient Buildings Collaborative ID. 
  • Adding this ID to your building ensures the data you report connects to the correct building. 
  • Add the ID to your building’s profile in Portfolio Manager under ‘Details’ > ‘Unique Identifiers’ > ‘Standard IDs’ > ‘MN Efficient Buildings Collaborative ID (EBC)’. 

Step 4: Enter your Whole-Building Energy Data 


  • This can be done on an annual basis and includes whole-building energy consumption of electricity, natural gas, solar, district stream, district chilled water, etc. 
  • For the fuels that Xcel Energy and CenterPoint Energy provide, you may setup an automatic upload of aggregated whole-building energy data directly into the Portfolio Manager, using their tools. 
  • Manual entry is required for all other energy sources. See video instructions for more information. 

Step 5: Run the Data Quality Checker


  • Complete this step after all energy data for the entire calendar year is entered in the Portfolio Manager. 
  • Run the Data Quality Checker under the “Check for Possible Errors” within the Summary tab. See video instructions for more information. 
  • Ignore any waste and materials meter alerts. 

Step 6: Submit your Data to the City


  • Submit your report via Portfolio Manager. 
  • In Portfolio Manager, go to “Generate a Response Preview” then click “Send Response”. Watch this video for further instructions. 

Additional Resources


ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager Quick Start Guide
ENERGY STAR Help Desk
See What Buildings Are Already Benchmarking

Voluntary Benchmarking Webinars


These webinars were be on the importance of voluntary benchmarking, how reporting works, and how to report owner building data into portfolio manager.  The webinars were intended for any commercial, industrial, and non-profit property owners willing to participate.  The goal was to both inform Roseville businesses about the possibility for energy savings as well for these properties to save money by becoming more energy efficient over time. 

Webinar Dates


March 11, 2021
April 8, 2021