St. Louis Benchmarking
St. Louis City Benchmarking Requirements
In 2017, the city of St. Louis passed a benchmarking ordinance requiring all large buildings track and report energy and water use to the City of St. Louis Building Division by May 1st every year. This applies to municipal, institutional, commercial and multifamily buildings equal to or greater than 50,000 square feet. Reporting must be done using the free online tool ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager.
Buildings not in compliance with the ordinance will not be eligible for issuance of new residential or commercial occupancy permits. Fines also apply.
How to Benchmark a Building
1. Create an ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager account or log in to your existing account.
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The City of St. Louis requires energy data be submitted through ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager, a free online tool administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. This is a tool that is not used exclusively for benchmarking. According to EPA, more than 40% of the commercial buildings market uses ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager to measure and track their energy use. A score of 50 represents typical performance, while a score of 75 indicates that your facility performs better than 75 percent of all similar facilities nationwide.
2. Collect all data needed for benchmarking.
You'll need your St. Louis City building ID which you can look up on the City's Benchmarking website which you can find here. You'll also need basic building information including gross floor area, year built (can be estimated), and occupancy percentage. On the utility side, you'll need start and end date of billing cycles and usage for all utilities including water (ccf), electricity (kWh), natural gas (ccf), district steam (Klbs) and any other energy purchased in bulk (fuel oil, propane, diesel, coal, etc.).
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Additional information may be needed if special circumstances apply such as your property generates power onsite, isn't individually metered, or has multiple tenants. Details on whether additional information is required can be found here.
3. Enter your data, benchmark your property.
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ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager does not require an expert to use. They system has step-by-step instructions in their Quick Start Guide, video trainings, and webinars. If you need help entering data, ENERGY STAR demonstration videos are available here and the City has a detailed guide on their website. The USGBC-Missouri Gateway Chapter has free trainings available here. ​
4. Submit data through St. Louis Benchmarking Data Request.
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Once the data is loaded into ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manger, you can send it directly to the city from the City's Benchmarking website, www.stlbenchmarking.com. Clicking "Report Data" will direct you to the ENERGY STAR platform and will automatically prompt you through submitting selected properties in your portfolio to the City. This process includes data checks which will give you the opportunity to resolve issues before submitting.
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