Seattle’s Office of Sustainability and Environment (OSE) has released building energy benchmarking data for reporting year 2023. The data can be viewed on the City’s redesigned Energy Benchmarking Map. For the first time, data for years 2015 through 2023 are available as a single dataset for download on the Seattle Open Data Portal.
Buildings are responsible for more than one-third of Seattle’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which worsen the effects of climate change and dangerous weather events like extreme heat, floods, and wildfires. Benchmarking enables the owners of Seattle’s large buildings to track their energy performance and work toward reducing their emissions.
OSE manages Seattle’s Energy Benchmarking program, which requires owners of nonresidential and multifamily buildings larger than 20,000 square feet to report energy and emissions performance metrics to the City each year. Properties range from apartment complexes and large offices, to municipal facilities and college campuses. Although these properties only represent about 3% of all buildings in Seattle, they account for more than a third of emissions from buildings due to their large sizes.
By collecting and publishing data for more than 3,600 properties each year, building owners can track performance and take steps to reduce energy costs and emissions from their buildings. Efficiency is important for energy inputs like natural gas, steam, and electricity because they contribute to climate change when buildings use them for heating, cooling, lighting, and powering other appliances. According to Seattle’s recently released 2022 GHG emissions inventory, nearly 90% of Seattle’s emissions in buildings come from burning natural gas. On the other hand, while electricity is the largest source of energy for Seattle’s buildings, it’s responsible for only 7% of emissions from buildings, according to the same report.
In addition to highlighting energy and emissions performance metrics, the updated Energy Benchmarking Map features an improved Building Performance Report which provides estimated performance targets under the Seattle Building Emissions Performance Standard (BEPS) and Washington Clean Building Performance Standard laws, and whether they are on track to meet them.
BEPS, which was signed into law in late 2023, establishes GHG emissions targets for existing nonresidential and multifamily buildings larger than 20,000 square feet, the same group of buildings currently required to benchmark. BEPS will require most of these buildings to achieve net-zero emissions between 2041 and 2050, resulting in a 27% reduction of building emissions compared to the 2008 baseline. That’s equivalent to taking about 72,322 gasoline-powered cars off the road for a year.
For reporting year 2023, more than 95% of required buildings submitted complete benchmarking data, consisting of energy use and building use details. OSE was able to achieve high rates of compliance through direct outreach to nonprofit buildings and our Benchmarking Help Desk, which supported more than 3,140 customer inquiries.
Benchmarking data uploaded to the Seattle Open Data Portal has now been consolidated into two downloadable files for years 2015-2023.
- Building Energy Benchmarking Data: Energy and emissions data for each building.
- Benchmarking Performance Ranges by Building Type: Energy and emissions metrics averaged by building type.
Visit Seattle.gov/energybenchmarking for more information about the City of Seattle’s Building Energy Benchmarking program.
Seattle adopted its Energy Benchmarking and Disclosure law in 2010 and began public disclosure of benchmarking data for reporting year 2015. Building owners report their energy and building data through the no-cost ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager platform.