Better Buildings Benchmarking

Energy Benchmarking is the process of measuring and tracking a building’s energy use over time. By using certain building characteristics along with monthly consumption data, owners and occupants can begin to understand how their building is performing on an operational level compared to similar buildings in their community and around the country.

The City and County of Honolulu (City) established the Better Buildings Benchmarking (BBB) Program to advance Honolulu’s goal of carbon neutrality by 2045. This program is in accordance with Ordinance 22-17, which Mayor Blangiardi signed into law July 20, 2022. (For background information on the Better Buildings Benchmarking program, please visit: resilientoahu.org/benchmarking.)

Who must participate?

In 2023, property owners/managers of commercial and multifamily buildings larger than 100,000 square feet are required to track and report their building’s 2022 annual energy use data to the City by June 30. As the electric service provider, Hawaiian Electric will assist with this process by compiling the annual energy-use data into an aggregate file, for property owners/managers to upload into the EnergyStar Portfolio Manager portal. In our aggregation process, Hawaiian Electric will combine the energy-use data of all individually metered accounts into a single file for the entire building so that energy-use data for individual metered accounts is no longer identifiable. This is done to protect the privacy and anonymity of each metered account.

Data anonymization

For buildings with fewer than four metered accounts for commercial buildings, or six metered accounts for multifamily buildings, consent from each metered accountholder is required for Hawaiian Electric to release the aggregate energy-use data for the whole building.

For buildings with four or more metered accounts for commercial buildings, or six or more metered accounts for multifamily buildings, authorization or consent from the metered accountholder is not required.

How to request annual aggregated energy use data?

• If you are the building owner/manager of a commercial or multifamily building larger than 100,000 square feet with fewer than four metered accounts for commercial buildings or six metered accounts for multifamily buildings, consent from each metered accountholder is required for Hawaiian Electric to release the aggregate energy-use data for the whole building. Kindly ask the applicable tenant(s) to complete and return the attached Authorization/Consent to Release Energy-Use Data to bbb@hawaiianelectric.com.
• If you are the building owner/manager of a commercial or multifamily building larger than 100,000 square feet with four or more metered accounts for commercial buildings or six or more metered accounts for multifamily buildings, your consent alone is sufficient for Hawaiian Electric to release the aggregate energy use data for the whole building. Please complete and return the attached Whole-Building Energy-Use Data request form to bbb@hawaiianelectric.com.

For additional information on this program, please review our list of frequently asked questions.