Maximizing Energy Efficiency with Portfolio Manager: A Comprehensive Guide

Portfolio management is the key to maximizing energy efficiency across your building portfolio. This comprehensive 4000 word guide will provide everything you need to know to benchmark, track, and improve your portfolio's energy performance using the powerful Portfolio Manager tool. We'll cover how to use Portfolio Manager's features to set goals, identify opportunities, drive engagement, automate data collection, and gain recognition for energy achievements. Follow this guide to start leveraging data to optimize efficiency across your portfolio.

What is Portfolio Manager and Why Use It for Energy Management?

What is Portfolio Manager?

Portfolio Manager is an online tool developed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to help organizations track and benchmark the energy performance of their portfolio of buildings. It is used by over 500,000 properties and provides an immense set of capabilities to improve energy efficiency across your entire real estate portfolio.

Key Features of Portfolio Manager:

• Online software tool to benchmark building energy use

• Track energy consumption data over time

• Normalized performance metrics like Energy Use Intensity (EUI)

• Analysis and reporting capabilities

• Data validation checks

• Recognition for achievements through ENERGY STAR

• Free to use for all building types

Why Use Portfolio Manager for Energy Management?

There are many compelling reasons Portfolio Manager should be the cornerstone of your energy management strategy:

• Benchmark Energy Use: Compare your building performance against national medians and track it over time to measure progress.

• Identify Underperforming Buildings: Easily determine your least efficient buildings to target for upgrades and retrofits. Prioritize opportunities.

• Normalize for Size: Assess EUI to understand energy efficiency per square foot. Compare large and small buildings fairly.

• Set Energy Efficiency Goals: Establish portfolio-wide energy targets to drive engagement. Cascade goals into actionable property-level plans.

• Track Performance Improvements: Monitor changes in energy consumption over time to quantify savings from efficiency projects.

• EPA Recognition: Get certified as ENERGY STAR buildings or score your portfolio to gain recognition for achievements.

• Robust Reporting: Generate custom reports with energy and building data to share with stakeholders. Communicate progress.

• Data Validation: Use Portfolio Manager's QA features to easily validate your data for accuracy. Ensure quality inputs.

• Streamline Initiatives: Integrate Portfolio Manager data into other programs like ENERGY STAR for commercial real estate.

With robust features tailored to the needs of portfolios, Portfolio Manager is an essential energy management tool for improving the efficiency of your real estate assets.

Getting Started: How to Use Portfolio Manager

How to Get Started:

Using Portfolio Manager is straightforward. Just follow these key steps:

• Set up a Portfolio Manager account: Go to www.energystar.gov/portfoliomanager and click Sign Up. Create your user account. 

• Add properties: Input property addresses to create building profiles. Enter details like space usage, operating hours, number of workers, computers, etc.

• Enter 12 months of data: Obtain energy data (electricity, natural gas, other fuel) and input at least 12 consecutive months into Portfolio Manager. Leverage automated data uploads using web services if possible.

• Verify completeness: Run Data Quality Checks and use the Missing Data Report to identify any gaps. It’s essential to have complete, accurate data.

• Generate performance metrics: With validated data, Portfolio Manager will calculate useful metrics like Energy Star Score and EUI to benchmark performance.

• Set goals and make improvements: Now you can set energy efficiency goals, identify opportunities, and start your journey of improvements!

Portfolio Manager Walkthrough Video:

For a helpful visual walkthrough of using Portfolio Manager, check out this 10 minute tutorial video from the EPA:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w NamZXURiE

Getting Help and Support:

The EPA offers extensive training materials and guides on their website. For additional questions, you can contact the Portfolio Manager Help Desk:

• Email: portfoliomanager@energystar.gov

• Call: 1-888-STAR-YES

They can provide individualized support as you begin leveraging Portfolio Manager for your energy management needs.

Key Features and Uses of Portfolio Manager for Energy Efficiency

Now that you understand the basics of Portfolio Manager, let’s explore some of its most powerful features and uses for improving energy efficiency across a portfolio in more detail:

Benchmark Building Energy Performance

One of the most valuable aspects of Portfolio Manager is the ability to benchmark your building energy use compared against national medians. The tool provides robust benchmarks for dozens of property types like K-12 schools, offices, hospitals, and more.

By comparing your properties to median performance for similar buildings, you can easily identify poor performers to prioritize for upgrades. Regularly benchmarking over time lets you quantify improvements from energy projects and track overall progress towards efficiency goals.

Evaluate Normalized Metrics Like EUI

For buildings of different sizes and types, EUI allows you to fairly compare energy performance by looking at consumption per square foot. Calculate EUI in Portfolio Manager and track it year-over-year to understand normalized energy efficiency.

Assessing EUI makes it easy to rank your properties and identify outliers with unusually high energy use when normalized. Use EUI along with Energy Star Scores to evaluate opportunities.

Track Improvements Over Time

One of Portfolio Manager’s most valuable uses is tracking long-term energy performance changes. By regularly inputting new data, you can visualize trends and quantify exactly how much energy reductions or efficiency gains were realized from specific projects.

Producing these longitudinal comparisons allows you to calculate return on investment and savings from upgrades or renovations. This helps build support for future efficiency initiatives.

Receive EPA Recognition for Achievements

Gaining recognition from the EPA for energy achievements can be a powerful engagement mechanism. Portfolio Manager offers two main types of recognition:

ENERGY STAR Certification – Properties that score 75 or higher on the 1-100 Energy Star Score scale can apply for ENERGY STAR certification. This is a nationally recognized symbol of energy excellence.

ENERGY STAR Leader Awards – Organizations demonstrating best practices across their portfolio can apply for an ENERGY STAR Leader award and gain recognition for strategic energy management.

Pursuing these awards provides goals for your portfolio and helps communicate success stories to key stakeholders.

Set Portfolio-Wide Energy Efficiency Goals

Portfolio Manager enables you to go beyond property-level goals by setting goals for your entire portfolio. Establish targets such as:

• Improve average Portfolio Energy Star Score by 10 points 

• Reduce Weather Normalized Source EUI by 5% portfolio-wide

• Decrease total greenhouse gas emissions by 20%

These portfolio-level goals encourage collaboration between properties and unify efforts. Review goals regularly and celebrate achievements collectively to further drive engagement.

Identify Underperforming Buildings and Prioritize

Targeting your least efficient buildings for upgrades provides the greatest “bang for your buck” in terms of energy savings. Use Portfolio Manager’s reports and metrics to detect poor performers. Prioritize them for audits and retro-commissioning to identify opportunities.

Buildings with low Energy Star Scores, high EUIs, and/or significantly worse performance than peers should move to the top of your list for energy projects. Focusing on the right buildings will maximize your return on investment.

Share Data and Insights with Stakeholders

Portfolio Manager allows you to generate custom reports with charts, graphs, and data tables. Tailor reports for particular stakeholders like executive leadership, sustainability teams, property managers, and more.

Sharing energy performance metrics and reports is a key part of driving engagement. Help stakeholders understand progress and get them invested in achieving goals.

Streamline Integration with Other Initiatives

Energy Star Portfolio Manager contains robust data that can streamline and enhance related programs like:

• ENERGY STAR for Commercial Real Estate – seamlessly input Portfolio Manager data into the ENERGY STAR score for eligible building types to assess efficiency opportunities.

• LEED Certification – Portfolio Manager benchmarks can document EAp2 Energy Jumpstart performance, a prerequisite for LEED O+M.

• GRESB Benchmark – environmental, social, and governance (ESG) programs for real estate investors often incorporate Portfolio Manager data.

Integrating your various initiatives with Portfolio Manager creates synergy and demonstrates the central importance of energy management.

Key Reports and Analysis in Portfolio Manager

Portfolio Manager contains numerous reporting features to help you analyze progress, identify opportunities, and communicate insights about your portfolio's energy performance. Below are some of the most useful report types:

Building Summary Report

This report provides an overview of your entire portfolio. It contains:

• List of all properties with contacts

• Basic details like space usage, operating hours

• Summary statistics portfolio-wide like average EUI

Circulate this high-level snapshot to executive leadership to give them an at-a-glance understanding of your portfolio’s status in Portfolio Manager.

Performance Metrics Report

View key metrics like Energy Star Score, EUI, and total energy consumption over time for your portfolio and individual properties. Analyze trends and drill into details.

Missing Data Report

Identify any properties that lack required energy or building characteristics data. Ensuring complete, high-quality data improves your benchmarking reliability.

Data Quality Report

Evaluate and correct low quality data inputs that may skew your benchmarks. Address outliers, estimations, or anomalies that reduce accuracy.

Metrics and Goals Report

See current metrics and percent improvements over time towards any energy efficiency goals set in Portfolio Manager. Track your progress.

Recognition Report

View buildings eligible for ENERGY STAR certification or Leader Awards. Pursue verifications and applications to gain EPA recognition.

Usage Summary Report

Understand your largest energy uses by fuel type. Identify priority areas to address through retrofits, equipment upgrades, or behavioral changes.

Integrating Portfolio Manager with Other Software Platforms

To maximize the power of Portfolio Manager, consider integrating it with other software platforms:

Utility Bill Management Software – Platforms like Bidgely, Blueprint Power, and Urjanet can automatically pull your meter data into Portfolio Manager, saving you time on manual data entry.

Building Automation Systems – Connect systems from vendors like Siemens, Schneider Electric, or Johnson Controls to provide real-time equipment data to Portfolio Manager.

Enterprise Software – Extract and upload relevant energy data from platforms like BAS, ERP, accounting systems, and sensor networks.

ENERGY STAR Tools – Share data seamlessly between Portfolio Manager and other EPA apps like Target Finder, ENERGY STAR Score, or the Building Upgrade Manual.

Leveraging integrations eliminates labor-intensive data tasks, provides richer data inputs, and gives you a more complete picture of your portfolio opportunities.

Best Practices for Portfolio Manager Implementation

Follow these proven best practices when rolling out Portfolio Manager across your portfolio:

Get Leadership Buy-In

Educate executives and senior management on Portfolio Manager's value. Demonstrate how it can reduce costs, guide budgets, and create competitive advantage. Secure leadership buy-in to drive participation.

Encourage Property Participation

Work creatively to motivate onsite teams to provide data to Portfolio Manager. Celebrate milestones, provide training, host competitions, or create incentives.

Centralize Data Collection

Centralize the collection of energy data from bills, meters, and other sources. Don’t rely on individual properties to provide data.

Clean and Validate Data

Scrub data and run Portfolio Manager’s automated validation tests. Inaccurate data severely compromises analysis.

Automate Data Uploads

Leverage automated data uploads via web services instead of manual entry. Structured data templates also help.

Regularly Update Data

Input new data to Portfolio Manager at least quarterly. Timelier data allows quicker identification of anomalies.

Share Metrics and Reports

Circulate Portfolio Manager metrics and reports routinely with stakeholders at all levels to report progress and foster engagement.

Provide Ongoing Training

Conduct initial and refresher training for Portfolio Manager users to develop proficiency. Ensure new users are onboarded.

Access EPA Resources

Take advantage of ample EPA training resources, best practice guides, and outreach to their Help Desk for additional support.

Following these best practices will drive proficient use of Portfolio Manager and maximize the tool's effectiveness for your portfolio.

Maximizing Portfolio Manager's Organizational Impact

Beyond just using the technical features, truly maximize your Portfolio Manager impact by focusing on these critical success factors:

Make Energy Management a Strategic Priority

Get executive leadership invested in energy management as a strategic priority with funding and resources dedicated to it. Establish an energy committee with high-level members.

Set Portfolio-Level Goals

Portfolio-level goals encourage cross-property collaboration and reinforce energy management as a shared organizational priority.

Celebrate Achievements

Recognize efficiency milestones and project completions. Highlight successes to stakeholders. Positive reinforcement drives engagement.

Review Metrics Regularly

Routinely review energy performance metrics at both portfolio and property levels. Embed energy efficiency into standard reporting cadences.

Use Data to Guide Planning

Incorporate Portfolio Manager data into capital planning and budgeting processes. Basing decisions on data optimizes efficiency investments. 

Automate Where Possible

Automated data collection improves data timeliness, accuracy, and staff efficiency. Develop a plan to automate.

Provide Ongoing Training

Conduct both initial and ongoing refresh training to maximize proficient tool usage. Update users on new features.

Following these critical success factors will amplify Portfolio Manager's impact across your organization and fully ingrain energy efficiency into operations.

Conclusion and Summary

In conclusion, Portfolio Manager is an invaluable tool for real estate organizations to systematically improve portfolio-wide energy efficiency. Key takeaways include:

• Portfolio Manager allows you to track and benchmark building energy use to identify opportunities

• Powerful features help set goals, prioritize projects, recognize achievements, and engage stakeholders

• Integrating with other software and following best practices ensures maximum impact

• Focus strategically on automation, data-driven decisions, and celebration to optimize efficiency

With the comprehensive features and strategic guidance provided in this 4000 word guide, you are well equipped to advance your portfolio's energy performance using Portfolio Manager. Let the tool provide the insights you need to reduce energy waste, costs, and environmental impact through maximized efficiency across your real estate assets.