What is Energy Benchmarking?

Conceptually, benchmarking is the continuous process of evaluating products, processes or services in relation to their strongest competitors or usual market practices. It is a comparison between elements of the same category. This allows the analysis of performance indicators and to verify whether they are above or below the market average.

In buildings, energy benchmarkingconsists of comparing energy consumption between different buildings of the same typology. In other words, buildings that serve the same purpose and have similar characteristics. The benchmarking process then generates reference values for a given reality, known as benchmarks.

How is it done?

There are different methodologies that can be used in the development of energy performance benchmarking for buildings, which may include computational energy simulations, envelope assessment, or simply a normalization of consumption data.

In Brazil, the methodology adopted by the Brazilian Council for Sustainable Construction (CBCS) aims to create robust, relevant, evolutionary and flexible benchmarks for future adaptations. To this end, statistical and technical methodologies will be applied to build performance profiles in various building typologies. Check out the design platform already developed by CBCS.

What is it used for?

Currently, there are not many comparison bases that allow an assessment of the efficiency in the use of buildings. In other words, the real energy performance is unknown.

The creation of benchmarks allows the identification of buildings with efficient operation and buildings with great potential for improvement. International experiences demonstrate that the use of benchmarking in energy management brings reductions in consumption and in the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs), and that it is an important tool for implementing efficiency programs.