If you own or operate a Seattle nonresidential or multifamily building larger than 20,000 square feet, there’s an upcoming deadline you’ll want to have on your radar.
The City of Seattle requires benchmarking reports for the 2025 data year to be submitted by June 1, 2026. This comes from the Seattle Office of Sustainability and Environment, and it applies to all qualifying properties, so now is a good time to confirm where your building stands.
You can quickly look up your property’s compliance status using the Seattle Benchmarking Compliance Lookup Tool by searching the OSE Building ID, property name, or ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager® (ESPM) username.
As of now, about 77% of required buildings are in compliance, which means more than 850 still need to complete their reporting. If yours is one of them, there’s still time, but it’s worth addressing sooner rather than later.
The Seattle Office of Sustainability has put together an Annual Benchmarking Update Guide with step-by-step instructions. Some of the most common things to check:
- Update your property with current space use details and accurate energy meter data in Portfolio Manager.
- Update any default data values auto-assigned by EPA.
- Verify that your Portfolio Manager account has the correct contact information.
- Confirm that your property can generate an Energy Use Intensity (EUI) for the year ending December 31, 2025. (See image below)
- If you are reporting gas data, and your property has one or two tenants that have recently changed, you may need to submit an updated tenant release form in your PSE EnergyCAP® account to obtain the missing consumption data.
- If you are missing monthly electric data in ESPM for your aggregate virtual meter, email SCL_Portfolio_Manager@seattle.gov with the SCL virtual meter name and request the missing data be pushed to Portfolio Manager.
Once you’ve made updates, re-check the Compliance Lookup Tool. It’s refreshed every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning.
Need more help?
The city offers no-cost technical assistance for building owners navigating this process. For support, contact the Help Desk at energybenchmarking@seattle.gov or 206-727-8484. Virtual help available by appointment to help you troubleshoot errors for existing accounts or register for weekly office hours if you’re just getting started with benchmarking.
Non-compliance does carry fines, so it’s worth taking a few minutes to confirm your status.
If you have questions or need help getting started, don’t hesitate to reach out to us as well.