If you believe your building's square footage is recorded inaccurately, please contact the BE305 Help Center to provide correct information and supporting documentation.

Building owners should reach out to their utility directly to request their monthly whole-building energy use data. Whole-building utility data for the property's energy water and energy use shall be compiled using one or more of the following methods: Obtaining aggregated, whole-building data from a utility company; Collecting data from all tenants for nonresidential properties; or Reading a master meter.

If the owner of a covered property does not otherwise have access to whole-building energy and water data, such property owner shall request aggregated, whole-building data from each utility that provides energy or water service to the property and that has made aggregated utility data available to owners before the reporting date of that calendar year. When a utility does not provide whole-building energy or water data, the owner of a nonresidential covered property shall request energy and water data from tenants or occupants. Each non-residential tenant located in a covered property shall, within 30 days of a request by the owner and in a form to be determined by the director, provide all information that cannot otherwise be acquired by the owner and that is needed by the owner to comply with BE305 requirements. When the owner of a covered property receives notice that a nonresidential tenant intends to vacate a space within such property and the utilities do not provide aggregated, whole-building data, the owner shall request information relating to such tenant's energy and water use for any period of occupancy relevant to the owner's obligation to benchmark.

The EPA has specific rules for when you should break out separate Property Uses. In order to avoid skewing data or over-defining your property, it is suggested that you list as few Property Uses as possible to obtain accurate data. If your property is not eligible for an ENERGY STAR® Score, breaking out a separate Property Use Type will not affect any of your metrics. So, the best practice is to list only the Primary Use Type and combine all of your other Property Use details into your Primary Use Type. However, if your property is eligible for an ENERGY STAR Score, you should add an additional Property Use Type only if the Property Use meets any one of the following criteria: If the Property Use can get an ENERGY STAR Score. Retail can only get a score if it is a "Single Store" of more than 5,000 sq ft. (you can't add together smaller stores), Multifamily Housing can only get a score if there are at least 20 units, etc. Here is a list of requirements to get an ENERGY STAR Score for different property types. If it accounts for more than 25% of the property's GFA. If it is a vacant/unoccupied Office or Medical Office (and the vacancy is greater than 10% of the property's GFA). If the Weekly Hours differ by more than 10% for the same Property Type AND that Property Type can get a score (ex: you have two Office tenants, and their hours differ by more than 10%).

If your property has multiple Property Uses, the primary Property Type is based on the Property Type that accounts for more than 50% of your property’s GFA. This is selected when you set up your property and can always be changed by editing your property details in ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager® (Portfolio Manager). Once logged in to Portfolio Manager, select your property in the dashboard. Then, open the "Details" sub-tab and scroll down on the right-hand side, where you will see a box that says "Property Type". Click edit under Property Type- Self-Selected. The Property Type you select should match the Property Type that is calculated by Portfolio Manager. If there is not one single Property Use Type that represents 50% or more of the property’s GFA your Property Type will be classified as "Mixed Use". A list of Property Types and definitions is available at: U.S. Property Types, Definitions, and Use Details.

Parking lots, EV charging stations, cell phone towers, radio masts, and any external billboards used for leased advertising space are not part of your building’s energy use and may be excluded if sub-metered. If an EV charging station, cell phone tower, radio mast, or external billboard is not sub-metered, please include that information in the “Property Notes” section so that BE305 has an accurate idea of what is included in the energy usage when your report is reviewed.

In order to accurately benchmark a building in ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager®, monthly energy usage is required. For each annual benchmarking submission, the owner of a covered building must include a full 12-months (January 1st – December 31st) of entries for all energy sources at the property for the previous year. For some transport energy sources, such as propane delivery, Portfolio Manager allows for entries that are greater than one month in duration. If a building owner does not receive monthly energy usage, please reach out to the Help Center for further assistance entering your data accurately.

If a building owner has access to all common area and tenant usage bills, they can enter the data in separate virtual meters within Portfolio Manager. However, the benchmarking report will not evaluate separate metrics for the common area data versus tenant data. The Portfolio Manager metrics will only evaluate how the building as a whole is using energy.

If your utility provider offers auto-upload, ask if they include district steam or chilled water in your data. If not, you may need to enter this data into ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager® (Portfolio Manager) manually. To enter this into Portfolio Manager please log into your account and click on your building in the dashboard. Then click on the Energy tab and on the right-hand side there will be a blue box that says "Add a Meter", click on this box. If there currently are meters in your energy section, then the blue box that says "Add a Meter" will be located under the graph. Check the energy sources that are applicable to your property and click “Get Started.”

Building owners can enter electricity data from onsite solar and wind into ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager® when setting up meters. Obtain data from your installer on the energy used, any energy exported out to the grid, and information about any renewable energy certificates generated. The use of onsite renewable electricity is part of your overall site energy consumption (i.e., the energy requirement of your property) and must be reported and included in your total energy consumption. If you report your renewable energy generation and use accurately, it will be reflected in your building’s greenhouse gas emissions. If you have Renewable Energy Credits (RECs), this is reflected in your ENERGY STAR® Score and Source EUI by assigning onsite electricity a source conversion factor that is used for grid-sourced electricity. For additional details on green power, see the Green Power PDF created by the EPA.

If you receive an error stating you do not have whole-building energy data, it is likely due to selections made in ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager® – especially if you’ve confirmed that whole-building energy data is actually entered. In the “Energy” tab within Portfolio Manager, on the left-hand side find a box that says “You Are Tracking.” There, check whether “Total energy consumption for your property” or “Partial energy consumption for your property” is selected. If the latter is selected, click “Edit”. On the next page, you can update the meter selections. Make sure the option stating, “These meter(s) account for the total energy consumption for ____” is selected. This way, Portfolio Manager will recognize that you have whole-building energy data uploaded. Please reach out to the Help Center if you continue to have trouble ensuring your data is recognized as whole-building usage.

The best practice is to set up your property in ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager® in accordance with how the building was operating throughout the previous year when you are preparing to submit your benchmarking report. For example, in 2023, you’ll ensure the property details describe how the building operated in 2022. The main use-type details that may differ drastically from normal operation due to the COVID-19 pandemic are “Weekly Operating Hours” and “Number of Workers on Main Shift”. Those details should be updated/reviewed each year when it comes time to submit your benchmarking report.

ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager® (Portfolio Manager) defines "Occupancy" as the percentage of your property’s Gross Floor Area (GFA) that is occupied and operational. This is a measure of the building’s occupancy/use, it is not connected to a building’s “Maximum Occupancy.” Below are some examples for thinking about how occupancy applies to your building in terms of Portfolio Manager: Office: Occupancy is a measure of the tenant spaces that are leased. If you have a 10-story building, and on average one floor is vacant, and the other 9 floors fully leased and occupied, then the occupancy would be 90%. If you have people working on all floors/areas of your building, then you are 100% occupied. You do not need to count empty cubicles or the number of employees who enter a property. Hotel: Occupancy is a measure of the rooms that are sold. If you have a hotel with 100 rooms, and on average 10 rooms per night are vacant, then the occupancy is 90%. Multifamily: Occupancy is a measure of the units that are leased. If you have 100 apartments, and 5 are vacant for the year, then the occupancy is 95%. Worship Facility: Occupancy is the percentage of the building that is operational, regardless of how many people are in the building. Most of the time, this will be 100%.

If your building has a single tenant who has assumed management of the entire building, you and your tenant can agree to delegate reporting duties to the tenant. This delegation must be noted in the “Property Notes” section of ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager®. However, if your building is not in compliance (not submitted an accurate report or a valid approved waiver request) before the program deadline, the State will penalize the building owner, not the tenant.

The primary owner listed in the Tax Assessor records is responsible for compliance with all aspects of the ordinance. If you do not know who this is please reach out to the Help Center and they can help determine where the responsibility lies.

In ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager®, you can input the primary address as your property address or you can list a range of addresses. For example, if your property addresses are 400 Main St, 410 Main St, 420 Main St, and 430 Main St in Portfolio Manager you can input 400-430 Main St. If you are setting up auto-upload or receiving data via a spreadsheet from a utility, be sure to send an email with a list of addresses associated with your property and your Portfolio Manager Property ID* number to your designated provider as well as the Help Center. *The Portfolio Manager Property ID is different from your Miami Building ID. The Portfolio Manager Property ID is a unique ID created by Portfolio Manager to track your property in their system. It can be found right under your property address in Portfolio Manager.

ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager. Please follow the steps below: Log in to Portfolio Manager and, from your Dashboard, click on a Property to add its Building ID. Navigate to the ‘Details’ tab. Scroll down to the ‘Unique Identifiers (IDs)’ box on the left, click ‘Edit’. Scroll down to the bottom and find ‘Standard IDs’. From the drop-down menu select Miami Building ID and enter the corresponding Building ID (i.e., M12345). Click ‘Save’.

Buildings that have transferred ownership are not exempt from reporting requirements. When a covered property changes ownership, the previous owner shall provide the new owner with all information needed to benchmark for the period during which the previous owner was in possession of the property per Section 10-150. Whoever owns the building when the benchmarking report is due is required to benchmark and report the property. For example, if you sold your building on November 1st, 2023 but the benchmarking report was due on June 30th, 2023 you are required to complete the 2023 benchmarking report and the new owner will take over next year. If you are a new owner and took over ownership of a property on May 1st, 2023 you would be required to benchmark the building. New owners who don’t have access to historical data will need to contact their utility provider to obtain the prior year’s whole-building data.

Many building owners will have information on gross floor area (GFA) from leasing, sale, or building plans that can provide dimensions for the building and/or individual property uses. City tax assessor records may also have records of square footage in a permit database, however, those records are often organized by parcel or building section, while the ordinance requires compliance at the building level. The calculation of GFA is a one-time step, necessary only in the first year of reporting. Any estimation of the floor area must be noted in ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager®, under “Property Notes." If the building's square footage changes due to a physical change in the building, such as a remodel, in Portfolio Manager go to the "Details" sub-tab for the property, and under "Property Uses and Use Details", select from the "Action" dropdown “Correct Mistakes.” Then adjust the square footage and save corrections.

The GFA is the total square footage of a building— the total area measured between the exterior walls. The GFA is not the same as leasable/rentable space. Below is a table showing spaces to include with the building GFA and those to exclude: Include in GFA: Atriums (count the base level only) Basements Break Rooms Clubhouses Common Areas Elevator Shafts Laundry Rooms Lobbies Mechanical Equipment Areas Meeting Rooms Restrooms Stairwells Storage Rooms Tenant Areas Do not include in GFA: Attics Balconies Covered Walkways Crawl Spaces Decks Driveways Exterior Loading Docks Exterior spaces Outdoor Courts (Tennis, Basketball, etc.) Outdoor pool decks Parking Patios The interstitial plenum space between floors (which house pipes and ventilation)

If your building is already in compliance and you realize you made an error in your submission and need to resubmit information, please call the Help Center first. We must prepare our system to receive your new data, otherwise it will not register.

Building owners looking to stay up-to-date on program details should fill out the Claim My Building form

If your building is otherwise exempted, but you want to report your date, please reach out to the Help Center.

ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager® (Portfolio Manager) is a free online resource management tool that normalizes energy data for building size and use. Currently, 25% of U.S. commercial building space is actively being benchmarked in Portfolio Manager and that number continues to rise. Performance data is available to the public and provides users with a baseline of how their property is performing in comparison to other buildings of similar size and type. With this, property managers and owners can make well-informed decisions in regards to increasing efficiency and decreasing energy costs. Building owners need to use Portfolio Manager to benchmark their property because this tool provides a standardized format for submitting energy data, making it clear for both building owners and the State to review.

The ENERGY STAR® Score is based on a scale of 1-100 (where a score of 100 is the best performing), comparing your building’s energy performance with that of similar buildings in the U.S. The score normalizes for climate, weather, building size, and number of employees, among other factors. A score of 50 represents median energy performance, while a score of 75 or above qualifies a building for ENERGY STAR® Certification.

Energy use intensity (EUI) is the building’s energy use per square foot. Source energy accounts for all the energy used in delivering energy to a building, including power generation, power transmission and distribution losses. Site energy is the amount of energy consumed by a building as reflected in utility bills. ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager® (Portfolio Manager) typically shows a building’s Source EUI, which is a complete assessment of the fuel required for operating the building. When you see Weather Normalized Source EUI, this is an estimate of what the Source EUI would have been in a year with “normal” weather conditions. For example, in a very hot year, Portfolio Manager might estimate your Weather Normalized Source EUI to be lower than your actual Source EUI. This allows an owner to more accurately compare a building’s efficiency from year to year.

If you already have an ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager® account, you may use it to benchmark a building. However, make sure to add the building’s Miami Building ID. Find your Building ID using the Building ID Lookup Tool.

That’s okay, it’s not required! Only some building types will receive an ENERGY STAR® Score, thus, some buildings will submit their energy reports to the City without an ENERGY STAR Score. The EPA publishes a list of Property Types Eligible to Receive a 1-100 ENERGY STAR Score. If your building type is on the list and you still didn’t receive a score, there may be an error in your data or submission. To determine why your building didn't receive an ENERGY STAR Score when it is eligible for one, log into your ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager® account and select your building from the dashboard. In the right-hand corner, you will see a box with the Current EUI and Baseline EUI, above that, you will see hyperlinked text that says "Why not score?". If you click on that, it will explain why the building is not receiving an ENERGY STAR Score and how to correct it.

Per the EPA, “The Data Quality Checker runs a set of basic data checks on your properties to help you identify possible data entry errors and to see whether your building differs from typical operational patterns. It will show you both warnings (marked by a yellow triangle icon) and errors (marked with a red stop sign icon).” Learn more here.

Here are step-by-step instructions on how to connect with the individual who previously submitted and get the existing property transferred from their account to yours: 1. After you have created your ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager® (Portfolio Manager) account, you will need to add the previous submitter as a contact in Portfolio Manager. Log into your Portfolio Manager account. In the upper right-hand corner, you will see a “Contacts” button. Click on “Contacts.” This will bring you to the “My Contacts” page where you can view existing contacts and add new ones. Click the “Add Contact” button. Within the “Find a Contact in Portfolio Manager” section, search for the previous submitter within the “Name” section by searching their full name or the “Email” section by searching the email they used for their Portfolio Manager Account. Click “Search.” You will see their contact appear on the right, select “Connect.” 2. After sending a Connection Request to them, let them know you have sent a request and ask them to accept the connection. After they accept the connection, they can transfer the property to you. They will want to follow the instructions found in "How do I transfer properties to another user?" With steps for transferring a property. 3. Once they transfer the property to you, you will need to log into your Portfolio Manager account and accept the property. To do so, go to the “Notifications'' button in the upper right-hand corner. There you will find an Incoming Request from the previous submitter requesting to transfer the property to you. Click “Accept.”

If you can obtain the new owner or property manager’s contact information, we recommend reaching out to them and directly transferring the property to their ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager® (Portfolio Manager) account. If you have attempted to contact the new owner and have been unsuccessful in doing so you can transfer the property to an EPA holding account. Please do not delete a property that will need to be benchmarked in the future because all of the historical data will also be deleted. To transfer a property to the EPA holding account, you will need to send an email to essupport@energystar.gov provide them with your property’s Portfolio Manager ID number (this number is located under each property’s name in your Dashboard), and let them know you would like to transfer this property to the EPA holding account because the property has been sold and you do not know who the new owner or property manager is. Then, also send an email to the BE305 Help Center letting them know the property has been sold and the property’s Portfolio Manager profile is in the EPA holding account.

The only way to retrieve a username and/or password for an ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager® (Portfolio Manager) account is to have access to the email that is linked with the account. If you have access to that email then you can reset the password and obtain the original username (the username cannot be changed). If you do not have access to that email then you will need to create a new account. If you are unsure as to what email is associated with your Portfolio Manager account, please reach out to EPA ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager Customer Support.

For multifamily properties, you must enter the number of units in low (1-4 floors), medium (5-9 floors), or high (10 floors) rise settings. Most multifamily properties only have ONE setting. For example, if a building has 11 floors, then all units in that building are in a high rise setting. If a building has eight floors, all units in that building are in a medium rise setting. The only time a building should have units in more than one setting is if there are two parts of the same building that are very different heights – for example one section is a high -rise tower and the other section only has three floors.

Owners of multiple buildings that share one energy meter for one or more of their energy sources may comply with BE305 by benchmarking those buildings together as a single building if the owner prefers. This way, the owner can take advantage of utility auto-upload or aggregated spreadsheet upload tools if their utility provider offers it. This allows building owners to benchmark their buildings at a level that makes sense for their management strategy. There may be compelling reasons to benchmark these shared-meter buildings separately, though, and we encourage owners to explore their options. For instance, if buildings have separate electric meters but a shared gas meter, an owner might find it valuable to benchmark the buildings separately since there might be a difference in the buildings’ scores based on electric usage alone – such as if one building has undergone or might undergo a lighting upgrade when the other hasn’t. Or, an owner may want to fully understand the energy performance of each building and so may manually split the natural gas monthly data by square footage of the buildings. Where multiple buildings share both electric and gas meters, we encourage owners to look into sub-metering. In addition to helping an owner better understand energy usage, sub-metering may enable the building to be eligible for ENERGY STAR® certification if the building has an ENERGY STAR® Score of 75 or higher. Only hotels, hospitals, K-12 schools, multifamily housing, and senior care communities are eligible for certification as a campus today. Find more details on options for benchmarking multiple buildings as a campus in "How to Benchmark a Campus in Portfolio Manager".

If your property consists of multiple buildings, you can benchmark them as a campus. The perks of benchmarking a property as a campus is you can measure the performance of each individual building, while also tracking how each building contributes to the campus-wide performance. To set up a campus please follow the steps outlined in this document "How to Benchmark a Campus in Portfolio Manager". Setting up a campus is a bit trickier than benchmarking individual buildings. Should you need additional assistance, please reach out to the Help Center.

If your property consists of multiple buildings, you can benchmark them together in a single benchmarking report under one Building ID. You can choose to benchmark them as a campus or as a single building. If you decide you want to benchmark your entire apartment complex together with one ID, but have been assigned multiple IDs, please reach out to the Help Center so that the proper ID can be selected which will represent your property as a whole. You will also need to aggregate the gross floor area, property details, and energy consumption for every building into one building. If you want to set up your property as a campus, please refer to “How do I create a campus in ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager®?” above.

When creating energy meters in ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager® you will need to know three things: 1. The sources of your property’s energy (electric, natural gas, renewable energy, district energy, transport fuel, solar, wind, etc.); 2. The unit of measurement that you are billed in for each service type; and 3. The meter activation date (does NOT need to be the actual date the meter was activated). The meter activation date should match the start date of the first entry in your service meter in Portfolio Manager. For example, if you are reporting your property’s 2022 usage and your first entry is 01/01/2022 then your meter activation date should be 01/01/2022. The unit of measurement will be on your utility bill, but if you have any questions, you can reach out to the Help Center for assistance.

For Connected Parking Garages: Building owners should include energy used in the garage (lighting for example) in their benchmarking report, but the square footage of the garage should not be counted in the building's gross floor area. Portfolio Manager has a separate field to enter parking square footage. How to Treat Parking Floor Area: If the property includes parking areas (enclosed or open) with energy consumption, you do NOT need to include the parking areas in the total gross floor area. If your property has parking, the square footage of the parking area will be added separately from the gross floor area of the rest of the building. Click the box for “My property's energy consumption includes parking areas.” Also, for the purposes of benchmarking, “parking” refers to buildings and lots used for parking vehicles. This includes open parking lots, partially enclosed parking structures, and completely enclosed (or underground) parking structures. Parking structures may be free standing or physically connected to the property. For more details, see the entry for “Parking” in the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager Glossary: https://portfoliomanager.energystar.gov/pm/glossary Parking Energy is Part of a Building's Energy Use: Monthly, whole-building energy use data is required for all fuel types for the 12 months of the previous calendar year. Whole-building energy use includes energy used for heating, cooling, operating equipment, lighting, cooking, and all processes and operations carried out in the building, including by tenants. Energy used for parking areas should also be included. Standalone Parking Garages (not owned by a building but essentially businesses in their own right): If you are reporting a standalone parking garage, EPA recommends that you select the “Other” building type when creating the building. Do not check off “My building’s energy use includes parking areas.” Instead, just enter the total area of the garage (i.e., including parking) as the area of the building. This will prevent any error messages from coming up as you continue.

More information is available online at www.energystar.gov/benchmark or by visiting Portfolio Manager’s FAQs page.

Building benchmarking is a widely adopted practice for tracking the energy performance of a building over time. By measuring a building's energy use and comparing it to the average consumption of similar buildings, owners and occupants can better understand their building's relative energy performance and identify opportunities to cut energy waste. Learn more here.

Benchmarking helps building owners find ways to save energy through implementing energy efficiency improvements. This saves money in utility costs and creates demand for buildings designed with energy performance in mind. Money saved on utility costs means increased net operating income (NOI) for building owners. Building energy and water data trends can inform state and local policy as well as programs and incentives to help increase the adoption of energy-saving upgrades. This can also create local jobs for engineers, contractors, energy auditors, and construction workers as building owners look for ways to save energy and hire professionals to help. The DataTrends Research study done by the U.S. EPA found that buildings that consistently have their energy use benchmarked save an average of 2.4% in annual energy savings per year and see a 6-point increase in their ENERGY STAR® Score.

A building that is required to benchmark their energy and water performance (i.e., “covered” by the ordinance”).

Covered property refers to any public property or private property except for any property with a single-family home or duplex, a solely residential multi-family building of five units or less, or any building with an industrial use per designated Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes 20 through 39. Covered private property means a property, other than a covered city property, or any property owned or operated by Miami-Dade County, the State of Florida, or the federal government with a building or buildings that exceed 20,000 square feet of gross floor area. Covered public property means a property with a building or buildings that exceed 20,000 square feet of gross floor area and is owned, leased, or managed by the city and where the city regularly pays all or part of the annual energy and/or water bills.

Please check the Building ID Lookup tool.

For every covered property subject to this chapter, the owner shall annually submit to the City of Miami an energy and water benchmarking report in an electronic format as established by the director by the date specified in section 10-152 of the City Code. The information included in the annual energy and water benchmarking report shall include, at a minimum, the shared benchmarking information for the previous calendar year. The owner of each covered property shall enter data into ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager so that the energy and water benchmarking report shall be based on an assessment of the aggregated total energy and water consumed by the whole property for the entire calendar year being reported. Before submitting a benchmarking submission, the owner shall run all automated data quality checker functions available within the benchmarking tool and shall verify that all data has been accurately entered into the benchmarking tool. In order for the benchmarking report to be considered in compliance with this article, the owner shall correct all missing or incorrect information as identified by the benchmarking tool prior to submitting the benchmarking report to the director. If the current owner learns that any information reported as part of the benchmarking submission is inaccurate or incomplete, the owner shall amend the information so reported within the benchmarking tool and shall provide the City of Miami with an updated benchmarking submission within 30 days of learning of the inaccuracy.

The owner of a covered property shall ensure that for each such property, a benchmarking report is generated, completed, and submitted to the director annually. The benchmarking reports for each covered property shall be due by the dates as defined below. Gross Floor Area and Initial Compliance Required by: Buildings 200,000 square feet or larger = June 30, 2023 Buildings 100,000 - 199,999 square feet = October 1, 2023 Buildings 50,000 - 99,999 square feet = October 1, 2024 Buildings 20,000 - 49,999 square feet = October 1, 2025 Please note that subsequent benchmarking reports for each covered property shall be due by June 30 of each year thereafter.

Failure to comply by the reporting deadline may result in enforcement as set forth in Chapter 2, Article X of the City Code, titled "Code enforcement," and may be brought for further proceedings before the Code Enforcement Board. A property owner in violation of this article may be fined $250.00 per day for a first-time offense or $500.00 per day for a repeat violation of this article. Fines may be higher for non-Homestead Exempt properties. A Notice of Violation will be sent to Building Owners who remain non-compliant following the reporting deadline.

An exemption allows a building owner to not be required to submit their energy data for that year. Owners can apply annually for an exemption, and they are only valid for 1 year. The link to the online exemption form is available here.

The owner of a covered building may apply for an exemption if they submit documentation to BE305 that shows the building has met one or more of the following conditions to avoid the benchmarking requirements for that calendar year: Public Building: The property does not have a certificate of occupancy or temporary certificate of occupancy for all 12 months of the calendar year being benchmarked. A demolition permit for the entire building was issued for the calendar year being benchmarked, provided that demolition work has commenced and legal occupancy was no longer possible prior to end of that year. The property did not receive energy or water services for the entire calendar year to be benchmarked. The covered property had average physical occupancy of less than 50 percent throughout the calendar year for which benchmarking is required. Private Building: The director determines that due to special circumstances unique to the applicant's facility and not based on a condition caused by actions of the applicant, strict compliance with provisions of this article would cause undue hardship or would not be in the public's best interest. The owner notifies the Director that the property is under financial hardship and provides proof of the same. The covered property may be exempted from electricity benchmarking if more than 50 percent of gross floor area is used for residential purposes and the property is not master metered or the owner does not have access to master meters or other means to obtain whole-building electricity data; and the serving electric utility does not provide data aggregation services or access to whole-building utility data. Once such services are available from the Utility as determined by the director, such properties will no longer be exempt from benchmarking requirements and shall file initial benchmarking reports in the first required reporting year following such data availability. The property does not have a certificate of occupancy or temporary certificate of occupancy for all 12 months of the calendar year being benchmarked. A demolition permit for the entire building was issued for the calendar year being benchmarked, provided that demolition work has commenced and legal occupancy was no longer possible prior to end of that year. The property did not receive energy or water services for the entire calendar year to be benchmarked. The covered property had average physical occupancy of less than 50 percent throughout the calendar year for which benchmarking is required. If you have requested an exemption, approval is not guaranteed. BE305 will notify the building owner when a decision has been made regarding the request. Exemptions are only valid for one year.

Those that have Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes 20 through 39, as found online here.

At this time, we are not currently offering extensions. If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to the Help Center. These will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

No, a building owner is not required to hire a third-party service provider to comply with BE305. Building owners can independently obtain their energy and water data from their local utility, enter it into ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager, and submit it to BE305. However, building owners can hire a third-party benchmarking service provider if they need assistance.

In order to find your Miami Building ID, please visit the Building ID Lookup Tool.

Once the data is checked and verified to be accurate by the building owner, that data must be submitted to BE305 via ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager. Building owners can find the Data Request which will take them back to their Portfolio Manager account with a report template. The building owner will then generate the report for the building owner by using the "Respond to Data Request" function under the "I want to..." drop-down menu. This will allow the owner to select which building to generate a report for. The generated report will include all required information needed to comply with BE305 as long as the owner entered everything into Portfolio Manager properly. The final step is to use the same "I want to..." drop-down menu to "Send Response". Once you send the report to the City of Miami, you should receive 2 emails back - one from Portfolio Manager with a receipt of your submission, and one from the City of Miami confirming compliance with requirements or informing you that errors were identified and further action needs to be taken by you. Reach out to the Help Center if you have any questions.

Each time a building owner submits a benchmarking report to BE305, the report will run through both an automated and manual review to check for accuracy and discrepancies to ensure data quality. If errors or data quality flags are found in the report, the submitter will be notified via email from the Help Center. The email will include an outline of any errors found, with step-by-step instructions on how to correct them. Once those corrections are made, the building owner will need to generate an updated response and resubmit the report. If an updated response is not generated prior to resubmitting, any corrections made will not be reflected in the resubmission. Please reach out to the Help Center for further assistance correcting errors and resubmitting the report.

Once a building owner has submitted their energy data through their data reporting link via ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager®, the building owner will receive an email from our Help Center indicating whether there are any issues with their data and if their building is in or out of compliance.

Some of the benchmarking information such as descriptive details about the physical property and its operational characteristics will be shared with the public. The information as defined by the ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager glossary, includes, but is not limited to, descriptive information such as the property's address, primary use, gross floor area, number of floors, number of years the property has been ENERGY STAR® Certified, the last approval date, if applicable, and energy-related output information such as site and source energy use intensity, weather normalized site and source energy use intensity, the ENERGY STAR® score (where available), total annual greenhouse gas emissions, monthly energy use by fuel type, indoor water use and water use intensity (consumption per gross square foot), outdoor water use (where available), total water use, the property's ENERGY STAR® water score (where available), and any other general comments required to explain said ENERGY STAR® scores. Benchmarking data for all covered buildings that have reported will be made publicly available through the digitally interactive online map on the BE305 website. Sharing benchmarking data drives the market to recognize and reward energy efficiency and create a continuous cycle of improvement and demand for high-performing buildings. Feel free to reach out to the Help Center if you find incorrect information displayed on the public map or have additional questions about public disclosure.

Yes, please view BE305’s training materials or contact our Help Center at benchmarking@miamigov.com or (305) 416-1688.

Yes, we have Spanish speakers available. Contact us at benchmarking@miamigov.com or (305) 416-1688.

Sí, tenemos hablantes de español disponibles. Contáctenos por correo electrónico a benchmarking@miamigov.com o marcando el (305)-416-1688.

(1) Had arrears of property taxes or special assessments that resulted in the issuance of a tax certificate against the property within the prior two years; (2) Has a court appointed receiver in control of the asset due to financial distress; (3) Is owned by a financial institution through default by the borrower; (4) Has been acquired by a deed in lieu of foreclosure; or (5) Has a senior mortgage subject to a notice of default.

The full ordinance language is available online, see Section 10-152 – Benchmarking Requirements.

Yes, the owner of each covered property 50,000 square feet or above shall ensure that retuning is performed on the base building systems of each such property in accordance with the schedule requirements of section 10-156 to ensure that base building systems are maintained, cleaned, and repaired. Retuning requirements begin in 2028.

No. County, State, and Federally owned buildings do not need to report even if they are located in the City of Miami.