Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday launched a Spanish-language version of its online energy management and benchmarking tool for commercial buildings, Energy Star Portfolio Manager.
- Spanish-speaking building owners, facility managers and tenants can now create a free and secure Portfolio Manager account in that language to monitor and manage their properties’ energy use, water use, waste generation and greenhouse gas emissions, according to an EPA press release.
- Making Portfolio Manager available in Spanish will increase access for facility managers and owners in Puerto Rico, where both Spanish and English are official languages, as well as those in dozens of cities and states that need the tool to measure, track and report energy use, the agency said.
Dive Insight:
Portfolio Manager is an EPA and the U.S. Department of Energy tool to promote energy efficiency and drive cost savings for businesses, consumers and jurisdictions. The tool includes features such as GHG emissions tracking, water and waste tracking and the Energy Star score. The score evaluates a building’s energy efficiency relative to similar buildings nationwide, with a score of 50 representing median performance and a score of 75 to 100 earning buildings the Energy Star certification.
By the end of 2023, more than 43,000 buildings had earned an Energy Star certification, collectively saving close to $6 billion on energy bills and slashing over 23 million metric tons of GHG emissions, per a separate news release from EPA in May.
Seven U.S. states and 48 local governments rely on Portfolio Manager for their energy benchmarking and transparency policies. Over 330,000 buildings, accounting for nearly 25% of all U.S. commercial building floorspace, used the tool in 2022, according to a fact sheet on the Energy Star program.
Thirteen percent of the U.S. population spoke Spanish at home in 2019, with 5% saying they speak English less than very well, the EPA said, citing Census Bureau data.
Portfolio Manager was previously available only in English and French, EPA said Thursday. Making the tool available in Spanish supports an executive order from 2000 that calls for federal agencies to provide individuals with limited English-language proficiency with meaningful access to information, EPA said.
“Increasing accessibility to the tool for Spanish-speaking facility owners, managers and occupants will provide their businesses with the data and insights to drive energy efficiency improvements, cost savings and meaningful reductions in greenhouse gas emissions,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement.
The EPA said it will provide live training, printed training materials and user support in Spanish to further assist Spanish-speaking users.
