Coming Soon: ENERGY STAR Score and Certification for Convenience Stores
Industry-specific benchmarks from ENERGY STAR help businesses plan and manage their energy consumption goals. Operating an energy-efficient building helps save on costs and can even win favor with customers as having a positive impact on the community.
In developing these benchmarks, there’s exciting news for Convenience Stores owners. The National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) will be helping create the first-ever ENERGY STAR® Score for Convenience Stores.
ENERGY STAR for Convenience Stores
Currently, Portfolio Manager cannot score Convenience Stores on the 1 -100 ENERGY STAR scale but is working with NACS to create one.
According to ENERGY STAR, “the ENERGY STAR score and label may soon be available for convenience stores, identifying those stores that are among the most energy efficient in the nation.”
This score will compare a store’s energy performance to similar stores nationwide. A score of 50 represents median energy performance. In contrast, a score of 75 means your building performs better than 75 percent of all convenience stores buildings nationwide — and may be eligible for ENERGY STAR certification.
For now, Convenience Stores can reference their national median Energy Use Intensity (EUI), or energy use/ square foot. For example, benchmarking your EUI can give a frame of reference to know when your savings take your energy use below the national median.
You can determine your Energy Use Intensity (EUI) by benchmarking your store in Portfolio Manager. However, many stores can do even better than the national median EUI of 231.4 Site EUI (kBtu/ft2). Ask us how!
Convenience Stores: Your Data is Needed!
Before NACS can develop a scoring model on which to base ENERGY STAR certification, they need to know more about convenience stores’ energy use.
To collect the necessary data, NACS is surveying convenience stores through December 22, 2020. At least several hundred diverse convenience stores must participate in the survey to develop this energy efficiency rating.
Please make sure to share the news and if you can, help with this important industry project by completing the survey today.
According to NACS, the survey should take approximately 30 – 45 minutes to complete. Ideally, you will be completing this survey on a tablet or smartphone as you walk the store. You will also need:
- Store square footage (you can approximate if you don’t have actual building blueprints.)
- Usage data for all fuels used for the property (electricity, gas, water, propane, etc.)
- Water bills covering the entire period from January 1, 2019, through December 31, 2019.
- Energy use for all meters in the buildings on the entire property, including outdoor lighting. Include electricity use associated with fuel pumps, but not fuel or diesel sold by the store’s gas pumps.
- If the store uses EPA’s ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager tool, you may not need to gather utility data. If you already use Portfolio Manager to benchmark your energy use, you can save time by submitting energy data through Portfolio Manager.
Sadly, if enough participants don’t take the survey, ENERGY STAR will not develop a 1 – 100 ENERGY STAR score for convenience stores.
To sum things up, are you ready to complete your survey? 👏
Learn More
- Portfolio Manager, EPA’s free online energy measurement and tracking tool.
- Print the Data Collection Worksheet for “Convenience Store”. This Worksheet lists what you need to benchmark your property in the online Portfolio Manager tool.
- Download the ENERGY STAR Action Workbook for Convenience Stores for more strategies, action items, and ideas.
- Try out JadeTrack’s utility bill management and automated ENERGY STAR benchmarking tool with a free demo.
