On December 11, 2018, the City of San José voted to adopt the Energy and Water Building Performance Ordinance (BPO). This ordinance builds on existing state law (CA Assembly Bill 802) and will help the City reach the greenhouse gas emission reduction and water conservation goals of Climate Smart San José. Your compliance with this ordinance meets City and State requirements, and helps to achieve climate action goals, reduce air pollution, save water and improve quality of life in San José.

The BPO requires owners of nonresidential and multifamily buildings that are 20,000 square feet or larger in size to annually track their energy and water use with the EPA ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager^® platform and share it with the City of San José.

*NEW* Beginning in 2023, buildings are now also required to meet energy and water efficiency standards on a rolling five-year basis, or perform improvements if standards are not met. Please visit the Beyond Benchmarking webpage for more information on the requirements, including compliance deadlines, access to compliance forms, resources to help you throughout the process, and more.

Benchmarking Noticing Schedule  

Benchmarking Notices - Early February 2024: Compliance Notices will be mailed and emailed to all covered building owners with information about annual benchmarking requirements and deadlines. 

Benchmarking Invoices - Early April 2024: Annual invoices will be mailed to all covered building owners with information about how to pay the reporting fee.

• Please email benchmarking@sanjoseca.gov if you did not receive your invoice, wish to update your mailing information, or would prefer to receive an electronic copy.

• You can view a sample invoice for your reference. (Note: This sample invoice is for reference only and cannot be used for billing purposes. You will receive an official invoice in the mail with a unique identifying number. That number is required for bill payment.)

30-Day Noncompliance Notices – Early May 2024. 30 Day Warning Notices will be sent to all covered building owners who have not submitted a compliant benchmarking report or been granted exemption or extension.

60-Day Noncompliance Notices – Early June 2024. 60 Day Warning Notices will be sent to all covered building owners who have not submitted a compliant benchmarking report or been granted exemption or extension.

Exemption - April 1, 2024: Building owners requesting an exemption must submit their exemption request form no later than April 1. The form can be found below in Exemption and Extension Forms.

Benchmarking - May 1, 2024: All covered buildings 20,000 square feet and over must: submit a benchmarking report with complete 2023 calendar year data by May 1st.

• Need additional time to report? You may fill out an extension request form no later than May 1, 2024 granting you up to 180 additional days to submit your benchmarking report(s). The form can be found below in Exemption and Extension Forms.

Fee Payment - Early May 2024: Annual reporting fee payments for all covered buildings will be due one month from the invoicing date. See Benchmarking Noticing Schedule above. 

READY TO COMPLY? START HERE:

1. Verify whether your building is required to comply by reviewing the Covered Buildings List. This list includes building addresses and tax assessor parcel numbers to help you find your San José Building IDs. Your San José Building ID is used to track compliance over time and is required for reporting purposes. If you do not see your building on our list, you may still be covered by the BPO. Please email benchmarking@sanjoseca.gov if you need help determining whether your building is covered or exempt.
   
   
2. Claim your building Use the Claim my Building form to sign up for email compliance notifications, reminders, scorecards and more! 
   
   
3. Review our Benchmarking Checklist for step-by-step instructions on how to comply, including directions for getting started in ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager^®, entering data, submitting reports and paying City invoices. Or watch our Annual Benchmarking 101 How to Comply video. 
   
   
4. Benchmark your building(s) in ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager®. Create an account for your building; enter or update property use details (such as weekly hours of operation and number of full-time employees); and enter 12 months of the building’s electricity, gas and water data for the previous calendar year (2023.) Make sure to include any overlapping billing cycles (e.g. December 2022 - January 2024). Use the Portfolio Manager login page to sign up or log in to enter data.
   
   
5. Submit your data with the 2024 reporting link.  After you have entered all your 2023 data into your Portfolio Manager account (above), you then must re-enter Portfolio Manager’s website through the San José 2024 Portfolio Manager reporting link to submit your data to the City. 

Need to comply for previous years (2019-2023)?

If you missed notices in previous years, don’t worry - you can still comply! See below for the reporting links for 2019 – 2023.

IMPORTANT: Each reporting link is unique to the City of San José and the specified reporting year. It will not work until you have entered all required energy and water data for the previous calendar year into your ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager® account. For example: To submit a report for 2020, you must first enter utility data for all of 2019, including any overlapping billing cycles (e.g. December 2018 - January 2020).

Complying for 2023: Use the San José  2023 Portfolio Manager reporting link to submit your 2022 data to the City.

Complying for 2022: Use the San José 2022 Portfolio Manager reporting link to submit your 2021 data to the City. 

Complying for 2021: Use the San José 2021 Portfolio Manager reporting link to submit your 2020 data to the City.

Complying for 2020: Use the San José 2020 Portfolio Manager reporting link to submit your 2019 data to the City.

Complying for 2019: Buildings 50,000 square feet and over were required to comply in 2019. Use the San José 2019 Portfolio Manager reporting link to submit your 2018 data to the City.

Benchmarking Exemption and extension forms

We are no longer accepting extension or exemption requests for the 2023 reporting year. Forms for the 2024 reporting season will become available here March 1, 2024. Beyond Benchmarking exemption and extension forms are found on the Beyond Benchmarking webpage.

• Benchmarking Exemption Request: If you believe that your building qualifies for an exemption, please fill out our electronic form. Exemptions must be submitted annually  no later than April 1.
  • An ADA Compliant Exemption Form is available for viewing purposes only. Forms must still be submitted online.
• Benchmarking Extension Request: If you need a reporting extension, you may fill out our electronic form no later than May 1. Extensions apply ONLY to benchmarking report submissions. Fees for report submission must still be paid by the date listed on the invoice.
  • An ADA Compliant Extension Form is available for viewing purposes only. Forms must still be submitted online.
• All forms must contain a San José Building ID to be processed. Try our Covered Buildings List Lookup Tool or find your building in our Covered Buildings List document.

Benchmarking Resources

• Beyond Benchmarking webpage - Beyond Benchmarking guidance and forms
• Benchmarking Checklist – Step-by-step benchmarking compliance instructions.
• Benchmarking Frequently Asked Questions - New Questions added annually!
• "About the Ordinance" Flyer – This flyer contains high-level information about the ordinance.
• Watch previous "About the BPO" webinar recording
• Watch previous "How to Comply" webinar recording
• Learn more about the development of this ordinance.

Still have questions? We can help!

Call M-F at (408) 975-2540 or email City staff about the Building Performance Ordinance at benchmarking@sanjoseca.gov. Please include the San José Building ID for specific building inquiries.