Washington State Drives Energy Efficiency through Benchmarking Public Buildings
In 2014, the State Energy Office was directed by Executive Order 14-04 – the Washington Carbon Pollution Reduction and Clean Energy Action – to increase public building efficiency. This order brought together a broad group of agencies that agreed achieving 100 percent benchmarking compliance was a necessary step towards increasing public building efficiency. With support from a U.S. Department of Energy State Energy Program Competitive Awards grant, the state created the Interagency Energy Workgroup and provided dedicated staffing support to address the lack of a centralized system for benchmarking and compliance. This support included the state Department of Enterprise Services and Office of Financial Management, and Washington State University (WSU). The Interagency Energy Workgroup created and promoted a process for increasing energy efficiency in public buildings.