When benchmarking in Portfolio Manager, we recommend that you focus on the primary function (or, main activity) in

your building(s). Begin by selecting your primary function from the table below and then enter as few additional use

building would have been recorded in the reference data survey, and therefore yield the most accurate comparisons

to median performance. In some cases, buildings may have multiple distinctly different uses. For example, an office

and a hotel that share a common building. In these mixed-use settings, it is appropriate to enter multiple use types.

Definitions of all property types are available at: www.energystar.gov/PMGlossary

.

The table presents the median in both site EUI and source EUI. Site EUI is what you may be familiar with from your

utility bills. Site EUI contains a mixture of what is called primary energy (i.e., a raw fuel like natural gas) and

secondary energy (i.e., a converted product like electricity or district steam). Source energy provides the most

equitable way to combine primary and secondary energy types into a single common unit, ensuring that no building

receives either a credit or a penalty based on its energy source or utility. You can learn more about source energy

and the way it is computed at www.energystar.gov/SourceEnergy

While almost all commercial building types have a national Median Source EUI, some (presented in cyan) will also

The right-most column in the table indicates the reference data source we use to determine the median performance

of buildings in your peer group. To compute the national median, we always rely on nationally representative data.

For the majority of property types, the reference data is from the Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey

(for more information visit: http://www.eia.gov/consumption/commercial/

data centers, wastewater treatment plants, and multifamily housing. Additional information on these surveys can be

found in the technical reference document for each property type.