The 2026 Benchmarking Season is in Full Swing!

The City of Evanston’s Healthy Buildings Ordinance (1-O-25) requires covered buildings to submit annual reports to the City on their energy and water use, including data such as total water, electricity, and natural gas consumed. Reporting of 2025 energy and water data is due by June 30, 2026.

Ordinance 1-O-25 regulates buildings with gross floor areas of 20,000 sq ft or greater, excluding condos that are smaller than 50,000 sq ft. Building owners must submit building energy and water use at an aggregate level using the free ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager tool.

Data verification is still required. Beginning January 1, 2026, the owner of a covered property must ensure that reported baseline performance values are verified by a Certified Professional.

If you verified your building’s performance in 2023 (for 2022 data), 2024 (for 2023 data), or 2025 (for 2024 data), you may select the most recent verification year as the baseline performance for the building. Please continue to benchmark your building on an annual basis; however, you do not need to verify building performance again until 2031 (for 2030 data). If you have not verified your building’s performance or have done so in 2022 (for 2021 data) or earlier, you should continue to benchmark your property on an annual basis. You will need to verify building performance once between now and 2030 to set the baseline performance for your building. See Verify Your Data for additional information.

Important Action Items!

Click here to navigate to the City’s Building Performance Knowledgebase, which offers information and resources that are designed to help building owners meet the ordinance’s reporting requirements.

From here, you can:

• Update your contact information with the City by filling out this contact update form
• Review the  steps needed to comply with the Benchmarking Ordinance
• Register for the informational virtual webinar on Tuesday, April 7, from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., providing an overview of Evanston’s Healthy Buildings Ordinance, how to comply, where to access the latest resources, and more
• Sign up for benchmarking support sessions, including one-on-one virtual office hours, to help answer your questions

Questions? Reach out to the City’s Benchmarking Helpdesk with any inquiries related to reporting requirements by submitting a general inquiry form through the BEAM Knowledgebase.

For more information, continue to check the BEAM Knowledgebase for updates. You can also subscribe to the Sustainability E-Newsletter here.