Projects and results
Building performance compliance for Washington school districts
- Client
- Washington K-12 school districts
- My role
- Benchmarking, audits, and compliance planning, as part of West Ridge Energy's team.
- Timeline and attribution
- West Ridge Energy (2025 to present)
- Scope
- ENERGY STAR benchmarking | ASHRAE Level 2 audits | Energy management plans | O&M programs | Client portals
Evidence label: Identified Savings
- 18.5%
- median recommended savings, as a share of site energy, across the Level 2 audits
- 9 of 10
- Tier 1 buildings at or under target with the recommended measures, up from 6
- 18
- buildings benchmarked across ten Washington school districts
How the work ran
- 01
Benchmark
Each building in ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager, from its utility data
- 02
Coverage
Which buildings the standard covers, with each one's tier and date
- 03
Gap
Each covered building's gap to its energy target
- 04
Audit and plan
ASHRAE Level 2 audits, energy management plans, and O&M programs
- 05
Portal
Buildings, findings, and documents kept in each district's portal
The situation
- Facility and context
- Multi-building K-12 school districts in Washington. The work was delivered with West Ridge Energy.
- Problem or decision
- Meeting Clean Buildings Performance Standard deadlines across a portfolio of buildings of different sizes, each with its own tier and compliance date. Tier 1 buildings over 220,000 sq ft were due June 1, 2026, those of 90,001 to 220,000 sq ft are due June 1, 2027, and those of 50,001 to 90,000 sq ft June 1, 2028, with penalties of up to $5,000 plus $1 per square foot per year.
- Baseline and data used
- ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager benchmarking of each building from its utility data: 18 buildings across ten districts, 15 of them covered by the standard, 10 in Tier 1 and 5 in Tier 2.
What the districts faced
| Tier 1 building size | First compliance date |
|---|---|
| Over 220,000 sq ft | June 1, 2026 |
| 90,001 to 220,000 sq ft | June 1, 2027 |
| 50,001 to 90,000 sq ft | June 1, 2028 |
Penalties of up to $5,000 plus $1 per square foot per year.
Approach
- Finding
- Which buildings the standard covers, how far each covered building sits from its energy target, and the measures that can close the gap. Of the ten Tier 1 buildings, four were above target, by 6.1% to 34.5%.
- Recommended action
- ASHRAE Level 2 audits, energy management plans, and operations and maintenance programs, with each district's buildings and findings kept in a client portal.
- Investment and incentive
- Blended simple paybacks of 1.8 to 29.3 years across the eight fully quantified audits, 11.4 years at the median. Three of the audits supported the districts' state grant applications in March 2026.
Results
- Expected or verified value
- Recommended measures worth 18.5% of site energy at the median across the eight fully quantified Level 2 audits. The full range runs from 11.9% to 49.4%, and the top of it is a single audit; half of them recommend 18.5% or less. As benchmarked, 6 of 10 Tier 1 buildings were at or under target; the recommended measures would bring that to 9 of 10.
Tier 1 buildings at or under their energy target
As benchmarked6 of 10 at or under target
With the recommended measuresModeled9 of 10 at or under target
- At or under target
- Above target
Impact
- Implementation status
- Delivered to nine districts, with a tenth district's Level 2 report in review. Each district's buildings, findings, and documents stay in its portal for the next compliance step.
- What happened next
- The districts carry the plans forward on their own compliance schedules.
West Ridge Energy is named as a partner with permission. Districts are never named; figures are counts and ranges across ten districts, nine delivered and one in review.
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