EPA's ENERGY STAR Program in the Commercial and Industrial Sectors (Renewal)
Revision of a currently approved collection
No
Regular
01/29/2024
table that charts list comparision
Requested
Previously Approved
36 Months From Approved
08/31/2026
379,642
332,914
187,199
210,306
5,288,750
5,034,450
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) created ENERGY STAR as a voluntary program to help businesses and individuals protect the environment through superior energy efficiency. Over time, EPA has streamlined the reporting requirements of ENERGY STAR and focused on providing recognition incentives for improvements (e.g., ENERGY STAR Awards program). EPA also makes tools and resources available over the web to help the public overcome the barriers to evaluating their energy performance and investing in profitable improvements. For several reasons, the publics participation in the ENERGY STAR program for commercial and industrial sectors has continued to increase over the past several years, and EPA expects their participation to rise even more in the coming years. A growing number of state and local governments are leveraging ENERGY STAR as a way for the public to respond to rising energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions. As of the end of 2022, 45 state and local governments rely on Portfolio Manager as the foundation for their energy benchmarking and transparency policies. Use of Portfolio Manager is also increasing as Building Performance Standards are increasingly being implemented. Participation in ENERGY STAR has also risen dramatically because of the efforts of trade associations, utilities, and third-party providers in promoting the program to the public. As participation has increased, EPA has taken measures to reduce the burden on participants that take advantage of the benefits of ENERGY STAR. In a recent year, the ENERGY STAR program for commercial buildings and industrial plants helped businesses and organizations save 230 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, avoid $14 billion in energy costs, and achieve 170 million metric tons of greenhouse gas reductions. On average, ENERGY STAR certified buildings use 35% less energy and generate 35% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than their peers.
There is a net decrease of 23,107 hours in the total estimated respondent burden compared with the ICR currently approved by OMB. This is a result of a 325-hour increase due to program changes and a 23,432-hour decrease due to adjustments.
The increase due to program changes is a result of revised activities within ENERGY STAR Certification for Buildings. EPA plans to implement a new recognition offering, called ENERGY STAR NextGen Certification, designed to encourage top energy performance, use of renewable energy, and electrification of U.S. commercial and multifamily buildings. This increases the estimates related to joining the ENERGY STAR Program and associated activities by an estimated 300 hours. Also related to ENERGY STAR Certification for Buildings, EPA will be requesting additional information to verify respondent use details, which increases the estimate by around 384 hours. EPA will no longer be asking partners to submit information related to National Treasure Hunt activities, which reduced the estimate by 360 hours.
There is a decrease in the burden hours estimate due to adjustments in the way respondents engage in benchmarking. Data indicate an increasing percentage of users are opting for Web Services over other benchmarking methods. Web Services offers greater economies of scale and time-savings efficiencies compared to other methods. Data also indicate that the percentage of repeat benchmarks performed in the tool has increased over new benchmarks. Repeat benchmarks take significantly less time than new ones regardless of the method used. Finally, Building Performance Standards are increasingly being implemented throughout the country, therefore increasing this burden hours estimate. EPA estimates that 365,000 buildings will be benchmarked annually in this ICR, whereas it estimated 299,000 in ICR 1772.08.
$665,415
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Cynthia Veit Maia 202 564-9494
Reginfo record details
No
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that the collection of information encompassed by this request complies with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR 1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding the proposed collection of information, that the certification covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.
Public Sector