ENERGY STAR, and specifically Portfolio Manager, is the core infrastructure for tracking building energy use in the U.S. It’s how owners and cities measure performance, comply with emissions laws, and understand how their buildings are running. What most people don’t realize is how widely it’s used. It’s not just a U.S. tool. Global property owners use it too. It’s become the default publicly-available standard for benchmarking across the commercial real estate industry.
What exactly is being shut down and why?
The EPA is proposing to shut down the web services that connect Portfolio Manager to everything else. That means the API infrastructure—the automated feeds that enable cities and platforms to push and pull data in real-time. Without those connections, the broader system falls apart.
The driver of the cut is a proposed $5 billion decrease in EPA funding year-over-year, with the specific proposed elimination of the EPA’s Atmospheric Protection Program, as Energy Star is one of the branches that falls within this program. That said, the proposal has been met with public outcry, given its destabilizing impact on the real estate energy efficiency and sustainability ecosystem.
What problems will this cause, and for who?
This affects everyone—cities, owners, engineers, tech providers. In addition to compliance, this data is used for planning capital upgrades, proving climate commitments, and even calculating investor risk. Without it, cities can’t enforce their laws, and owners can’t track the things they’re supposed to improve. This is more than a form going away. We’re talking about the destabilization - and even erasure - of a system the whole industry relies on.
Have cities like NY, DC and Boston any alternative means of sourcing emissions reports presently supplied by ENERGY STAR?
Historically, no. These cities have spent years designing policies whose tracking and submission mechanisms are built on Energy Star. It’s baked into their core workflows. Replacing it isn’t something the public sector can do overnight, as it would take years and millions of dollars to replicate. That’s why we’re proud to have stepped in with Cambio Vault, as the first private-sector alternative to backstop these critical processes. Cambio Vault provides a seamless integration with Energy Star, and serves as a free and flexible data lake not only to backstop your Energy Star data, but also to provide ongoing ease-of-use and export while maintaining the data ownership and protection historically assured by the EPA.
If not, are they fighting this attempted shutdown?
They are. You’re starting to see city governments, trade associations, and building owners pushing back. Some have submitted comments. Others are trying to export what data they can. But it’s not coordinated yet, plus the embedded mechanism by which to safeguard and export Energy Star data is limited. That’s part of the problem. The decision wasn’t communicated widely, with most stakeholders not even knowing it was coming. Moreover, the backstopping tools (e.g. mass export), are limited or present extensive friction to users.
One of the free enterprise-grade tools we built into Vault was mass-export of data, for this very reason.
What attempts are being made to recover vital data before the shutdown, and by who?
That’s exactly why we launched Cambio Vault. It’s a free tool that lets any building team back up their ENERGY STAR data and keep operations running. It takes less than ten minutes to onboard and safeguard your portfolio’s data. Thousands of buildings have already migrated, but there’s still a long way to go. We’re also seeing cities and software providers scramble to pull archives, but it’s been patchwork. There’s a lot at stake here, and not a lot of time.
Does this shutdown give any indications of what else might be following on behind?
It does. It signals that even well-established tools with broad public value can be deprioritized without warning. That creates instability. This is a now a situation about whether or not we’re going to invest in the data infrastructure needed to efficiently operate and decarbonize buildings. If this goes away, what’s next?
Anything else relevant you would like to say on this matter?
The truth is, most people think ENERGY STAR is about dishwashers and fridges. In reality, it serves as the foundation for how a $37 trillion industry tracks its emissions. You can’t fix what you don’t measure. This is about safeguarding the basic tools we need to cut carbon, reduce costs, and keep building teams on track. We hope that Cambio Vault offers the industry assurance while also buying critical time. But it shouldn’t have to exist in the first place. We’d rather see this infrastructure protected, not replaced.
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