Fannie Mae announced that it has launched the 2023 Multifamily Energy and Water Survey, a national effort to collect and analyze whole property energy and water consumption and costs from 2022, together with property-specific characteristics, for a wide range of multifamily properties. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will use the anonymized data to update the 1-100 ENERGY STAR Score and EPA’s Water Score for Multifamily Housing, which provide transparency into how a multifamily building’s energy or water consumption compares to similar multifamily buildings in the United States.
The survey partners include Conservice, CRE Finance Council, Enterprise Community Partners, Mortgage Bankers Association, National Apartment Association, National Council of State Housing Agencies, National Multifamily Housing Council, NeighborWorks America, Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future, the Urban Land Institute, and WegoWise by Measurabl. Bright Power has been engaged to manage and administer the survey.
In 2011, Fannie Mae identified multifamily properties as a property class that did not have a federally supported national survey of utility consumption, costs, and building characteristics. Seeing this gap, Fannie Mae assembled a team of industry partners to survey multifamily property owners about their property characteristics and energy and water consumption and costs. This effort provided anonymized data to EPA, resulting in the creation of the inaugural 1-100 ENERGY STAR Score for multifamily in 2014 and the EPA Water Score for multifamily in 2017.
The 1-100 ENERGY STAR score for multifamily housing makes it easy to understand a property’s energy performance compared to its peers and helps better assess the relative risk of each property. Properties receive a score on a 1 to 100 scale, which accounts for the property’s energy use across fuel types and normalizes for weather, building characteristics, and business activity. This score represents the property’s percentile ranking compared with similar buildings from the nationwide survey dataset.
“At Fannie Mae, we are committed to making multifamily properties greener and healthier for residents, and the launch of the 2023 Multifamily Energy and Water survey will provide valuable data for the industry,” said Karyn Sper, Senior Director of Multifamily Green, Healthy Housing, and Duty to Serve at Fannie Mae. “By participating in this survey, property owners and managers will be helping the multifamily industry become more efficient and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
The 2023 Multifamily Energy and Water survey will conclude on June 30, 2023. Fannie Mae has created a website that contains information about the survey, the survey link, other helpful resources, and contact information.
