The Commercial Building Acronym Cheat Sheet

BPS. BEPS. BERDO. EBEWE. LL84.

Commercial energy regulation has an acronym problem. If you are a commercial building owner or property manager, you might recognize these terms from  city notices, consultant emails, benchmarking portals, utility data requests, or compliance reports. There’s quite a few and it’s easy to get them confused.

Some acronyms refer to local laws. Some refer to building performance standards. Some refer to energy metrics. Others refer to audit requirements, benchmarking tools, or engineering processes.

This guide breaks down the most common commercial building energy acronyms in plain English so you can understand what they mean, why they matter, and when they may apply to your building.

BPS: Building Performance Standards

BPS stands for Building Performance Standards.

A BPS is a policy that requires existing buildings to meet certain performance levels over time. Those performance levels are usually based on energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, and other building performance metrics.

In simple terms, BPS laws are designed to move buildings beyond basic reporting.

Benchmarking asks, “How much energy does your building use?”

A building performance standard asks, “Is that level of energy use good enough?”

That distinction matters. A building can submit benchmarking data and still perform poorly. Under a BPS, owners may eventually need to improve performance, reduce energy use, reduce emissions, or follow a compliance pathway to address underperformance.

BPS policies are becoming more common because cities and states are focusing on existing buildings, not just new construction. Existing buildings make up a larger share of energy use in many cities, so local governments are creating standards that push owners to understand and improve building performance over time.

BEPS: Building Energy Performance Standards

BEPS stands for Building Energy Performance Standards.

BEPS is closely related to BPS, but the acronym often appears in city-specific programs. Washington, D.C. is one of the most common examples. D.C.’s BEPS program sets performance standards for covered buildings and uses metrics such as ENERGY STAR scores or site energy use intensity depending on the property type.

For owners, the practical question is which local rule applies to your building.

Does your building need to report energy use?

Does it need to meet a minimum performance level?

Is there a compliance cycle?

Is the standard based on ENERGY STAR score, EUI, emissions, or another metric?

Are there alternative compliance pathways?

That is where the details matter.

BERDO: Building Emissions Reduction and Disclosure Ordinance

BERDO stands for Building Emissions Reduction and Disclosure Ordinance.

It is Boston’s building emissions law. BERDO applies to large buildings and requires annual reporting of energy and water use. It also sets emissions requirements that become more important over time.

BERDO is a good example of how building energy compliance is shifting from simple disclosure to performance-based regulation.

The word “Disclosure” matters because owners must report building data.

The word “Reduction” matters because the ordinance is not only about reporting. It is also about reducing emissions from large buildings.

For Boston property owners, BERDO is not just a paperwork requirement. It can affect long-term planning, capital improvements, energy strategy, electrification decisions, renewable energy procurement, and how owners think about asset performance.

EBEWE: Existing Buildings Energy and Water Efficiency

EBEWE stands for Existing Buildings Energy and Water Efficiency.

In Los Angeles, EBEWE refers to the city’s Existing Buildings Energy and Water Efficiency Program. It includes two major parts: benchmarking and audits/retro-commissioning.

Benchmarking is the annual reporting side. Owners report energy and water use, typically through ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager.

A/RCx is the audit and retro-commissioning side. This is the more detailed building review that looks at energy, water, and base building systems.

For Los Angeles building owners, EBEWE is easy to misunderstand because the annual benchmarking requirement and the five-year A/RCx requirement are different. A building may be current on benchmarking but still have an audit and retro-commissioning requirement due.

Owners have to ask, “Did we benchmark?” and, “Are we current on the A/RCx cycle?”

LL84: Local Law 84

LL84 stands for Local Law 84.

In New York City, LL84 is the city’s benchmarking law. It requires covered buildings to annually measure and report energy and water consumption.

This is one of the most well-known benchmarking laws in the country because it helped make annual building energy reporting a standard practice in major cities.

LL84 is mainly about visibility. It gives owners, regulators, tenants, and the market a clearer picture of how buildings use energy and water.

But benchmarking is not the same as fixing the building.

LL84 helps identify performance. Other laws, such as Local Law 97, focus more directly on emissions limits and performance outcomes.

LL97: Local Law 97

LL97 stands for Local Law 97.

Also in New York City, LL97 is focused on building greenhouse gas emissions. It applies to many large buildings and sets emissions limits that become stricter over time.

LL84 and LL97 are connected, but they are not the same.

LL84 is about benchmarking and reporting.

LL97 is about emissions compliance.

For owners, this distinction matters because a building’s benchmarking data can become the foundation for understanding its emissions exposure. If the data is inaccurate, incomplete, or outdated, the owner may not have a clear picture of compliance risk.

CBPS: Clean Buildings Performance Standard

CBPS stands for Clean Buildings Performance Standard.

Washington State’s CBPS applies to certain covered buildings and is designed to improve building energy performance. Tier 1 covered buildings include many nonresidential, hotel, motel, and dormitory buildings over 50,000 gross square feet, excluding parking garage area.

CBPS is especially important for owners with buildings in Washington because it is not just a city-level requirement. It is a statewide performance standard.

This means owners need to understand whether their building is covered, what tier it falls into, what compliance pathway applies, and what documentation is required.

CBPS also shows why acronyms matter. A building owner in Seattle may be dealing with Seattle benchmarking, Seattle Building Tune-Ups, and Washington CBPS at the same time. Those are related, but they are not identical.

ESPM: ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager

ESPM stands for ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager.

This is the benchmarking platform used by many cities, states, and building owners to track energy, water, waste, greenhouse gas emissions, and other building performance metrics.

For owners, Portfolio Manager often becomes the central record for compliance.

That means the details inside the platform matter.

Square footage. Property type. Operating hours. Occupancy. Meters. Utility data. Parking. Vacancy. Mixed-use spaces.

If those inputs are wrong, the results can be misleading. A benchmarking submission is only as strong as the data behind it.

EUI: Energy Use Intensity

EUI stands for Energy Use Intensity.

EUI measures how much energy a building uses relative to its size. It is usually expressed as energy use per square foot per year.

EUI is useful because it helps compare buildings of different sizes. A 25,000-square-foot building and a 250,000-square-foot building will not use the same total amount of energy, but EUI helps normalize energy use by floor area.

There are different types of EUI, including site EUI and source EUI.

Site EUI reflects the energy used at the building.

Source EUI accounts for the energy required to generate and deliver that energy to the building.

Owners do not need to become energy modelers, but they should understand that EUI is one of the most important performance indicators in building benchmarking.

A/RCx: Audits and Retro-Commissioning

A/RCx stands for Audits and Retro-Commissioning.

An energy audit identifies how a building uses energy and where improvements may be possible.

Retro-commissioning, often shortened to RCx, focuses on improving how existing building systems operate. This can include HVAC controls, schedules, economizers, sensors, ventilation, lighting controls, domestic hot water systems, and other operational issues.

A/RCx is important because many building problems are not caused by missing technology. They are caused by systems that are not operating as intended.

A building may have good equipment and still waste energy because schedules are wrong, controls are overridden, sensors are inaccurate, or systems are fighting each other.

ASHRAE: American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers

ASHRAE is a professional organization that publishes widely used standards and guidance for building systems, energy audits, ventilation, energy performance, and commissioning.

When you hear someone mention an ASHRAE Level I, Level II, or Level III energy audit, they are referring to different depths of building energy review.

Level I is usually a basic walkthrough and high-level assessment.

Level II is more detailed and commonly used for compliance and capital planning.

Level III is more investment-grade and may involve deeper analysis for major projects.

Many city audit requirements reference ASHRAE-style audit levels because they provide a recognized structure for evaluating building performance.

Final Takeaway

Commercial energy regulation has an acronym problem, but building owners do not need to memorize every term.

They need to understand what each acronym means for their property.

Is it a reporting requirement?

Is it a performance standard?

Is it an audit requirement?

Is it an emissions limit?

Is it a benchmarking tool?

Is it a metric?

Once you understand the category, the acronym becomes less intimidating.

BPS, BEPS, BERDO, EBEWE, LL84, LL97, CBPS, ESPM, EUI, and A/RCx all point to the same larger trend: buildings are being measured more closely, reported more often, and expected to perform better over time.

Save this guide for the next time one of these acronyms lands in your inbox.