Glossary of Key Terms

Administrator: the Sustainability and Resilience Manager of the City of Madison. 

Base Building Systems: the systems or sub-systems subsystems of a building that use energy and/or impact energy consumption including but not limited to: (1) primary HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) systems; (2) conveying systems; (3) domestic hot water systems; (4) electrical and lighting systems. Base building systems shall not include life safety systems, such as fire detection and suppression, and equipment used for industrial or manufacturing processes. 

Benchmarking: the assessment of a building’s energy use and efficiency. 

Benchmarking Report: a report the ENERGY STAR Statement of Energy Performance, generated by ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager, summarizing the annual energy performance of a building. 

Building Owner or Owner: the owner of record of a building. In the case of a building held in cooperative or condominium form of ownership, the term Building Owner or Owner shall refer to the board of managers, board of directors, condominium association, or other representative body of the jointly owned building with authority to make decisions about building assessments and alterations to the building. 

Building Tune-Up or Tune-Up: a review of base building systems an inspection by a tune-up specialist and subsequent appropriate corrective actions to increase a covered building’s energy efficiency. 

Certificate of Occupancy: the certificate issued by the Building Inspection Division under Section 29.11 allowing the building to be occupied. 

Commercial Building: public buildings and places of employment subject to the commercial building code, Wis. Admin. Code Ch. SPS 361-366, and Wis. Admin Code Ch. SPS 375-379, excluding buildings used solely for multifamily housing, manufacturing, or industrial purposes.

Corrective Actions: operational adjustments, maintenance or minor repairs to existing building equipment or systems to resolve issues identified during the building tune-up assessment. These corrective actions will all be minor repairs, which is defined as low-cost repairs to existing equipment. 

Covered Building: buildings required to comply with either Subsection (3) or (4). 

ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager®: the tool developed and maintained by the United States Environmental Protection Agency to track and assess the relative energy performance of similar buildings nationwide.

ENERGY STAR Score: The 1-100 score calculated by ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager® that measures how well the property is performing relative to similar properties, when normalized for climate and operational characteristics. 1 represents the worst performing buildings and 100 represents the best performing buildings.

GHG: Greenhouse gas emissions, in tons of CO2 (carbon dioxide) equivalents.

Gross Floor Area: For single buildings, measure the GFA between the outside surface of the exterior walls of the building(s). This includes all areas inside the building(s) including supporting areas. GFA is not the same as rentable space, but rather includes all the areas inside the building(s).

• Include in GFA: lobbies, tenant areas, common areas, meeting rooms, break rooms, atriums (count the base level only), restrooms, elevator shafts, stairwells, mechanical equipment areas, basements, storage rooms.

• Do not include in GFA: exterior spaces, balconies, patios, exterior loading docks, driveways, covered walkways, outdoor play courts (tennis, basketball, etc.), parking, the interstitial plenum space between floors (which house pipes and ventilation), crawl spaces.

Tenant: a person occupying or holding possession of a building or premises pursuant to a rental lease agreement.

For more information, check out the Madison BESP Official Website or Submit a Ticket to the Help Desk