The City of Toronto’s energy and water reporting link is now open.
The deadline for reporting to the City is July 2, 2024.
Learn about the new energy and water reporting requirements with a webinar on March 19, 2024 noon to 12:45 p.m.

Buildings account for more than half of Toronto’s greenhouse gas emissions, mostly due to energy and water use.

Toronto’s Energy and Water Reporting By-law, under Chapter 367 of Toronto’s Municipal Code, requires owners of buildings 929 m2 (10,000 ft2) and larger to report energy and water use to the City annually. Buildings 4,645m2 (50,000 ft2) and larger will begin to report in 2024, and buildings 929m2 (10,000 ft2) and larger will be required to report in 2025.

Ontario’s Energy and Water Reporting and Benchmarking (EWRB) regulation (O.Reg. 506/18) also requires large buildings to report their annual energy and water use to the Ministry of Energy by July 1st of each year.

Annual energy and water use reporting allows building owners to track their buildings’ performance over time and compare it with the performance of other buildings that are similar. This can help building owners identify opportunities to increase their buildings’ energy efficiency and reduce GHG emissions.

See below to find out whether your building is required to report, and to access information, resources, and supports from the City of Toronto that will help you with the energy and water benchmarking and reporting process.

 

Benchmarking is the process of tracking a building’s energy and water use and comparing its performance over time, and to the performance of similar buildings. Benchmarking is the first step towards improving building efficiency.

Benchmarking your building’s energy and water use can help you:

  • Determine your building’s baseline level of performance
  • Identify opportunities to improve energy and water efficiency
  • Lower energy and water use to reduce operating costs
  • Reduce your building’s greenhouse gas emissions

There are two key reporting requirements Toronto building owners need to be aware of:

  1. The City of Toronto’s Energy and Water Reporting By-law, Municipal Code Chapter 367 – Building Emissions Performance (MCC 367), and
  2. The Ontario government’s Energy and Water Benchmarking and Reporting (EWRB) requirement (Ontario Regulation 506/18).

Owners of buildings that have a gross floor area of 4,645 square meters (50,000 square feet) and larger:

Owners of buildings that have a gross floor area of 929 square meters (10,000 square feet) and larger:

  • will be required to report their building’s 2024 energy and water data to the City by July 2, 2025.

Please note: The Gross Floor Area (GFA) of a single building or structure is the sum of the total area of each floor level of a building, above and below the ground, measured from the exterior surface of the enclosed exterior walls on each floor level.

  • GFA includes places inside the building or structure’s supporting areas, such as any common areas.
  • GFA includes atriums, elevator shafts, mechanical equipment areas and storage rooms.
  • GFA does not include any exterior, unroofed or open-air spaces, such as an outdoor parking area.
  • GFA is not the same as rentable space, but rather includes all area inside the building(s). Rentable, or leasable, space is a sub-set of GFA.

Please note: Some building types are exempt from reporting EWRB data to the Ontario Ministry of Energy. For a full list of the property types required to report under O.Reg. 506/18, see the List of building types in the Ministry of Energy’s guide to energy and water reporting.

The City of Toronto’s Energy and Water Reporting By-law requires building owners to report both descriptive information and performance information for each building that is subject to the by-law’s reporting requirement.

Descriptive Information

This helps the City to identify your building and distinguish it from other properties. Descriptive information also helps the City to compare your building’s performance to an appropriate set of similar buildings.

Examples of descriptive information include:

  • Property address
  • Property type
  • Gross floor area (GFA)
  • Year of construction
  • Number of suites
  • Property tax assessment roll number

Performance Information

This tells the City how much energy and water were used by your building during the previous year. For example, if your reporting deadline is July 2, 2024, then you will report how much energy and water your building used during the 2023 calendar year.

Examples of performance information include:

  • Electricity consumption
  • Natural gas consumption
  • Use of district energy
  • Water use

For a complete list of the descriptive and performance information that building owners are required to report for each building, please see section 367-2.2 of the City’s Energy and Water Reporting By-law.

The deadline for reporting energy and water data to the City of Toronto is the first business day in July each year.

The deadline for reporting EWRB data to the Ontario Ministry of Energy is July 1st each year.

Building owners report their buildings’ data to both the City of Toronto and the Ontario Ministry of Energy using Energy Star Portfolio Manager. Energy Star Portfolio Manager is a free online tool developed by the U.S. Department of Energy and adapted for use in Canada by Natural Resources Canada.

For a 2-page summary of the reporting process, see Summary Guide for Toronto Building Owners.

The City of Toronto has created a series of instructional videos to help you document and report your building’s energy and water use using the Energy Star Portfolio Manager tool:

For detailed written instructions on how to submit your report using Energy Star Portfolio Manager, please refer to the Ministry of Energy Portfolio Manager Guide.

Report Your Data

When you are ready to submit your data, use the reporting buttons below:

Report to the City of TorontoReport to the Ontario Ministry of Energy

How do I access my building’s monthly water data?

You can download the data from individual Toronto Water accounts directly from the City of Toronto’s MyWaterToronto online self-serve portal. To learn more, watch this short how-to video.

The City of Toronto will provide aggregated whole-building water consumption data for a property in the following two cases:

  1. The property owner is not the account holder for all of the Toronto Water accounts that service the property, or
  2. The property owner is the account holder for all of the Toronto Water accounts that service the property and the property is served by four or more water accounts.

To request aggregated whole-building water consumption data from the City, email buildingreporting@toronto.ca.

To receive aggregated water data, you must provide the property address and the Toronto Water account numbers associated with the property. If you do not know the water account numbers for the property, you must provide the property address and the assessment roll number to allow the City to look up the water account numbers for the property.

Please note: If you are a consultant requesting water data on behalf of a property owner, please provide a signed letter from the property owner giving the City of Toronto permission to provide you with water data for their properties.

How do I access my building’s monthly energy data?

You can request your monthly electricity and natural gas data by using the online data request forms on Toronto Hydro and Enbridge Gas. To learn more, watch this short how-to video.

What is data verification and do I need to do it?

Toronto’s Energy and Water Reporting By-law requires owners of buildings 9,290m2 (100,000ft2) and larger to have a certified professional verify their data once every five years, starting with the first year they report to the City.

The certified professional takes a second look over the data to make sure that values have been entered into Energy Star Portfolio Manager appropriately and to ensure that the values entered look reasonable and are within the ranges to be expected for that building (e.g. checking that the value entered for electricity use reflects the whole building’s electricity use and not just the electricity used in the building’s common areas).

For the purposes of data verification, examples of certified professionals include:

  • Professional engineer or delegate where the professional engineer takes professional responsibility
  • Registered architect or delegate where the registered architect takes responsibility
  • A person holding any of the following accreditations:
    • Certified Energy Manager
    • Building Operator Certification
    • Certified Measurement and Verification Professional
    • Certified Building Commissioning Professional
    • Certified Energy Auditor
    • Certified Master Inspector
    • Building Energy Technology Certificate
    • Building Science Specialist of Ontario
    • Condominium Manager (general license or transitional general license)

To learn more, watch this how-to video on verifying and submitting your data.

Why do I have to report my energy and water use data?

The City of Toronto’s Energy and Water Reporting By-law (under Municipal Code Chapter 367) requires large buildings in Toronto to report their energy and water use data to the City each year by the first business day in July.

Ontario’s Energy and Water Reporting and Benchmarking (EWRB) regulation (O.Reg. 506/18) requires large buildings in Ontario to report their annual energy and water use to the Ministry of Energy each year by July 1st.

If you are new to benchmarking and reporting, watch this short video to learn how benchmarking and reporting energy and water use can help building owners improve building performance and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Are there any exemptions to the obligation to report to the City?

Unlike the Energy and Water Reporting and Benchmarking (EWRB) requirement from the Ontario Ministry of Energy, the City of Toronto’s Energy and Water Reporting By-law does not have ongoing exceptions for buildings with certain property uses. Buildings are required to report to the City in 2024 if they have a gross floor area of 4,645 square meters (50,000 square feet), regardless of property use.

However, there are some circumstances in which building owners may be granted full or partial exemptions from reporting for a particular year. These include:

  1. Full 1 Year Exemption: No energy and no water consumed
    The reporting requirement does not apply to properties that did not consume any energy nor any water during the year for which energy and water consumption is required to be reported. For example, if a building didn’t consume any water and didn’t consume any energy in 2023, then the property owner would not be required to submit a report for that building for the reporting period ending July 2, 2024. The property owner does not have to apply for an exemption for the property in this circumstance.
  2. Full 1 Year Exemption: Newly constructed property
    A property owner can request an exemption from reporting for a particular year if a property is newly constructed and a certificate of occupancy was issued during the year for which the building’s energy and water consumption must be reported. In this case, a property owner must apply for a 1-year reporting exemption for the property and provide the property’s certificate of occupancy as a supporting document.
    For example, if a newly constructed property was issued a certificate of occupancy in 2023, the property owner would be exempt from submitting a report for the building on or before the July 2, 2024 reporting deadline).
  3. Partial 1 Year Exemption: Incomplete natural gas consumption data
    A property owner may be granted a partial exemption from reporting natural gas consumption data (and natural gas consumption data only) if all of the following conditions are true:

    1. the building owner is not the account holder for all of the Enbridge Gas accounts that service the building, and
    2. the building owner is unable to obtain an EWRB ID for the building because the building’s property type is not listed in the List of building types that are required to report to the Ministry of Energy under O.Reg. 506/18, and
    3. the lack of EWRB ID has prevented the building owner from obtaining aggregated whole-building gas consumption data from Enbridge Gas for the 2023 calendar year.
  4. Partial 1 Year Exemption: Incomplete electricity consumption data
    A property owner may be granted a partial exemption from reporting electricity consumption data (and electricity consumption data only) if all of the following conditions are true:

    1. the building owner is not the account holder for all of the Toronto Hydro accounts that service the building, and
    2. the building owner is unable to obtain an EWRB ID for the building because the building’s property type is not listed in the List of building types that are required to report to the Ministry of Energy under O.Reg. 506/18, and
    3. the lack of EWRB ID has prevented the building owner from obtaining aggregated whole-building electricity data from Toronto Hydro for the 2023 calendar year.
  5. Partial 1 Year Exemption: Credit for EWRB data verification
    The owner of a property that is 9,290 square meters (100,000 square feet) or larger may be granted a partial exemption from submitting an attestation that the report information has been verified by a certified professional if the property owner has already undertaken data verification for the property within the last 5 years for the purposes of complying with the provincial EWRB reporting requirement.
  6. Submitting a single report for multiple buildings with shared utility meters in 2024.
    Under section §367-2.1A of the bylaw (Municipal Code Chapter 367, Building Emissions Performance), if a property contains more than one building, the property owner is required to submit a separate report for each building. In 2024, if the buildings on a property shared a utility meter in 2023 and there was no cost-sharing agreement in place for the shared meter that would allow the property owner to easily pro-rate the utility usage from the shared meter, then the property owner may submit a single report for the buildings served by the shared utility meter(s).

In each of the above circumstances (except where specifically indicated), the property owner or their representative must apply for an exemption or partial exemption for the particular property at least 60 days before the reporting deadline to which the exemption or partial exemption would apply.

For example, to receive an exemption or partial exemption for the reporting period ending July 2, 2024, a building owner would need to submit a request for exemption on or before May 3, 2024.

How do I apply for an exemption to the obligation to submit Report Information for a property on or by July 2, 2024?

A property owner can apply for an exemption for a property by completing an online exemption request form. A link to the online Exemption Request Form will be posted to the www.toronto.ca/EWRB webpage shortly.

Requests for exemptions must be received at least 60 days before the report deadline, along with any supporting documentation required for the type of exemption being requested. For example, a copy of the certificate of occupancy for a newly constructed building. For the reporting period ending July 2, 2024, all requests for exemption must be received on or before May 3, 2024.

Webinars

The City’s Better Building Partnership (BBP) arranges webinars to provide information and guidance on the reporting process.

The City is hosting two informational webinars to help building owners understand the City’s Energy and Water Reporting By-law and how to report their data:

Energy and Water Reporting By-law for Existing Buildings: Tuesday, March 19, noon to 12:45 p.m.

Register

How to Report – City of Toronto Energy and Water Reporting By-Law: Monday, April 25, noon to 12:45 p.m.
Register

City of Toronto Instructional Video Series

This series of videos provides step-by-step instructions on how to use Energy Star Portfolio Manager to document and report your building’s energy and water use.

Natural Resources Canada Training Resources

Natural Resources Canada offers free ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager building energy benchmarking tools, information sessions, presentations and training webinars on their benchmarking training resources webpage.

For specific questions about ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager, please refer to the Natural Resources Canada Benchmarking FAQ or email your questions to buildings-batiments@nrcan-rncan.gc.ca.

Ontario Ministry of Energy Resources

Ontario’s Guide to Energy and Water Reporting provides a detailed overview of the EWRB regulation’s reporting requirements.

The Ministry of Energy’s Portfolio Manager Guide provides detailed written instructions on how to submit your report using Energy Star Portfolio Manager.

If you have questions about reporting that were not answered above, or you need assistance with some aspect of the reporting process, use the contact information below.

City of Toronto Energy and Water Reporting Help Centre
Email: buildingreporting@toronto.ca

Ontario Ministry of Energy EWRB Support Centre
Phone: 1-844-274-0689
Email: EWRBSupport@ontario.ca

The City’s Navigation & Support Services program can help you identify opportunities to improve your building’s energy efficiency and can help you access incentives and financing for energy retrofit projects.

For more information, visit Better Buildings Navigation & Support Services.