Freddie Mac is encouraging energy efficiency and affordability in apartment properties and strengthening the market for green investments by offering a Green Rebate to borrowers on qualified property loans who voluntarily provide an ENERGY STAR score with their loan documents.

Offered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the ENERGY STAR Score is a simple indicator of the energy performance of a multifamily property compared to its peers from across the country.

Freddie Mac also plans to eventually report ENERGY STAR scores in its K-Deal multifamily mortgage-backed securities and is encouraging industry adoption of the tool.

The ENERGY STAR Score is available in the EPA’s Portfolio Manager tool, a free online software platform that allows commercial building owners and managers to benchmark and track energy and water usage as well as greenhouse gas emissions. More than a dozen cities and counties across the country, including New York, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., require energy tracking and reporting using Portfolio Manager.

Information on Portfolio Manager can be found at www.energystar.gov/benchmark and information on the ENERGY STAR Program for multifamily properties can be found at www.energystar.gov/multifamily.