Key Points

• The energy efficiency of Marathon Petroleum Corporation’s campus headquarters has earned federal ENERGY STAR® certification, representing the top quarter of similar commercial buildings nationwide in 2026.
• It’s the first time the campus has received this recognition, representing years of ongoing efficiency improvements.
• Since the campus’s energy efficiency performance was first benchmarked in 2009, utility spending has decreased 37.3%.

---

Efficiency enhancements have helped Marathon Petroleum’s campus headquarters in Findlay, Ohio, earn federal ENERGY STAR® certification for the first time. This achievement, representing energy efficiency in the top 25% of similar commercial buildings nationwide in a given year, reflects almost two decades of ongoing upgrades across the campus’s five buildings.

“The improvements have involved replacing lighting, windows and entire HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning) systems,” Principal Facilities Construction Specialist Dave Nowak said. “Our commissioning process aims to fine tune and extract available energy savings from the systems through all seasons.”

The Findlay campus uses ENERGY STAR’s Portfolio Manager®, a web-based tool that allows for comparing a building’s energy usage to baselines, national medians and the usage of similar buildings. This year, Portfolio Manager calculated an ENERGY STAR score of 79 for the campus, exceeding the certification threshold of 75 and signifying better energy efficiency than 79 percent of similar buildings. The mandated third-party data verification was provided by Go Sustainable Energy.

“Our commissioning process aims to fine tune and extract available energy savings from the systems through all seasons.”

“Since the beginning of our benchmarking in 2009, we’ve achieved a 37.3% reduction in utility spending,” said Lead Facilities Construction Specialist Kevin Hartman.

Gaining this level of efficiency has required overcoming project challenges along the way such as structural differences among the buildings and their various additions, which were constructed from 1929 through 1980. Additionally, installing the new HVAC infrastructure has necessitated temporarily relocating almost all 2,300 employees in phases over time.

“Decommissioning existing systems and installing new ones while maintaining services to an occupied building is difficult, comparable to changing a tire while driving down the highway,” Nowak said.

The Findlay campus’s 2026 ENERGY STAR certification may be far from its last one. Energy efficiency throughout the 880,000 square feet of space is likely to increase with additional improvements planned over the next couple of years.

“Installation of new HVAC equipment on the final floors of the Donnell Building is scheduled for 2027 along with adding more energy-efficient boilers in two other buildings in 2028,” said Nowak. “These upgrades are expected to help maintain eligibility for future certifications.”