Green Button^® Standards

About Green Button Standards

The core Green Button standard was developed by industry in a consensus process within the Open Automated Data Exchange (OpenADE^™) Task Force, then at the UCAIug.  The OpenADE Task Force is now led by the Green Button Alliance.  The Green Button Connect My Data^® and Green Button Download My Data^® access methods are based on the North American Energy Standards Board’s (NAESB) Energy Services Provider Interface (ESPI) model business practices, use cases, and a schema based on the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Extensible Markup Language (XML) to form the core of the standard.

The ESPI standard—in conjunction with the Internet Society’s Atom Syndication Format and the Internet Engineering Task Force’s (IETF) OAuth Authorization Framework—comprise the “Green Button” standards.

The Green Button Alliance -led OpenADE Task Force is at the forefront of the evolution and enhancement of the ESPI standard through contributions made to the NAESB process and works to ensure Green Button data consistency, interoperability, and scalability.

Green Button Download My Data^® (DMD) method

Many energy providers enable their customers to view their energy data through their energy provider’s website.  However, downloaded files are typically in a comma-separated value (CSV) format and differ from site-to-site, making it difficult and time consuming (especially for property managers of multiple buildings) to collect energy data; and exponentially so, if the buildings are served by various energy providers.

The Green Button Download My Data (DMD) method enables home owners and property managers to select-and-download their electricity, gas, or water usage data from their energy provider’s website in an industry-standard XML format; consistent across all energy-provider websites.

Green Button DMD eliminates the need for manual data entry, improves data accuracy, and simplifies the data collection and reporting process.  Customers can now utilize their energy data to view historical and present energy usage, analyze trends, and make informed energy-management choices.

Learn more about Green Button DMD

Green Button Connect My Data^® (CMD) method

The powerful Green Button Connect My Data method simplifies and significantly extends the ability for applications to digitally retrieve and analyze energy data.  The data can be provided in 15-minute, hourly, daily, or monthly intervals, depending on what an energy provider decides to make available and what level of detail they are able to provide.

Green Button CMD -based applications enable customers to authorize direct, secure transfer of their energy-usage data to Third Party service providers that can assist the customers with managing their energy consumption.

Customers simply provide a one-time authorization to allow the Green Button CMD application to retrieve their energy data. Authorization is valid for an agreed-upon length of time and can be revoked at any time by the customer.

Application Developers

For application developers, the Green Button Connect My Data method enables digital access to consumer energy information on a periodic basis; even daily.  By using a common, standardized Green Button format, developers can quickly create interoperable energy-management applications and services that leverage Green Button data.

The Green Button CMD method—with its ability to provide reliable data from various sources in a common format—is driving the creation of hundreds of innovative energy-management applications and services.

Learn more about Green Button CMD