In this study, we will review the EPIs of the office buildings that are both approved for construction and rated by the building energy efficiency rating system, compare and analyze them in terms of items and means with those that are approved but not rated, and eventually define their characteristics. We targeted office buildings that are rated at $1^{st}$ degree in efficiency and collected building energy-saving proposals and the EPI review reports that are approved in general to analyze the scores the buildings achieved in the four EPI categories: architectural, mechanical, electrical, and renewable energy. Data on 67 office buildings led to the following results: 22 approved in 2011 and 45 not rated by the efficiency rating system. The EPI scores in the four categories were added to produce the means in each category: the approved buildings scored 82.3, which is 18.5 higher than 63.8 for the disapproved buildings. The 1st evaluation of the rated buildings' energy consumption resulted in $140.4{\sim}299.8kWh/m2{\cdot}year$ with a mean value of $243.2kWh/m2{\cdot}year$. For the buildings approved (77%), high-efficiency appliances and renewable energy products were applied. The lighting density ranged from 11-14 W/m2, with a mean value of 2.4 for both the approved and disapproved buildings. In the architectural approval stage, when one writes energy-saving proposals and EPIs of office buildings, we expect the results of this study to provide base data to help in reviewing the design alternatives for energy saving.