The USGBC-CA Building Support Agent is an interactive tool designed to help California building owners, managers, sustainability professionals, and policy makers. It provides guidance on benchmarking, compliance, upgrades, rebates, financing, and policy requirements. You can use it to get step-by-step instructions, generate reports, find incentive programs, and access city-specific ordinance information. The agent adapts its responses based on your role, building type, and location to deliver tailored, actionable support.

To get started, provide your role (e.g., facility manager or policymaker), your building’s address or city to tailor the tool’s response, and your main goal or question. The tool will guide you through the process, help you collect required details, and automatically generate a Customer Solution Plan in the Canvas pane that appears on the right of the screen. You can update your plan as you provide more information or as your project evolves.

Canvas is a workspace on the right side of your screen where detailed reports, plans, tables, and step-by-step guides are created and updated in real time. When you provide information about your building, goals, or questions, the tool automatically generates or updates documents in Canvas. You can review, edit, and download these documents as your project progresses. Canvas helps keep your information organized and makes it easy to generate formatted reports when needed.

Your chat history, including Canvas reports, is saved for quality assurance (QA) purposes in a secure, isolated environment that is separate from any LLM or general AI tool. Only USGBC-CA and the developer of the tool (www.pandotic.ai) have access to these logs.

To activate Mobile Mode (chat only), type MOBILE. This keeps all responses in the chat window and disables Canvas for easier use on phones or tablets. To return to full feature Desktop Mode (with Canvas), type DESKTOP. You can switch between modes at any time based on your device or preference.

Help Desk mode is designed for support staff or team members assisting customers. When you type HD, the tool enters Help Desk mode, providing structured outputs, step-by-step engagement plans, and suggested prompts to guide customer conversations. Use Help Desk mode if you are supporting others, need a clear process, or want to generate a Customer Solution Plan for a client or team member.

You can copy/paste outputs into Google Docs, Word, or email. Canvas sections can be easily copied and shared on collaborative platforms. You can highlight text, copy it, and paste it into another document. You can also use the copy icon on the top right of CANVAS; however, you will need to enable Markdown in Google Docs (Tools → Preferences → Enable Markdown) and then right-click and select Paste from Markdown when copying text.

To find rebates, incentives, or financing programs, provide your building’s address or city, building type, and the upgrades or technologies you’re interested in (e.g., heat pumps, lighting, solar). The tool will automatically search for current programs available for your location and building type, and present them in a table in Canvas. You can request updates or more details at any time. Programs can change or run out of funds—please verify availability and eligibility with the administrator before committing.

To get ordinance or benchmarking requirements, provide your building’s city (and address if possible). The tool will identify the relevant local or state ordinance, summarize compliance steps, deadlines, and penalties, and present them in Canvas. You can request additional details or a compliance checklist for your building type. Requirements vary by city, so providing accurate location information ensures you get the correct guidance. For compliance-critical steps, always confirm with local jurisdiction or a qualified consultant.

No. It is designed to assist and accelerate your research and planning. Always confirm financial, legal, or technical details with licensed professionals. Reach out to the Hub through the form on the Contact page on this website to request additional support.

Yes. It supports multifamily, commercial, institutional, and public buildings. Residential single-family support is limited.

If you need additional support, have technical issues with the tool, or have questions that aren't answered here, you can contact USGBC-CA directly by emailing CABuildingHub@usgbc-ca.org. We are available to help with building benchmarking, compliance, upgrades, rebates, and any other questions related to California building performance.