Building Performance and Decarbonization Planning Guide

Getting to Know Your Building

Step One: Get to Know Your Building

One of the first steps in your decarbonization journey is to understand and document your building’s relationship to energy.

You will want to understand how to reduce operational energy and GHG emissions, as well as your long-term planning needs. How a building is currently performing is just as important as its future needs for repair or replacement of systems—and both of these factors will drive decisions in the short and long term.  

Completing deferred maintenance, planned capital improvements, or major changes in operations should all be part of your considerations. We can break down this foundational understanding into three steps:

  • Benchmarking

  • Establishing a business-as-usual case, and

  • Conducting an audit.

Much of this can be accomplished without specialized services, though they may be warranted depending on the complexity of your site.

Decarbonization Planning Guide

A. Energy Benchmarking

You can’t manage what you don’t measure. Benchmarking is the first step to identifying opportunities to reduce energy use and save on utility bills and is an important tool to help determine whether a building is on track to meet its performance goals.

B. Establish a Business-as-Usual Case

Establishing a business-as-usual case will allow you to accurately assess the actual costs and benefits of your decarbonization strategy. This is the baseline cost estimate against which you will compare building decarbonization upgrades and activities needed over the next 10 to 20 years. 

C. Conduct an Emissions Reduction Audit

Success starts with a plan. Plot the best course to meet your emissions reduction goals. The audit will determine achievable levels of emissions reductions at a building through energy efficiency, electrification, refrigerant leakage reduction, and the addition of onsite renewable energy.

D. Additional Assessments to Consider

Studies that can save you time and money when decarbonizing. Recognizing the areas of a building that may need improvement can help focus your plan and make it easier to set overall goals way.