Carbon Signal can facilitate many elements of an ISO 50001-aligned energy management system, and fulfills most requirements for an ISO 50002-aligned energy audit.

Introduction

In a crowded market filled with numerous software platforms and consultancies all purporting to solve the same problems related to decarbonization, it can be challenging for companies to differentiate between high-quality solutions and those that lack credibility. This article is meant to help businesses navigate this issue by highlighting Carbon Signal’s features and the platform’s alignment with key industry standards, such as ISO 50001 and ISO 50002.

Blending machine learning and building physics models

Carbon Signal provides the same useful information from a time-intensive building energy audit in a matter of minutes and at a far reduced cost.  The platform leverages complementary benefits of two techniques: the speed of AI and machine learning, and the accuracy of physics-based models. Some of our key features include:

• ‍Easy data acquisition and management: Simple data collection with just 3 required inputs: building sector, building floor area, and monthly energy consumption.‍
• Greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting and reporting: Our platform calculates Scope 1, 2, and Scope 3 (Category 13: Downstream Leased Assets for investment managers) following standard protocols.  For any cases with missing data, the platform can intelligently fill gaps.‍
• Building Performance Standard (BPS) exposure analysis: Compare building and portfolio performance to Building Performance Standards (e.g. LL97 in NYC), market expectations such as CRREM, and ESG data benchmarks (e.g. GRESB).  ‍
• Portfolio benchmarking of energy and carbon performance - Filter, sort, and prioritize buildings using any custom user-defined tag, such as region, building type, floor area, and HVAC system type. Compare similar buildings by energy or carbon intensity across a portfolio.‍
• Retrofit identification and savings estimation: Identify and quantify energy and carbon reduction measures. Model combinations of energy reduction measures to develop and compare multiple scenarios and determine the required level of investment to meet carbon reduction targets.‍
• Financial analysis: Apply the platform's capex rules-of-thumb for carbon reduction measures, or input user-defined costs. Identify capex investment required year-on-year.

ISO 50001 and ISO 50002: foundations for energy management

ISO 50001 establishes the framework for an effective energy management system (EnMS), enabling organizations to enhance their energy performance systematically. ISO 50002 complements this by providing guidelines for conducting detailed energy audits to identify inefficiencies and improvement opportunities. Carbon Signal can facilitate many elements of an ISO 50001-aligned energy management system, including:

• ‍Energy baseline: Carbon Signal can create an energy baseline for an individual building as well as the entire portfolio. In cases where energy data may be missing, the platform can intelligently fill gaps in data.
• ‍Energy review: The platform can analyze energy consumption, including disaggregation of end-uses, to determine significant drivers of energy use in the buildings. The platform can determine and prioritize opportunities for improving energy performance and estimate the energy savings from the implementation of these projects.‍
• Objectives, energy targets, and planning to achieve them: Carbon Signal sets measurable energy targets for individual buildings and entire portfolios. These energy reduction targets can represent the maximum potential for energy reduction in a building, various legislative requirements, and market best practices. The recommended measures are accompanied by estimated costs, and the planned date of implementation can be assigned.
• ‍Planning for collection of energy data: The platform identifies buildings where there are likely gaps in data, which can assist users in developing a plan for energy data collection at these priority buildings.

Additionally, Carbon Signal and our accompanying advisory services fulfill most requirements for ISO50002-aligned energy audits. For example:

• ‍Data collection: The platform collects and collates the appropriate energy data to support our analysis.
• Analysis: Our platform evaluates current energy performance and identifies and evaluates energy reduction opportunities.
• Opening and closing meetings: We have introductory meetings to brief interested parties regarding the analysis's objectives, scope, boundaries, and methods. At project conclusion, we can present the results to facilitate decision-making at our customers' organizations, and address any questions.

Why Carbon Signal?

Carbon Signal and our building science advisory services can serve as your decarbonization partner. With our ISO-aligned methodologies and outputs, our platform can be trusted to drive decarbonization for your building portfolio. Ready to learn more? Contact us to see how Carbon Signal can help with your decarbonization efforts.