In the face of mounting pressure to achieve decarbonization targets, Schneider Electric, a leader in digital transformation of energy management and automation, has unveiled a revolutionary online tool: the Building Decarbonization Calculator. This innovative solution empowers building owners and operators to rapidly evaluate and prioritize retrofit scenarios for energy and carbon savings, navigating the complexities of balancing costs and emissions over time.
The calculator boasts a dataset of nearly 500,000 building performance models, encompassing diverse building types, sizes, and geographies. This comprehensive data allows users to assess the carbon and financial return on investment (ROI) of various energy and carbon conservation measures (ECCMs). They can then compare their decarbonization pathways against benchmarks like New York City’s Local Law 97 fines or the Carbon Risk Real Estate Monitor (CRREM) pathway.
“As regulatory requirements tighten, particularly in cities like New York and Boston, and countries like France and the UK, the Building Decarbonization Calculator becomes an invaluable tool for compliance with local mandates, offering a clear path for operational improvements,” explained Mike Kazmierczak, Global Vice President of Digital Energy for Schneider Electric. “This digital tool is designed to assist building owners and operators in reducing emissions, improving energy efficiency, and cutting operational costs, accelerating action and increasing the rate at which buildings are being retrofitted.”
The calculator’s impact is already being felt. A recent analysis of a large office retrofit project in Boston, utilizing the calculator, estimated $3.7 million in energy savings and $1 million in avoided fines over the next decade, achieving a seven-year return on investment. This analysis included modern building management systems, power monitoring software, LED upgrades, power factor correction, and the integration of photovoltaic systems with battery energy storage and microgrid technology.
The Building Decarbonization Calculator empowers scenario planning through its key features:
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Rapid Assessments:
The tool’s pre-loaded modeled data enables users to quickly evaluate potential energy savings and emissions reductions based on industry-standard methodology for simulating results specific to the building type and location.*
ROI for Upfront Expenses:
Assets within the tool can be evaluated across multiple retrofit scenarios, providing crucial metrics like ROI with consideration for upfront investments needed.*
Support for Regulatory Compliance:
The calculator compiles estimations for the costs of non-compliance and ROI for compliance, starting with New York’s Local Law 97, enabling building owners to compare plans that align with regulations for planning and budgeting purposes.*
Prioritization of Retrofit Actions:
The tool highlights the impact of selected ECCMs, assisting users in prioritizing their retrofit plans based on both carbon and financial metrics. This includes running preset scenarios for light interventions, medium retrofits, and deep renovations.*
Scalable Functionality:
The calculator is scalable, allowing for tailored scenarios that reflect retrofit opportunities of individual buildings or entire portfolios, complete with support across retail, hotels, hospitals, and office buildings.The Building Decarbonization Calculator is available today through Schneider Electric’s sales teams and partners, ready to assist building owners in leveraging this powerful tool to drive their decarbonization strategies. Developed in collaboration with JLL, a leading global commercial real estate and investment management company, and C.scale, an outgrowth of San Francisco-based architectural firm EHDD, the calculator benefits from expertise in building performance modeling and machine-learning models to support climate action at speed and scale.
By harnessing the power of data and cutting-edge technology, the Building Decarbonization Calculator empowers building owners and operators to make informed decisions, accelerate their decarbonization efforts, and contribute to a more sustainable future for all.
