Getting Results with Archibus

Green Building

Reducing a building's carbon footprint and certifying that your building meets environmental standards not only helps improve the environmental impact of your building, but can also reduce costs and improve your company's public image. The Archibus Green Building application addresses two important needs for companies that are striving to improve the environmental impact of their building:

• scoring the environmental impact of a building
  

  Companies that decide to pursue LEED, BREEAM, or other environmental sustainability certification can upload background information for reference; track submissions, responses, comments, and revisions; and self-score their building against the certification requirements. During the scoring process, you can enter the capital cost and annual savings associated with each process step, enabling the system to calculate the payback period for each step.

  Archibus Green Building is configurable for use with various certification standards for new or existing buildings, so it is useful for those considering new certification, those in the midst of a certification process, and those with certified buildings seeking requalification.

  You can also score buildings for purposes that do not relate to certification, such as an Energy Conservation Measures (ECM) project. The forms, reports, and structure of this application lend themselves to a wide variety of potential applications.

• determining a building's carbon footprint
  
  

  With the application's carbon footprint tools, you can enter the data required to obtain a building's carbon footprint using various footprint protocols. Archibus Green Building follows the framework documented by the GHG (Greenhouse Gas) Protocol Corporate Standard published by the World Resources Institute/World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WRI/WBCSD). With the built-in unit conversion process, you can configure conversion values and enter data in any units desired.

  With the carbon footprint tools, you can make decisions on how to reduce the GHG emissions and you can use the data for formal GHG inventory reporting.

Determining your carbon footprint and certification self-scoring are independent of each other. You can choose to implement one or both of the features. Depending on which features you implement, Green Building enables you to answer such questions as:

• We need to reduce our carbon footprint. How can we compute it for each of our buildings? What are our totals for our whole organization? Are we trending towards our long-term targets? Where can we invest most strategically?
• What would be the payback period for pursuing green building certification? How close are our buildings to eligibility for the next level of LEED certification? How do we provide proof that we have managed our certified buildings a way that warrants requalification?
• Which sustainability targets should we set to ensure longevity, viability, and overall value for our portfolio?

Green Building
Location	This is available in both Archibus SaaS and the Archibus non-SaaS offering. Sustainability & Risk / Green Building
Business Result	A system for calculating a building's carbon footprint. A system for tracking progress through any sustainability self-scoring, certification, or requalification process.
Used By	Senior Sustainability Officer Marketing Director Facilities Manager Green Building Manager Planning and Operations Manager Finance Manager Cost Administrator
Reasons for Automating	To comply with government reporting requirements, qualify for carbon credits, reduce carbon tax, or obtain defensible data on progress in environmental sustainability. To show carbon footprint (greenhouse gas equivalent) totals for multiple buildings in a portfolio and track changes over time. To easily maintain detailed records of sustainability credit scores and supporting data for multiple buildings over multiple years, enabling you to track progress, evaluate payback, and identify best practices. To assess approximate certification eligibility before formal application. To perform step-by-step self-scoring of buildings according to configurable, published, or self-defined rating criteria. To maintain and provide evidence required to support periodic requalification. To automatically assemble and submit data to obtain Energy Star scores for buildings. To derive anticipated payback on sustainability investments. To perform hypothetical scenario analyses for carbon footprint or scoring. To correlate environmental data to facility use and operations, thereby providing the timely and reliable data required for making and defending strategic sustainability decisions.
Recommended Prerequisite Applications	None
Reports/Results	Carbon Footprint reports: Footprint Summary Footprint Summary Chart Footprint by Source Category Footprints by Source Detail Footprints by Sites and Buildings Footprints Comparison Footprint by Year Footprint by Year Comparison Total Footprint by Year Scoring reports: Building Score Rating Project Notes and Documents Rating Project Payback Period Rating Project Payback Period Chart Scores by Rating Project and Category Building Summary by Standard Certifications by Year Certification Status Summary Rating Project Comparison Scoring Dashboard

The following are typical users:

User	Tasks
Senior Sustainability Officer	Requires accurate and timely reporting. Drives green initiatives, determining strategic decisions, programs, and policies.
Marketing Director	Promotes the company's green initiatives to the public.
Facilities Manager/ Green Building Manager	Responds to data calls. Archibus makes this easy by leveraging existing data and automating the collection of new data.
Finance Manager Cost Administrator Planning and Operations Manager	Analyzes payback period data, which inform strategic planning decisions. Compares performance.
Business Process Owner	Defines basic information about the facility. Defines carbon footprint protocols and certification standards.

See Also

Green Building application overview