Advisory Services

Advisory Services

We create new opportunities by utilizing our deep knowledge and insights of building science and continuous operational improvement. Successfully resulting in managing financial, compliance, and reputational risks for your business.

These services drive better data informed decisions. Solving your complex challenges and illuminating the path to ensuring the most efficient operation of your properties.

Incentive Filing

Overview:

  • Various city, county, state, and utility level agencies offer rebates, grants, and incentives. These sources of funding are widespread and can be complex to apply for. We streamline this process utilizing our expertise in filing for these types of incentives making the process as painless as possible.

Benefits:

  • The building owners receive additional funding for their building system and operational changes.
Project Prioritization and Optimization

Overview:

  • A review of potential projects optimizing for savings, costs, and rebates. Recommending adjustments to systems, technologies, and efficiency ratings.

Benefits:

  • Weighing the savings, costs, and rebates to optimize all projects and equipment to ensure highest benefits and ensure compliance as much as possible.
Portfolio Prioritization

Overview:

  • Prioritize projects at the energy conservation measure type and building level across your portfolio.

Benefits:

  • Managing a single building’s multisystem upgrade can be overwhelming. The complexity grows exponentially as more buildings are added, and project timelines stretch over multiple years. We are your long-term partner ensuring the maximum efficiency possible in project implementation over multibuilding portfolios.
Renewable Site Analysis

Overview:

  • Perform a feasibility study to calculate the potential onsite solar resource capacity, this is not a structural engineering study.

Benefits:

  • Outlines the potential resource for onsite solar, as well as project, financial, and compliance impact.
Energy/Carbon Roadmapping

Overview:

  • Provides a thorough multi-year financial analysis. Plotting the course to your energy/carbon reduction goals. This portfolio report prescribes step by step project planning and prioritization.

Benefits:

  • Integrates individual building level findings into a portfolio-level plan. This plan walks the portfolio through an evidence-based path for individual measures, project implementation timing and prioritization over a chosen multi-year timeframe.
Energy/Carbon Target Setting

Overview:

  • Too often organizations state targets that are not feasible, ending up with reputational harm and potential stalling of reduction. Following an energy audit and expansive induvial building/ building portfolio analysis, the next step is to set a realistic achievable target and timeline.

Benefits:

  • Targets are evidence backed and feasible on a time line that can be achieved. This promotes trust and engagement in a system that follows through on it’s statements.
Process/Operations Improvement Analysis

Overview:

  • A review of processes and operations with a focus on:
    • Energy Efficiency
    • Reorganization
    • Continuous Improvement
    • Demand Shifting
    • Demand Shedding
    • Behavioral Changes.

Benefits:

  • Building owners receive as much funding as possible for their building system, and operational changes.
Energy Management Plan

Overview:

  • A living document that describes a building’s energy performance. Consisting of the following:
    • Building Energy Metering and Reporting
    • Energy-Use Intensity (EUI) Reporting
    • Energy Conservation Measures
    • Implementation Plan
    • Operations and Maintenance Program
    • Communication Responsibilities

Benefits:

  • An all-encompassing plan outlining all aspects of how to best manage the energy consumption of your building. This information is integral to the efficient operation of your building and the basis for all other capital planning and equipment selection. This also allows you to ensure compliance with building performance standards.
Operations and Maintenance Plan

Overview:

  • A living document used to ensure energy efficient operations, and to minimize the failure of building systems and components through their service life.

Benefits:

  • A step-by-step list outlining the process for inspection and maintenance requirements of specific systems and equipment. This codifies and standardizes maintenance across buildings and portfolios. Additionally, it establishes responsibilities and accountability to individuals operating and maintaining equipment components.
Best Practice Guide

Overview:

  • 1-2 page report outlining industry best practices as well as specific measures that apply to your building or organization.

Benefits:

  • Low-cost option to spread awareness and operation expectations throughout your organizations.
Carbon Accounting

Overview:

  • Measurement and calculation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions produced by an organization’s activities.

Benefits:

  • This provides a clear understanding of an organization’s carbon footprint as well as any gaps in compliance with environmental laws. This allows for strategic planning and transparency within and outside of your organization. Additionally, this is the foundation for setting targets and managing climate, financial, and regulatory risks.

Analytics Services

Your organization’s utility data is a gold mine of information that can be leveraged for organizational and building improvements. With our proprietary analysis methods and tools we provide actionable insights, dashboards, and the ability to measure and manage your operations.

Anomaly Analysis

Overview:

  • Compile and analyze utility bill data monthly to identify variances in usage, price, and on-site renewable energy production.

Benefits:

  • Identifying changes in consumption and production not only allows for faster response times, it also allows for the tracking and verification of projects to ensure they are having the desired impacts.
Rate Analysis

Overview:

  • Review of your current rate class for each utility type and compare to possible rate classes.

Benefits:

  • Your rate classification can be as much as or more impactful to your total utility spend as your consumption. Choosing the most favorable class can greatly decrease your overall energy costs.
Power Factor Analysis

Overview:

  • Assess the efficiency of the power usage in an alternating current electrical system by calculating the ratio between real power in kWh and apparent power in kVA. The higher the power factor, i.e. close to the value of 1, the more power is converted into useful work.

Benefits:

  • Identify areas of wasted energy from inductive loads. These hidden losses can be very cost effective to correct.
Water Bill Analysis

Overview:

  • Monthly review of water bills to identify abnormalities that may indicate leaks or misuse.

Benefits:

  • Keep continued vigilance on water usage, potentially catching leaks that may not be able to be found otherwise as they may not be reported or noticed. Getting leaks fixed and reducing water usage can open opportunities for refunds or incentives from cities, states, or water utilities.
Sewer Charge Exemption Analysis

Overview:

  • Certain building use types may consume large amounts of water, but that water may not be going down the sewer. For example, pools lose most water to evaporation rather than utilizing the sewer system. Manufacturing processes such as producing juice from concentrate retain the water and sell it as part of their final product. These clients may not be required to pay for sewer charges related to this usage. However, many utilities still charge them assuming sewer usage is the same as water usage. A predominate use study will be required to verify the amount of water entering the sewer.

Benefits:

  • Potentially receiving past over-payments and exempting some or most of the future sewer charges.
Scorecarding

Overview:

  • The monthly tracking of variables such as energy, carbon emissions, and raw material conversion. Generate metrics to grade manager’s performance against themselves historically as well as their peers in the same organization.

Benefits:

  • Provides granular data to clients outlining how effectively facilities manage resources. This allows for performance payments to be tied to energy usage, carbon emissions, raw material conversion, and more.

Specialty Auditing Services

In addition to our standard energy audit, we offer a wide range of assessments.

A variety of focuses that can be used in conjunction with our other services to customize our offerings to the specific needs of the building.

Energy Audit

Overview:

  • Holistic equipment inventory and building behavioral investigation. Focusing on all major building systems (Building envelope, HVAC, lighting, process equipment and occupants).

Benefits:

  • Provides vital building and system information. The first step in understanding your building, its needs, and savings potential.
Equipment Inventory

Overview:

  • Some buildings may not need a full energy audit, however, there can be a need for an equipment inventory to catalog the pieces of equipment on site. Providing a better understanding of the building’s potential savings and capital investment needs.

Benefits:

  • This information can then be used to establish a break/fix standard as well as help with long term capital planning, cost segmentation, and tax planning.
Pre-Sale/Pre-Purchase Audit

Overview:

  • An audit performed prior to the sale or purchase of a building. If selling, the audit focus is on identifying failing or near failing equipment that can be replaced prior to the sale to increase building value. If purchasing, the audit focus is on identifying failing or near failing equipment prior to the purchase to avoid surprise bills and potentially aid in negotiations. Additionally, net operating income and value implications of efficiency and on-site renewable energy measures will be calculated.

Benefits:

  • To bring awareness to potential issues and provide information to ensure a better understanding of the building. The building’s hidden costs, savings potential, their net operating income and valuation implications.
Water Audit

Overview:

  • Similar to an energy audit and can be completed in conjunction with one, or on its own. This onsite audit focuses on water using equipment and water heating equipment.

Benefits:

  • The focus of this time of audit focuses on water leaks and high usage equipment that can be reduced. Also making recommendations on how to improve water heating systems to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. Additionally, this can be a component to complying with local building performance standards. Occasionally a separate water audit is required.
New Construction Design Review

Overview:

  • A review of architectural and/or construction documents in which we provide actual value engineering by not taking only first cost into account.

Benefits:

  • Designing buildings for performance and building incentives from the start. We not only optimize for first costs, but we also incorporate:
    • Forced Remodel Cost
    • Compliance Future Proofing
    • Operational Savings
    • Increased Building Value
    • Available Building Incentives