Getting started with sustainability

Learn more about the sustainability basics and the steps on your way to decarbonize your real estate.

Steps to decarbonize your real estate

1. Get resource consumption data.

   Before you can get insights on sustainability, you need to capture your buildings' resource consumption. You can either collect the data via energy meters and sensors, get the data from another system or capture the data manually from invoices or estimations from your subject matter experts and project managers.

   We provide a software to collect data from multiple contributors manually. Send out surveys to your partners and colleagues to request resource consumption data and easily import the answers into the BuildingMinds Platform.
   For more information, contact us over the Support Portal, the platform (Get support) or via email: [email protected]

2. When the data is available in the BuildingMinds Platform, you can view the resource consumption under the tab Resource consumption. You can identify where data is missing under Data coverage. You can also select between estimated, collected data, or both under Filters and Dataset to view how the data changes based on your selection. For more information on the Resource consumption dashboard, see Resource consumption.

3. Calculate carbon emissions.

   Based on the provided data, we automatically calculate the carbon emissions. View the carbon emission in the Operational emissions tab under Resources and Emissions and Sustainability.

   View the shares of carbon emissions per scope of the GHG protocol or energy resource type over time. For more information, see Operational carbon emissions.

4. Predict stranding risks and costs.

   See which year your portfolio or parts of your portfolio will be above the CRREM target as stranded assets in the Stranding risk tab under Risk and cost prediction and Sustainability. For more information, see Stranding risk.

   Simulate future carbon emission costs for your portfolio by entering different pricing scenarios in the Carbon pricing tab under Risk and cost prediction and Sustainability. For more information, see Carbon pricing simulation.

5. Simulate actions to reduce carbon emissions.

   Add retrofit measures to your buildings and simulate the effect of the measures on the stranding risk in the Retrofit simulation.

Emission scopes

The emission scopes are a classification scheme for greenhouse gas emissions established by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. The GHG Protocol is a global framework providing standards, guidance, tools, and training for businesses and governments to measure and manage greenhouse gas emissions. For more information, see GHG protocol.

• Scope 1

  (Direct) Emissions from burning fuels in owned or controlled sources (for space and water heating or from a company's cars) and fugitive emissions.

• Scope 2

  (Indirect) Emissions from bought ("procured") electricity, heat, or steam (see district heating).

• Scope 3

  Emissions from bought goods and services, business travel, commuting, waste disposal, investment, lease objects, and franchise (all upstream and downstream activities). The real-estate sector usually differentiates between landlords and tenants and their typical roles in procuring energy. Usually, the tenants procure electricity. From the landlord's perspective, for example, if the landlord is procuring electricity that is being used in a tenant's space, according to the GHG Protocol Technical Guidance for Calculating Scope 3 Emissions (version 1.0), this can be reported as Scope 3 emissions.