This article describes the Data Intensity Check, how to interpret it, and how to address identified data issues. The Data Intensity Check is a prepared excel file sent from your Customer Success Manager, which summarizes your buildings that have anomalous intensities or year-over-year changes, both of which are key data quality measures.
Definitions:
- Total Warnings - Indicates how many different warnings a building has related to intensity and year-over-year change for each metric
- Intensities (Year 1, Year 2) - Each item indicates which metric (energy, carbon, water, and/or waste) has an intensity that exceeds the established industry benchmarks. These benchmarks, which serve as the reference points in this document, are carefully determined to ensure adherence to high-quality standards within the industry.
- % Change - Each item indicates which metric (energy, carbon, water, and/or waste) has a year-over-year change higher than 20% or below -20%
- Lower Threshold - The intensity for this building type is expected to be above this metric
- Upper Threshold - The intensity for this building type is expected to below this metric
- Usage - Actual annual usage for this metric for the building
- Intensity Floor Area - Floor area used to calculate the intensity metric, which will be determined by how the meters are assigned to spaces. For example, if meters are assigned to Whole-site, this number will be equal to the gross floor area of the building.
- Intensity - “Usage” divided by “Intensity Floor Area” which drives a normalized metric that can be compared to expected consumption thresholds
- Intensity Calculated Using - Indicates which space (by name) is used to calculate the intensity metric
- % Change - Difference between Year 1 and Year 2 consumption, shown as a percentage
Addressing Issues:
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Below Threshold
- If intensity is below the threshold, that means there may have been less usage than what is expected for your building size. In that case, check that all meters at the property are accounted for and that they are “assigned” to the correct space. (To do so, click into the site, and then into a meter, and check if it is serving a space). If the meter is being assigned to the whole site and isn’t serving the whole site, that could cause the intensities to be lower than expected.
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Above Threshold
- If intensity is above the threshold, that means there was more usage than what is expected for the building size (or for the space to which you’ve assigned the meters). In the case that your meters are assigned to a small space, they may need to be reassigned to Whole Site or Exterior. Otherwise you should check the accuracy of the meter readings and building size, or follow up with the property to understand more.
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% Change +/-20%
- Sometimes data availability is influenced by Lifecycle events (construction, bought, sold), so if this is the case add those events to Measurabl. Next, check meters and readings for accuracy and completeness (Site Trends can help you see if there are large gaps or spikes in data).
- If neither of those actions explain or correct the change, we suggest contacting the property for an explanation.
FAQ
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What should I prioritize when working through the list?
- While prioritization of issues may vary by organization, here are a few things to consider:
- Size of the building: The larger the building, the more it will influence your overall data quality and performance metrics.
- Distance from the threshold: These anomalies tend to be the easiest to spot and correct, plus they’ll have the biggest impact on your performance metrics if left unchecked.
- Highest % change, either positive or negative: As with distance from threshold, these anomalies tend to be the easiest to spot and correct, plus they’ll have the biggest impact on your performance metrics if left unchecked.
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Subgroups/funds: You may wish to prioritize subgroups or funds that have mandatory reporting or disclosure guidelines.
- While prioritization of issues may vary by organization, here are a few things to consider:
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Where can I see which site manager is responsible for each property?
- You can view a list of site managers per property (names, emails, last activity) by following this guide.
- You can view a list of site managers per property (names, emails, last activity) by following this guide.
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Are my property managers aware of these same issues?
- Your property managers will see a variety of alerts related to Data Completeness and can view Site Trends for their buildings in the app.
- Your property managers will see a variety of alerts related to Data Completeness and can view Site Trends for their buildings in the app.
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How does this check help me get ready for GRESB?
- This data check allows you to check the intensities for Energy, Carbon, Water and Waste compared to GRESB’s thresholds per property type. It can help you correct issues before they are flagged or provide explanations about anomalous data.
- Additionally, if you do not have your data verified or assured by a third party, you can use this file as evidence of your data being “checked” by Measurabl, which earns partial points for MR1-4.
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How is this report different from the Normalized Floor Area metrics I see in the app?
- This report leverages floor area coverage to calculate intensities-- in other words, intensity is calculated by dividing usage by the floor area to which the meters are assigned.
- On the other hand, the Normalized Floor Area metrics use the gross floor area of the building for the calculation.
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What is Measurabl doing to address my data issues?
- Your Connect data goes through a series of meter data anomaly detections and quality checks each month. Our Data Operations team triages any issues as they are uncovered.