Once you’ve prioritized some buildings and added some Projects to Decarb, you are ready to start working on your Action Plans!
In this support article you will learn how to:
- Add & Remove Projects from Action Plans
- Update Projects
- Update Action Plan Settings
- View Input Data
- View Scenario Data
- Add Custom Targets
Add & Remove Projects from Action Plans
You can add and remove Projects from an Action Plan by dragging and dropping the cards to and from the “Not included” section to specific years. This represents the years in which the Projects are planned to be implemented and when the benefits of that project, in terms of energy and emission reductions, begin to reflect in the Impact Simulation. Notice the KPIs update accordingly while also reflecting the Planning Period you have selected (2050 by default).
A table view of the same Projects can be toggled on (next to the “Add Projects” button) and includes additional metrics like simple payback, ROI, and IRR.
Update Projects
Individual Projects can be updated directly within Decarb without having to re-upload them via the project importer. Click on any project in the timeline or table views of Projects and a “Project Details” inspector will open up from the right side of the screen. Clicking “Edit” in the lower right corner will allow you to modify nearly every available field on the project. Be sure to hit “Save” so your changes will take effect.
You can also delete Projects from Edit mode by clicking the red “Delete” button. You will be asked to confirm the deletion as it is a permanent action.
Note: you cannot delete Projects synced from Core within Decarb. Instead, you will have to delete the Project from Core.
Update Action Plan Settings
Selecting the “View Settings” button from the Action Plan view will allow you to view and modify the various settings available to you within this Action Plan.
These settings include:
- Baseline Year: select which year energy and carbon intensity projections will be keyed off of, i.e. which performance data provided in Core will be used to calculate your building’s future performance.
- Scenarios: view and select which scenario (projected emission factors) this Action Plan should use to calculate your building’s projected carbon intensity. (Note that at this time most buildings only have a CRREM v2.05 option available that is specific to their building’s location.)
- Compliance: for buildings with an applicable Building Performance Standard (BPS), you can choose to manually exclude this building from any compliance analysis done within the product. This is common if your building has filed for a valid exemption with the BPS jurisdiction.
View Input Data
Selecting the “View CRREM Metadata” button from the Action Plan view allows you to review all of the input data used for your building within Decarb. This includes building characteristics like property type and floor area as well as the energy data used to inform the energy & carbon projections.
View Scenario Data
Navigating to the “Scenarios” tab at the building level will show you a table of the projected emission factors currently being used to calculate your building’s projected carbon emissions. Notice the decreasing values in the Grid Electricity column – this is regional grid decarbonization being taken into account as grids around the world deploy more renewables and decommission fossil fuel plants. The exact rate of this decrease is specific to each region modeled in the Scenario; more information can be found in the hyperlinked “Data Source” above the table. (For CRREM, you can learn more by reading their reference guide.)
Add Custom Targets
While the relevant CRREM and BPS targets automatically appear in your building’s Action Plan, we understand you may have the need to add your own targets. That is why we’ve made it easy to add your own custom energy and carbon targets for any building.
Steps to add a custom target:
- Navigate to the “Targets” tab at the building level
- Select “Carbon” or “Energy” in the dropdown menu in the upper left corner
- Select the “Custom” checkbox above the table
- Select the “Edit Target” button
- Enter a name for your target (for example: “2035 Energy Target”)
- Enter in annual energy intensity target values in the table below
- Click “Save”
Navigate back to the Action Plan tab and see your new custom target displayed. (Check that you’re viewing the expected metric, Carbon Intensity or Energy Intensity, from the dropdown.)