Starting this year, thousands of buildings in New York will have to start reducing their carbon emissions. But before that happens, owners need to understand how much pollution they are causing.
Electricity alone accounts for 60% of all energy use in commercial buildings, according to the US Energy Information Administration. There are many tools out there that can convert an electricity bill into estimated carbon emissions, but many are based on rough estimates. With the growth of intermittent wind and solar power, knowing when you use electricity is almost as important as how much you use.
For this NZeroa carbon detection startup, has developed a new algorithm, giving building owners reports that estimate carbon pollution by the hour.
Some owners whose buildings are equipped with advanced meters and sensors already have this data, but many do not. “Better data will give you better results,” NZero CTO John Rula told TechCrunch, “but it shouldn’t get in the way.”
The problem can be particularly vexing for a class of real estate investment trusts, or REITs, favored by investors known as triple net leases. The REIT is responsible for a building’s emissions, but because the owner doesn’t pay the utilities, it has little insight into the pollution the building produces.
“They’re asking their customers to provide this data and with very little success,” Rula said.
Using the building’s address and any additional information the owner can provide, including square footage and the types of heating and cooling systems they use, NZero can generate estimates that it says are more accurate than owners previously had.
From there, the company’s software helps building owners identify upgrades and retrofits that will reduce emissions while also being the most cost-effective.
“There are all these different steps and hurdles one of which is data collection, another is compliance reporting, but that’s not the end goal, right?” Rula said. “The ultimate goal is to promote and accelerate decarbonization.”
