BtrLyf launches new Benchmarking Calculator

The simplified Benchmarking calculator allows for building's energy performance to be compared to other buildings in the city in the same category. Based on the Gross Floor Area (GFA) and the Annual Energy Consumption, the calculator calculates the Energy Use Intensity (EUI) and compares it to other buildings in the city of the same type (e.g. office, hotel, retail or mixed development building).

It further shows a Energy Benchmark score i.e. whether the building lies in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th quartile or in the top 10% of the building energy performance in the city. Also, it calculates the potential energy and cost savings, if the building were to achieve 1st quartile energy performance. Total carbon emission related to energy use in the building (i.e. Scope-2 emissions) and calculated potential carbon savings are also shown.

You can print or email the results as a quick benchmarking report to anyone you need to.

This calculator is purely based on benchmarking the building performance with other buildings in the city and uses well known references such as the BCA Building Energy Submission System (BESS) report in the calculations.

Currently, the calculator is only available for benchmarking with buildings in Singapore and covers the following commercial building types: Office, Hotels, Retail and Mixed Developments. Other cities in the region and other building types maybe made available soon.

We recommend using the BtrLyf-EDGAR tool to get much more accurate and actionable insights into building energy consumption and ways to achieve super low energy or net zero energy performance at the best return on investment (ROI).

BtrLyf EDGAR tool helps to:

1) Understand detailed energy consumption breakdown

2) Suggest Energy Conservation Measures (ECMs) to achieve the desired energy savings

3) Do a cost-benefit analysis of energy savings measures (Capex, ROI)

4) Select ECMs on your own to achieve customized results

5) Connect to technology and solution providers to implement and improve energy performance.

Know more about BtrLyf-EDGAR tool and start using it for free here.

BtrLyf secures support under the Advanced Digital Solutions funding from IMDA Singapore

The BtrLyf- Digital Built Environment Ecosystem by Qi Square is now supported and is a pre-approved solution under the Advanced Digital Solutions (ADS) funding provided by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), Singapore. Announced as part of the Resilience Budget 2020 by Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) and Minister for Finance Heng Swee Keat, the ADS grant funding is to help enterprises deepen their digital capabilities, strengthen business continuity measures, and build longer term resilience. See more information about ADS on IMDA’ s website and refer to the ‘Sustainability’ project category for information on the BtrLyf digital package.

The BtrLyf platform was created to enable sustainable co-creation and digital collaboration on existing building performance improvement. Through years of research, Qi Square has developed its technology that helps us to assess holistic building performance at a fraction of cost and time that is usually required to do energy and carbon analysis, technology fit analysis and financial due diligence of green projects. All this is offered on a convenient cloud-based platform that connects stakeholders and offers them value-adding apps such as the Enhanced Digital Green Assessor (EDGAR), Green Auto Certification (GRACE) and digital Product Inclusion in Assessment (PRIA).

As part of the ADS funding support, qualifying customers who buy a subscription to the Enhanced Digital Green Assessor (EDGAR) cloud app of BtrLyf, will get up to 80% rebate on the first year subscription costs. This means that customers only need to pay 20% of the first year subscription costs and the remaining will be supported by ADS funding. BtrLyf-EDGAR is best suited for building owners, facility managers, consultants, and Energy Saving Companies (ESCOs) seeking quick access to building data and instant assessment on-cloud for their green building projects Please refer to the BtrLyf website to know more about the BtrLyf-EDGAR cloud app.

What’s more, as part of the BtrLyf digital package-B, the same subsidy as above will also be extended to use the world renowned IESVE tool for accurate whole building performance simulation. Used by sustainable design experts around the globe, the Virtual Environment (VE) is an in-depth suite of integrated analysis tools for the design and retrofit of buildings. This is great news for consultants and experts who need advanced tools for detailed simulations of existing & new green building projects for certifications and regulatory submissions. A one year license of the IESVE simulation suite will also be made available now at an 80% rebate under the BtrLyf Advanced Digital Solution package. Please refer to the IES website for more information on IESVE simulation suite.

Digital Packages offered under the ADS funding support by BtrLyf

*Prices indicated are the full price before applying the ADS rebate

^Cost to qualifying enterprises after the ADS funding support rebate

Asked on how this benefits the green building industry, Mr. Nilesh Jadhav, co-founder and CEO of Qi Square Pte Ltd, said the following. “Green Building design, certification and retrofit requires a coordinated effort between the building owner/manager, consultants, and solution providers. A typical assessment done at the start of any green building project is highly manual and requires specialized skills and resources (e.g., certified auditors) to visit the building and collect the necessary data for assessment through a site inspection”. He further added that “much of the data in the industry is not well structured and knowledge of technologies to go green is not effectively shared across all the stakeholders such as the building owner, consultants, financiers, and product suppliers”.

The SG Green Plan (announced in February 2021) has renewed Singapore’s plans and commitment to carbon reduction. Green buildings and clean energy adoption are prominent features of the SG Green Plan. While Singapore has an ambitious target of greening 80% of its existing building stock by 2030, the restrictions stated above can setback the achievement of such a target by making the whole process excruciatingly slow, limited, and expensive. Achieving the last 20-30% of the target is especially challenging due to the fact that late adopters are typically highly risk-averse and very sensitive to increase in project costs.

The BtrLyf-EDGAR tool provides an opportunity for building industry stakeholders to exchange data and know-how virtually and at much lower cost. It also improves their productivity of professionals involved in green building projects and helps them to effectively work remotely without the need for any physical contact. Consultants and Sustainability managers will be now able to do green building assessment instantly at a click of few buttons instead of days and weeks of efforts to collect the data, perform calculations and make reports.

Achieving higher level of certification in BCA’s Green Mark rating system (e.g., Green Mark Platinum, or Super-low Energy (SLE) building status), at the design stage, requires a detailed analysis of design options and careful selection and calculation of environmental impacts. The IESVE tool is a BCA approved simulation tool for such analysis and is used by several architects and mechanical and electrical (M&E) consultants worldwide.

Overall, the BtrLyf digital packages supported under the ADS funding support will accelerate sustainability adoption in the built environment and reduce over-reliance on manual labour for green building project development. It will build digital capabilities for the industry and equip local SMEs with a cost-effective and affordable tool set. As a market accelerator of green projects, BtrLyf will create more local jobs and push the green economy further with digitalization at its core.

COP26 and digital green assessment of buildings

At COP26, experts are urging commercial real estate to be more sustainable to reach crucial climate-action goals. The largest challenge for the industry is retrofitting buildings to be more sustainable. Buildings can save 20% to 60% in operating costs through proven green retrofit measures with an excellent return on investment. However, building industry players do not have the tools to easily identify and quantify energy-saving opportunities, evaluate the latest technological solutions and access financing options. They end up spending a lot of time in the administration of green projects and finding the right partners to work with.

Whitepaper: BtrLyf-EDGAR for instant digital green assessment

Green Assessment or audit of a building helps determine where specifically and how efficiently the building is using its resources. It's the first step in determining the current performance and then developing improvement plans for efficient resource use. The lack of a holistic approach, combined with the gaps and the disconnect associated with data access, has made the current green assessment process overly technical, expensive and cumbersome. It makes the low-carbon transition of the built environment very sluggish.

BtrLyf-EDGAR (Enhanced Digital Green Assessor), has an open and user-friendly non-technical interface that triggers alignment of priorities, enables data sharing and increases productivity of a green assessment by 10-50x. EDGAR is best suited for building owners/facility managers, sustainability managers, ESCOs and Environmental Sustainable Design (ESD) consultants, who would like todo initial assessment of buildings for planning their sustainability efforts and developing low-carbon roadmaps.

BtrLyf-EDGAR: Enhanced Digital Green Assessor

But just how accurate are digital tools like EDGAR in modeling building performance and predicting the impact of energy conservation measures? In the in inaugural whitepaper released by BtrLyf, a study done on 120 buildings in Singapore is presented along with the determination of the accuracy of the EDGAR digital assessment tool.

Download the full whitepaper here.

Let's all take action to reverse the ill effects of climate change as quickly as possible!