R&D 100 winner of the day: Building Efficiency Targeting Tool for Energy Retrofits (BETTER)

Buildings represent 40% of the world’s primary energy use and are the second-largest source of carbon dioxide emissions. However, global building energy use can be reduced by one-half if energy efficiency (EE) equipment and systems are implemented at scale. To speed those reductions, the Building Efficiency Targeting Tool for Energy Retrofits (BETTER), developed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, enables building operators worldwide to quickly, easily identify the most effective cost-saving EE measures using readily available building and energy data. Its novel open-source, data-driven analytical engine and user-friendly web application allow users to automatically analyze those data in response to weather conditions. With minimal computing resources and minimal data entry, it benchmarks a building’s or portfolio’s energy use against peers in a single run; quantifies energy, cost and greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction potential for investors; and recommends EE improvements for individual buildings or portfolios, targeting specific energy savings levels. No other tool so comprehensively analyzes buildings and portfolios with such ease. If fully implemented, BETTER could reduce about 0.92 quads of site energy use and 165.8 megatons of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2030.