Mahesh Ramanujam

When working with organizations on their project’s net zero certification journey, we know that the best place to start is with doing a complete and thorough understanding of the baseline performance of all assets or buildings in an organization’s portfolio. What you don’t measure, you can’t track; leading with quality data is key. In fact, the first step in our net zero certification process is to perform a carbon emissions assessment for a building or portfolio – or a detailed inventory of a building’s Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions. Only after this is complete can an organization move forward with creating a truly informed net zero plan.

The emotional and mental health benefits of daylighting for building occupants are wide-ranging. It improves productivity, and alertness, reduces stress, and enhances morale. Daylighting also presents an opportunity for building owners to save money on their energy bills. Most of the energy used in a typical building is for interior lighting; daylighting is increasingly being used as a solution to reduce energy consumption. For example, installing photocells can aid in sensing the lighting level available in a space and correspondingly adjusting the lighting in surrounding areas. This measure also includes replacing lighting with dimmable ballasts, a move that helps further realize energy savings.

Improving building efficiency has numerous benefits. First, energy-efficient buildings use less energy, which can result in significant cost savings over time. These buildings also see an increased asset value and may enjoy premium rent benefits in the long term. There are also enormous positive environmental impacts. Buildings are responsible for nearly 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Improving the efficiency of our existing buildings is one of our greatest opportunities in decarbonization; by reducing energy consumption, buildings cut their carbon footprints and mitigate climate change. Lastly, green buildings can be a significant contributor to your ESG metrics and CSR reporting – a competitive advantage in today’s market.

When GNFZ was founded, we decided to create a simple, open, flexible, trust-based and data-driven net zero certification platform to help bridge the gaps. While we leverage the industry leading GHG Protocol as our default methodology for verification, we also chose to remain rating system agnostic and open standard to provide flexibility to clients. Another key feature of the platform is its implementation ecosystem – the platform connects clients with Partners who walk them through the entire certification process. We know that for many, the biggest hurdle to reaching net zero is a lack of awareness and education. That is why we walk hand in hand with companies through certification and the verification process.

Having an honest assessment, baseline understanding and quality data improves decision-making, increases transparency and limits the potential for greenwashing. I have seen first hand that digitizing climate data and its measurement is critical to making a dent in the highest emitting sectors. Digitization of this data specifically enables better monitoring and evaluation of climate actions and progress toward the Paris Agreement goals. What isn’t measured can’t be tracked. And when data isn’t tracked, we end up exactly where we are now, struggling to reach global goals.

Scope 3 emissions is a critical outlier in far too many companies’ sustainability reporting, especially because embodied energy and carbon are tied to it. Scope 3 emissions occur in parts of the value chain that most companies have little to no control over – yet they can often represent up to 90% of a company’s emissions. This makes data on these emissions even more crucial. At the Global Network for Zero, our certification process takes an incremental approach, where we help an organization calculate and assess their Scope 1-3 emissions, create a plan and roadmap to zero these out over time, and help them identify best-in-class strategies they can implement at their organization and across their value chain to get there.