Passion provides purpose, but data drives decisions – Andy Dunn What does CO2e mean? What are the impacts of time and location on energy use and production? How and why are we morphing from energy as a proxy for emissions? We are joined on today’s podcast by David Goldstein, Energy Co-Director at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and John Taylor, Deputy Director of The Consortium for Energy Efficiency (CEE) to discuss a new tool that RESNET has underdevelopment: The CO2e Index. The RESNET CO2e Rating Index is among the first in the world to more accurately estimate emissions by accounting for the hour of the day and month of the year at which electricity is consumed. And it uses the incremental effect that the building has on usable renewable energy and fossil fuel emissions, calculated over the long term. David describes how a carbon dioxide equivalent or CO2 equivalent, abbreviated as CO2e, is used to compare the emissions from various greenhouse gases based on their global-warming potential (GWP) by converting amounts of other gases to the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide with the same global warming potential. Since the RESNET HERS® Index already looks at energy pattern usage by the hour of the year, it is a straightforward task to translate the energy profile into an emissions profile if you have the data that underlie these figures. John helps us understand these aspects of the model. The new RESNET CO2e Rating Index allows one to calculate the comparative emissions of two houses. For example, you can look at the emissions from a new house with or without efficiency and solar to see how much changes like electrification and clean energy can help. As a result of this, there are no changes to the RESNET HERS® rating process – it is more a function of software changes. Some links to press on this podcast’s topic: A New Tool for Measuring Decarbonization https://www.nrdc.org/experts/david-b-goldstein/new-tool-measuring-decarbonization RESNET 2020 Building Performance Conference presentation, Incorporating When Energy is Used in the HERS® Index You can reach our guests via email: dgoldstein@nrdc.org jtaylor@cee1.org Listen to the full episode here.
