Resources – July/August 2020

1. Sustainability Events Calendar for 2020

Have you started planning your sustainability engagement program for 2020 yet? If so, The Planet Mark 2020 Green & Sustainability Events Calendar is a handy tool to check out what’s coming up.

Click Here to download The Planet Mark sustainability Events calendar.

2. Implement Energy Management Information Systems (EMIS) in your building portfolio

Presented by the DOE Better Buildings Initiative, EMIS gives property owners and managers the ability to see their energy use and take action to reduce waste. This toolkit gives an introduction to EMIS.

Click Here for the EMIS website.

3. The Current State of Business Interruption

Agile Recovery has made available for download a definitive guide to disaster planning titled “The Current State of Business Interruption”.

It’s imperative that companies understand the risks and potential impacts of business interruptions, regardless of the cause. In this report, we gathered

industry data on what’s been prompting business interruptions (BI) in recent years, highlighting the extent of disruptions and their cost. Having mapped out today’s current landscape of BI, we wanted to once again demonstrate the integral role of a Business Continuity Disaster Recovery plan in a company’s ecosystem.

4. The Advanced Energy Design Guide—Achieving Zero Energy series

ASHRAE | 2019

ASHRAE has released The Advanced Energy Design Guide—Achieving Zero Energy series provides a cost-effective approach to achieve advanced levels of energy savings. The four-color Guides offer contractors and designers the tools, including recommendations for practical products and off-the-shelf technology, needed for achieving a zero energy building which is defined as a building that, on an annual basis, draws from outside resources equal or less energy than it provides using on-site renewable energy sources.

These Guides have been developed through the collaboration of ASHRAE, the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES), and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), with support from the Department of Energy (DOE), to help meet all of an owner’s energy performance requirements. In an effort to promote building energy efficiency, ASHRAE and its partners have made these Guides available for download (PDF) at no charge.

Click Here to request the Free Download

5. World Economic Forum | The Global Risks Report 2020 – 15^th Edition

The 15^th edition of the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report is published as critical risks are manifesting. The global economy is facing an increased risk of stagnation, climate change is striking harder and more rapidly than expected, and a fragmented cyber space threatens the full potential of next generation technologies — all while citizens worldwide protest political and economic conditions, and voice concerns about systems that exacerbate inequality. The challenges before us demand immediate collective action, but fractures within the global community appear to only be widening. Stakeholders need to act quickly and with purpose within an unsettled global landscape. For an overview of the report’s contents, please see the Executive Summary.
Click Here to download the 2020 Report PDF

6. Actuaries Climate Index

The Actuaries Climate Index^® (ACI) is intended to provide a useful monitoring tool—an objective indicator of the frequency of extreme weather and the extent of sea level change. This website provides graphics and data for download for those who wish to explore the Index. The ACI is available for the United States and Canada and 12 subregions thereof, and will be released when analysis of data for each meteorological season is complete, on both a monthly and a seasonal basis (months ending February, May, August, and November).

In April of 2019, a change was made to the ACI calculation methodology. The methodology used to produce releases prior to April 2019 is referred to as “ACI 1.0”, while the methodology currently in use is referred to as “ACI 1.1”. A description of the change of methodology, and the rationale for the change, can be found in the data disclosure.

The six components of the Actuaries Climate Index are:

High temperatures;
Low temperatures;
Heavy rainfall;
Drought (consecutive dry days);
High wind; and
Sea level.

Click Here to reach the Actuaries Climate Index website

7. International Green Construction Code (IgCC)

The 2018 International Green Construction Code (IgCC) provides the design and construction industry with the single, most effective way to deliver sustainable, resilient, high-performance buildings. The ‘IgCC-powered-by-189.1’ joint initiative frames the essential sustainable construction building blocks on which future resilient initiatives can develop and expand.

By collaborating on developing the 2018 IgCC, the strategic developing organizations supporting it envision a new era of building design and construction that includes environmental health and safety as code minimums. The goal of the 2018 IgCC will provide fundamental criteria for energy efficiency, resource conservation, water safety, land use, site development, indoor environmental quality and building performance that can be adopted broadly.

Click Here to reach the IgCC website

8. Climate Disclosure Project (CDP)

CDP is a not-for-profit charity that runs the global disclosure system for investors, companies, cities, states and regions to manage their environmental impacts. Over the past 15 years we have created a system that has resulted in unparalleled engagement on environmental issues worldwide. Find out more about how we work.

Click Here to reach the CDP website

9. Better Buildings | Smart Energy Analytics Campaign

The Smart Energy Analytics Campaign is a public-private partnership that encourages the use of a wide variety of commercially available Energy Management and Information Systems (EMIS) technologies and ongoing monitoring practices to help uncover those energy-saving opportunities and improve building performance. Since it’s launch in 2016, the Campaign has brought together commercial building owners who are using or planning to use Energy Information Systens (EIS), Fault Detection and Diagnostics (FDD) and Monitoring-Based Commissioning (MBCx).

Click Here to reach the Smart Energy Analytics Home Page

Click Here to reach the Technical Assistance Page

10. McKinsey & Company | Climate Risk and Response: Physical Hazards and Socioeconomic Impacts

Released in January 2020, this report poses the question: How could Earth’s changing climate impact socioeconomic systems across the world in the next three decades? A yearlong, cross-disciplinary research effort at McKinsey & Company provides some answers.

Click Here to view the report Home Page (PDF available online)

11. Global Commission on Adaptation

The Global Commission on Adaptation was launched in The Hague on 16th October 2018 by 8th UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. The Commission launched with the mandate to encourage the development of measures to manage the effects of climate change through technology, planning and investment. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon leads the group with co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, and World Bank CEO, Kristalina Georgieva.

The Commission was launched with the support of 17 convening countries including China, Canada and the UK and low-lying countries vulnerable to climate change including Bangladesh and the Marshall Islands. It also included 28 Commissioners representing all sectors of the globe and all sectors of development and industry.

The Netherlands initiated the Global Commission on Adaptation to share its knowledge on how it has managed to adopt innovative water management solutions as sea levels rise.

Click Here to view their report “Adapt Now – A Global Call for Leadership on Climate Resilience”

12. IFMA Foundation Pandemic Manual

Businesses are hoping to re-open their doors to employees and customers, but their buildings must be safe before they can be occupied. The IFMA Foundation has published a new pandemic survival guide for companies planning to open their facilities and resume operations.

A US $1 trillion global industry, there are over 25 million facility professionals worldwide who are managing and maintaining buildings. As the world stays home to help prevent the spread of the pandemic, the facility professional is working behind the scenes to ensure that buildings are operating properly and well maintained.

The manual was authored by Dr. Steven B. Goldman, an internationally recognized expert in Business Continuity, Crisis Management, Risk/Crisis Communications, Pandemic Preparation/Response and Crisis Leadership. He is Senior Lecturer of crisis courses at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Free to download, this definitive 100+-page guide includes: