Proprietary SIERA Benchmarks

SIERA Proprietary Benchmark Help Guide

23 June 2023

Quick Access

• What are SIERA’s proprietary benchmarks?
• Why do they matter?
• How do they work?
• How did the SIERA team develop these benchmarks?
• What step-by-step approach determined the benchmarks?
• Did the SIERA team exclude or normalise any data?
• How did the SIERA team verify these benchmarks?
• What are SIERA’s proprietary benchmark outputs?

What are SIERA’s proprietary benchmarks?

Benchmarks are standards or reference points that help you compare and assess how well you’re doing in terms of sustainability. At EVORA Global, we understand that you want to measure the sustainability of your assets, and this often demands industry benchmarks.

Our sustainability consultants noticed that there weren’t enough complete and up-to-date benchmarks available. So, we created our own unique proprietary benchmarks to solve this problem. These proprietary benchmarks are built into SIERA to provide valuable data insights. With this information, you can make informed decisions and advance your sustainability goals.

We provide benchmarks for electricity, heat, and water across all countries and sectors within CRREM. These mean intensity values are derived from the relative data source, focus on operational emissions, and do not include embodied carbon.

Why do they matter?

SIERA’s benchmarks empower you with the necessary tools to make informed, collaborative decisions that not only enhance asset performance and reduce costs but also improve your bottom line.

By leveraging these benchmarks, you can drive meaningful sustainability improvements, align with industry standards, work towards net zero objectives, and ultimately create a positive impact. With a deep understanding of your assets’ sustainability performance through our benchmarks, you can strategically navigate the challenges of today’s complex business landscape while maximising the potential for long-term success.

How do they work?

When utility consumption data for assets is missing, SIERA uses these benchmarks to fill in the gaps (striped boxes). By integrating these benchmarks into SIERA, we provide reasonable estimates of asset and fund level performance. This supports comprehensive tracking and analysis of your carbon emissions, energy, and water consumption, even when complete data is not available.

How did the SIERA team develop these benchmarks?

We leveraged our extensive consultancy experience and expertise in sustainability assessments to address this gap. In 2022 alone, we conducted around 180 GRESB assessments (9,200 assets under management) for our clients. This enabled our team to gather data from a diverse range of assets across different geographies to create a comprehensive dataset, including data from more than 80 funds (particularly large funds) and almost 8,000 assets.

To qualify, the assets had to be owned and operational standing investments, with a complete 12-month reporting year, including projections for the entire year.

To ensure our benchmarks are robust and relevant in various contexts, we incorporated country-specific data sources: CBECS 2018 (US), L’édition 2022 du Baromètre de la Performance Energétique (France), and CIBSE Guide F & TM46 (industry standards).

What step-by-step approach determined the benchmarks?

1. If there were 10+ assets in a particular CRREM sector or GRESB subsector, we developed a benchmark
2. If developing a benchmark was not feasible due to insufficient assets, we used country-specific benchmarks
3. When country-specific benchmarks were not available, we relied on benchmarks from similar climatic regions
4. If no appropriate climatic region benchmarks were accessible, we used default benchmarks provided by CIBSE

Did the SIERA team exclude or normalise any data?

• We excluded data associated with flagged intensity outliers
• We excluded outdoor consumption and intensity data from indoor metrics
• We normalised coverage data for intensities by area, time, and occupancy-based consumption
• We itemised metrics based on whole building performance, unless otherwise stated
• We based intensity data on the gross internal area (GIA) to calculate whole building performance

How did the SIERA team verify these benchmarks?

• We compared our results against industry-standard benchmarks
• We used our own expertise in data collection and performance assessment
• We used validated data already stored in SIERA

What are SIERA’s proprietary benchmark outputs?

SIERA integrates benchmarks for electricity, heat, and water across all countries and sectors within CRREM. These mean intensity values are derived from the relative data source, focus on operational emissions, and do not include embodied carbon.

• One intensity value for electricity (kWh/m2) per country and sector, regardless of fuel source
• One intensity value for heat (kWh/m2) per country and sector, regardless of heat generation source (gas, oil, district heat, etc)
• One intensity value for water (cubic meters/m2) per country and sector

To calculate carbon (kgCO2/m2), we apply the emissions conversion factor for that asset based on its country and year.

To assist reporting, you can select your preferred emissions factor. If not specified, we provide standard default factors based on your asset’s location.

Get in Touch with the SIERA Team

If you encounter any difficulties while following these instructions or require further clarification, please get in touch with our team who are here to support you and address any questions or concerns you may have.

Thank you for reading our latest help guide,

SIERA Team