Setting Carbon Goals and Tracking Progress | Better Buildings Initiative

Target Setting: EPA Center for Corporate Climate Leadership
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Guidance
EPA's Center for Corporate Leadership is a comprehensive resource to help organizations of all sizes measure and manage greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, providing technical tools, ground-tested guidance, educational resources, and opportunities for information sharing.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Accounting in Buildings
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Guidance
This factsheet provides an introduction to GHG emissions accounting for the operation of buildings. It is a high-level primer on emissions sources, accounting frameworks, and emissions factors.

GHG Protocol Corporate Standard
World Resource Institute
Reporting Standard
The Greenhouse Gas Reporting Protocol is a carbon accounting methodology used to create a GHG inventory and ensure Scope 1 and 2 emissions are not double-counted by various reporting entities.

Inventory Management Plan Guidance
U.S. EPA
Guidance
An Inventory Management Plan (IMP) describes an organization's process for completing a high-quality, corporate-wide GHG inventory. Organizations use an IMP to institutionalize a process for collecting, calculating, and maintaining GHG data.

GHG Protocol Calculation Tools
World Resource Institute
Tool
This broad variety of greenhouse gas calculation tools from the Greenhouse Gas Protocol include sector-specific, country-specific, and city-specific tools as well as recently launched cross-sector tools.

GHG Emissions Factors Hub
U.S. EPA
Webpage
This page provides organizations with an easy-to-use set of default emissions factors for greenhouse gas reporting.

Operational Emissions Accounting for Commercial Buildings
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Guidance
This report reviews existing operational GHG emission accounting approaches, frameworks, and data sources. The report provides information to support decisions and approaches for frameworks for reducing emissions.

Carbon Inventory Calculator
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Tool
This calculator lets the user determine carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions for given combustion fuel, biofuel, refrigerant charge, purchased gases and purchased electricity from the grid. It also helps to calculate the emissions fuel use for transportation.

Electrification Impact Calculator
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Tool
Use this calculator to estimate potential cost and CO2 emissions savings resulting from changing from fuel-based equipment to electrical equipment.

Low Carbon Pilot Action Plan Tool (Beta)
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Tool
This spreadsheet was developed to support Better Plants partners participating in the Better Buildings Low Carbon Pilot. This draft Action Plan Tool is intended to help organizations plan their decarbonization journey at the buildings level. Please note this opens an online Excel sheet in a new window.