Solutions
Altura works with clients on building energy performance and sustainability initiatives across the entire life cycle of planning, design, execution, verification, and optimization for continuous improvement.
Decarbonization &
Sustainability
Decarbonization Roadmaps
Decarbonization roadmaps serve a critical purpose in helping organizations to reduce their social and environmental impacts over time. Altura partners with clients throughout the sustainability continuum, beginning with benchmarking and goal setting to implementing best practices to achieve goals. Using a comprehensive stakeholder engagement process, we work with clients to fully understand their current practices, material impacts and desired outcomes to develop tailored improvement plans. Our mission is to seamlessly integrate decarbonization practices into the everyday business activities our our client organizations.
Our goal setting process begins with benchmarking current social and environmental performance trends and working with clients to establish meaningful short, medium and long-term improvement goals for social metrics including workforce diversity, remuneration, supply chain performance and environmental metrics such as greenhouse gas emissions, energy, water and waste and more. Once goal setting is complete, we partner with our clients to prioritize and implement improvement activities to remain on target to meet established goals. This process is dynamic and often involves input from many cross-functional stakeholders so our aim is to serve as an extension of our clients to build capacity, connect stakeholders and serve as a trusted advisor to help build meaningful, results-driven and persistent decarbonization programs.
Portfolio Retrofits
Altura has extensive experience working with clients to develop and align their sustainability reporting efforts with industry-leading platforms such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), CDP, Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI), Sustainalytics and more.
We use a multi-disciplinary stakeholder engagement process to work with business leaders across real estate, finance, procurement, legal, environmental health and safety, manufacturing and other areas to integrate data collection and reporting practices into a format that can be replicated each year. We view sustainability reporting as a critical mechanism for driving improvement; therefore we walk hand in hand with our clients recommending improvement measures that will drive the greatest positive results. These efforts result in our client achieving continuously improving ranks and ratings with CDP, DJSI, Sustainalytics and other rating platforms.
Environmental Programs
Creating an actionable environmental program is now an integral component of an organization’s annual sustainability reporting process. We help clients build meaningful environmental program infrastructures using standard industry protocols such as the World Resources Institute (WRI) and World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) Greenhouse Gas Protocol, the Science Based Target Initiative (SBTI) and other relevant standards.
Our process begins by working with clients to identify reporting boundaries and major sources of Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions. We align data collection and calculation and estimation methodologies with standardized protocols, while providing tools and resources to train clients on how to build and manage verifiable greenhouse gas inventories each year. Goal-setting is a critical component of effectively managing GHG emissions, so we work with clients to establish baseline year inventories and science-based reduction targets to show meaningful improvement over time. Beyond GHG reporting, our mission is to enhance environmental programs at a portfolio level an integral business function to allow our clients to gain better control over their relative impact on climate change.
Analytics
SkySpark Deployment and Management
Experience a deeper level of visibility, accountability, and quality control of your building’s performance with SkySpark and Altura Analytics.
The SkySpark platform is widely used in buildings around the world, totalling well over 1 billion square feet, delivering open, scalable energy analytics applications. Altura was an early adopter and is a leading provider of services surrounding the implementation, integration, and optimization of SkySpark. We are a Value Added Reseller for the software and have over 100 million square feet of buildings with active analytics in place that we manage.
We leverage Project Haystack to deliver industry standard, interoperable metadata tagging, unlocking the power of the data across multiple platforms. And by using an open, standardized and scalable data model, we are able to deliver value-added applications that feed into existing and new business processes through analytics and fault detection, enhanced reporting, and predictive maintenance.
Our services range from basic assistance with IT connectivity and data imports to implementing sparks and building custom applications to address client workflow needs.
Key custom SkySpark applications include:
- Dedicated data import and database management tools
- Standardized point and equipment naming and tagging libraries
- Extensive libraries of rule-based and predictive analytics
- Machine learning performance baseline modeling
- M&V reporting
- Issue, ticket and project tracking apps
- Utility billing and customer recharge management tools
- Asset management data delivery and validation tools
Click here to request information about SkySpark license fees
Analytic-Based Energy Management
Energy management is a broad set of activities that is different in every organization. We have developed a suite of Energy Management Information System tools and processes that are highly flexible and customizable to ensure maximum impact and return on investment from your analytics program.
Key capabilities include:
- Monitoring-based Commissioning
- Business process development and integration
- Smart, accessible machine learning performance baselines and modeling
- Rule-based and predictive analytics to identify what matters most
- Utility billing and customer recharge management tools
- Issue and ticket tracking tools to make processes transparent and manageable
- Asset management data delivery and validation tools
- Automated work order generation via 3rd party CMMS integration
- BAS programming optimization
- Capital project development and implementation
Facility Performance Management
The greatest value in a building analytics program is in the integration with and improvement of human capital and team workflows. Altura has built numerous tools on top of the SkySpark platform to deliver the valuable information to the right people at the right time and track activities from issue identification through on-going performance.
We can cost-effectively customize an Energy Management Information System for your building(s) with highly configurable views and automated email and dashboard reporting. We have also leveraged advanced data science and machine learning techniques to automate the process of generating custom baselines and M&V benchmarks for your building. You can now view building performance against smart baselines that are continuously calculated based on pre-project and post-project operating data and weather.
Smart Building Technology
BAS Design and Optimization
The Building Automation System (BAS) is a critical component of successful building operations. Yet it is often poorly understood and typically managed by outside vendors who can significantly bottleneck processes and drive up costs.
Altura uses its diverse experience to help identify and design the most flexible, scalable and competitive BAS platforms (i.e. multi-vendor sales and service channels available with no regional territories). The resultant systems integrate to devices from any number of building data protocols and vendors, meet and exceed network/IT security standards, and can be installed on preferred hardware of choice to enable technical support by a competitive and healthy vendor market.
We have years of experience in delivering open building automation systems that deliver the lowest total cost of ownership. Our experience includes the migration of proprietary controls systems to new open systems, often without the need to gut and replace everything.
We go beyond design and consulting by commissioning the BAS systems to ensure they meet the design intent and standards. We can also directly implement the complex optimization programming that is often problematic for many contractors, lowering total project costs and risk while improving performance outcomes.
Connected Commissioning
Connected Commissioning refers to an enhanced form of building commissioning (Cx) that supports and relies on the integration of the building controls automation (BAS), building data analytics, project design & construction documents, and where applicable, the Integrated Work Order Management System (IWMS) system, to better meet owner project requirements. Smart Cx improves the efficiency and lasting impact of the commissioning process, ensures continuity of building information transfer from design & construction into operations, and ultimately improves and extends the operations and performance of buildings.
Key differentiators of our approach include:
- Emphasis on BAS design and optimization, including deep facilitation of best in class sequences of operations and controls bench testing before deployment
- Data analytics integration to improve process efficiency and reduce schedule risk
- Automated functional testing of terminal equipment ensuring 100% testing and continuous re-testing
- Asset data management to ensure project data is delivered smoothly to operations
- Warranty period commissioning to identify issues under warranty and optimize the building under real load conditions
Master Systems Integration
Successful smart building programs start with a high quality, reliable data infrastructure. How is this accomplished? Through Master Systems Integration. We work with you to build robust data architecture that prepare you and your buildings for the future, while delivering immediate improvements in energy efficiency, cyber security, and better building controls. Standards are then delivered to all vendors that include all of the details necessary for successful systems integration, including Design Standards, Network Architecture Standards, and IT Configuration Standards. All while protecting your data with the highest standard of cyber security on the market.
Performance
Delivery
Fundamental Commissioning
Commissioning is not a one-size-fits-all process – it should be tailored to the owner’s goals, environmental constraints, design intent, and human resources. Altura will formulate a cost-effective and performance-driven commissioning plan for your project. Our team has proven success with a wide variety of frameworks, such as LEED, CALGreen, various Net Zero Energy definitions, ASHRAE, OSHPD, and more. Our experience includes healthcare, labs, pharmaceutical manufacturing, commercial office, hotel and resort, university, K-12 schools, and multi-family projects.
We utilize data analytics on all of our Cx projects to deliver a more efficient and valuable process – we call it Connected Commissioning. Altura pioneered an Automated Functional Performance Testing approach and toolset that can achieve 100% testing of equipment along with significant cost and time savings.
Key differentiators of our Connected Cx approach include:
- Emphasis on BAS design and optimization, including deep facilitation of best in class sequences of operations and controls bench testing before deployment
- Data analytics integration to improve process efficiency and reduce schedule risk
- Automated functional testing of terminal equipment ensuring 100% testing and continuous re-testing
- Asset data management to ensure project data is delivered smoothly to operations
- Warranty period commissioning to identify issues under warranty and optimize the building under real load conditions
Enhanced CX and Measurement and Verification
Our analytics-based Connected Commissioning approach delivers the basis for a truly enhanced Cx process with built-in Measurement and Verification (M&V). Starting in the design phase, we are able to maximize the value of key design components and equipment selections to ensure the lowest cost of ownership in actual operations. We can also leverage data analytics to deliver a robust on-going metering program that often does not require extensive dedicated sub-metering.
Our goal is to build design performance goals into ongoing reports that not only show how the building is tracking against targets, but also why performance changing through detailed analytics and customized M&V reporting.
Custom Solutions
Energy Systems Retrofit
Don’t let good projects die with a nice report sitting on a shelf. Altura has the tools and expertise to see energy improvement projects through the entire lifecycle from planning through commissioning and into operations. This service can be as simple as providing bid documents in place of a typical engineering report, and can be as complex as bringing the financing and construction management services needed to get the project done with turn-key delivery.
With projects totaling well over $100M, our demonstrated results in this area include major central energy plant retrofits, comprehensive building control system retrofits, portfolio-wide HVAC and lighting upgrades, and portfolio-wide solar PV deployments.
Program Management
Altura has combined many of our core services to develop, implement, and evolve custom energy and environmental programs for large portfolios. These programs have included custom green building rating systems, environmental steering committee facilitation, green technology evaluation and implementation support, and environmental design guidelines.
