For users of building simulation software, or anyone
interested in learning more about the greenhouse gas emissions associated with a
building?s operation: we have just released a new, freely available ?Greenhouse
Gas (GHG) Tool for Buildings in California.? The
tool is meant to help building designers, architects and engineers better
understand the GHG emissions associated with California buildings? electricity and on-site
gas consumption.

The tool is available at:
http://www.ethree.com/E3_Public_Docs.html

We ask that people downloading
the tool first register, so that we can gauge interest in the tool, and
hopefully improve the tool in the future. Your feedback on the tool is much
appreciated, so please fill out the short survey at the same website, once
you?ve had a chance to download and check out the tool (it shouldn't take more than 5 minutes).

More background
information:

The tool's estimate of a building's GHG emissions is based
on the hourly on-site gas consumption of your building, paired with an estimate
of the building's GHG emissions from electricity consumption. The estimate of
the GHG emissions from electricity is based on the hourly operation profile of
your building (which is an input to the tool), paired with a forecast of the
hourly estimate of the carbon intensity of electricity on the California grid.?

The tool enables calculation of both a marginal electricity emissions
rate (to be used for measuring the effects of incremental changes to a building
design, for example) as well as an average electricity emissions rate (to be
used for calculating a building's carbon "footprint", for example.)

This
tool was developed in 2008 by Energy and Environmental Economics, Inc. (E3) with
funding from the California Energy Commission's Public Interest Energy Research
(PIER).
Thanks for your interest,Amber Mahone