The Greenhouse Gas & Energy Audit
An energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) audit identifies key sources of energy consumption and emissions, helping your community determine where improvements will have the greatest impact. Common areas reviewed include heating, cooling, lighting, appliances, vehicles, and electricity use. SSAFE offers an audit request template to help you get started.
Earlier in this guide, we introduced the “two tributary” approach to campus sustainability, recognizing that energy efficiency and greenhouse gas reduction often flow together but can sometimes diverge.
An audit is a practical way to see how those tributaries run through your own community and to determine where each effort should be prioritized.
An audit is a formal process, conducted by an engineering firm, to identify where and how energy is being used inefficiently in your buildings and where greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced as a result. The auditing team will examine the building’s structure, including the type and condition of doors and windows and the level of insulation. They will assess HVAC equipment and other large energy uses such as hot water, elevators, laundries, swimming pools, and lighting. The team will provide an analysis and set of recommendations in a report that will generally be dozens of pages long, with a lot of technical detail.
You may decide you want all your buildings audited, or just a selection. For example, if you have some stand-alone duplexes or residential clusters, you may or may not want them audited at the same time as your central buildings.
Most communities begin with an audit focused on energy efficiency, since reducing waste and lowering bills is the most immediate concern. However, if your community’s top priority is addressing climate change, the emphasis of an audit can shift. The sidebar below explains how greenhouse gas reduction may take precedence over traditional energy savings.
Prioritizing GHG Reduction
If your community chooses GHG emission reduction as the primary priority, the emphasis of an audit will look different from one focused mainly on energy efficiency. Most of the time these two strategies align, but under time and budget constraints they may diverge.
The guiding principle is this: if investing in energy efficiency would prevent or delay your community from fully eliminating fossil fuels, then efficiency measures may need to be postponed. In such cases, immediate fossil fuel replacement should take precedence in order to stay on track with net zero goals.
This prioritization can become complex, especially when infrastructure upgrades involve embodied carbon. If greater efficiency would significantly reduce that embodied carbon, a more detailed analysis may be needed to balance cutting operational emissions with minimizing upstream impacts.
It is important to remember that the ultimate goal is not just to lower energy bills but to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions. Of course, if funding allows, both fossil fuel elimination and energy efficiency can move forward together, often producing cost savings along the way.
An Energy/GHG Audit is a critical first step in this process, giving your community the information needed to make thoughtful decisions about both near-term actions and long-term planning.
Not All Energy/GHG Audits Are Alike
When embarking on an Energy/GHG Audit, it is important to understand that not all audits are created equal. The depth, focus, and methodology can vary significantly, impacting the insights gained and the effectiveness of subsequent actions. To help standardize audit practices, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) has developed widely recognized audit “levels” that describe increasing degrees of detail and rigor. Choosing the right type of audit is key to avoiding superficial efforts that offer little genuine environmental benefit and to ensuring your investment in time and resources yields meaningful results.
Here are some common types of Energy/GHG Audits:
- Preliminary or Walk-Through Audit (ASHRAE Level 1)
- Visual inspection of the facility
- Review of utility bills and basic operational data
- Identifies low- or no-cost energy-saving opportunities
- Useful for quick assessments or screening buildings for deeper audits
- Standard or General Audit (ASHRAE Level 2)
- Builds on Level 1 with more detailed data collection
- Includes on-site measurements (e.g., lighting levels, HVAC performance)
- Evaluates energy conservation measures (ECMs) with estimated costs and savings
- Often includes a financial analysis (e.g., simple payback)
- Investment-Grade Audit (ASHRAE Level 3)
- Most comprehensive level, used for major capital projects
- Involves sub-metering, detailed engineering analysis, and life-cycle cost assessments
- Provides high-confidence projections for energy savings and return on investment
- Deep-Energy Retrofit Audit
- While often aligning with an ASHRAE Level 3 audit, a deep-energy retrofit audit specifically focuses on identifying opportunities for holistic, whole-building improvements that lead to substantial reductions in energy consumption, often 30% or more. This goes beyond simple equipment upgrades to consider building envelope improvements, integrated systems, and renewable energy integration. It aims for a transformative change in the building’s energy performance.
- GHG Emissions Reduction Audit
- This type of audit focuses specifically on quantifying a facility’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across Scope 1, 2, and often Scope 3 categories. It identifies the primary sources of these emissions and pinpoints opportunities to reduce them. While energy consumption is a major contributor to GHG emissions, a dedicated GHG audit can also consider other sources like fugitive emissions (e.g.unintentional leaks or releases of greenhouse gases from equipment, typically from refrigeration systems, gas lines, or fire suppression systems.) The output includes a baseline emissions inventory and a roadmap for achieving specific reduction targets
For more information about ASHRAE audit levels, see:
Procedures for Commercial Building Energy Audits
How do you ensure a good Energy/GHG Audit?
You will want to pick a good, experienced auditing firm (download the How to Choose a Contractor Guide.) Checking references with recent customers is important. You probably want to put together a “Request for Proposal” (RFP) that can be sent out to several potential companies. SSAFE can help with that: We offer an Energy/GHG Audit RFP template that you can download for free and adapt to your specific needs. The RFP template is accompanied by specific suggestions about the levels at which to audit and tailoring the RFP to the community’s goals.
What happens after the audit?
The Energy/GHG Audit will provide metrics needed to determine priorities for improvement. The auditing team will probably make a presentation of their findings to the administration, and you may want to ask them to make a presentation to residents as well.
After that, it will be up to your Facilities or Buildings team, perhaps working with a committee of residents, to determine which items can be addressed immediately, which will have to wait, and which, if any, can potentially be dropped altogether.
Are there sustainability issues an audit won’t address?
An Energy/GHG Audit is a vital tool that typically focuses on buildings and energy. The items involved might include community-owned vehicles, lawn mowers, and emergency generators. You can probably think of several more. These may or may not be covered by the audit depending on the scope of work specified.
Many behaviors influence your greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, either positively or negatively. The gasoline and diesel consumed by delivery trucks, the fuel used by farmers cultivating your food, and the jet fuel utilized for business travel are significant contributors to fossil fuel emissions. Moreover, aspects such as food waste in your dining hall, reliance on single-use plastics, and even your menu selections can exacerbate GHG emissions. Conversely, participating in forestry initiatives or implementing solar panels can help mitigate your GHG output.
An Energy/GHG Audit provides a critical foundation, but it is only one piece of the puzzle. A comprehensive sustainability plan is needed to connect the audit’s insights with wider strategies that can ultimately lead your community to net zero. (Read more in the Support and Planning section of this guide.)
