Latest News

New heuristics and resources have been added to BETTER to improve the targeting and implementing of solutions to improve window energy performance in buildings. This includes adding new heuristics and resources to identify and implement upgrades to windows to reduce solar heat gain (e.g., adding secondary glazing systems) and to improve thermal efficiency of windows (e.g., increasing window insulation).

ICDI, a Taiwanese think tank, is leveraging the BETTER open-source code for development of an online tool to serve as an instrument to evaluate the energy consumption of Taiwanese buildings.

Berkeley Lab held a virtual training session for the National Commission for the Efficient Use of Energy (CONUEE) on the use of BETTER. The session was attended by the CONUEE Director who indicated that BETTER will be used to conduct a test to analyze energy performance by public buildings in Mexico City and the State of Mexico. Another training session on BETTER was held in a hybrid format on August 10, 2022 for participants of the Efficient Building Challenge, an initiative led by WRI Mexico and the Mexico City Secretariat of the Environment (SEDEMA) aimed at reducing energy consumption in public and commercial buildings in Mexico City. This session included a live demonstration and a review of energy saving recommendations generated by BETTER. For more, visit EE4D.

Since the launch of BETTER V.1.0 in July 2020, more than 4300 buildings, covering approximately 350 million square feet of floor space across 50 countries and 16 sectors have been entered in BETTER. On a monthly basis, approximately 25 new users register and enter an additional 360 buildings and 30 million square feet of floor space.

As part of an ongoing engagement and collaboration with the Secretariats of Ecology/Environment and Tourism of Quintana Roo, Mexico, Berkeley Lab is providing technical assistance to support a pilot program for clean development of the hotel industry in the state, which receives 47% of all international tourists in Mexico. Hotels participating in the pilot program will provide energy consumption data to be uploaded in BETTER to analyze energy consumption patterns and identify low or no-cost energy efficiency measures that will result in economic and environmental benefits. An informative session held on July 14, 2022 with Berkeley Lab and hotel facilities operators provided details on the use of BETTER and opened the registration period to participate in the pilot program. For more, visit EE4D.

Berkeley Lab delivered a virtual workshop to officials at the National Commission for the Efficient Use of Energy (CONUEE) on the properties and functionality of BETTER. The agenda of the workshop included a discussion of the potential adoption of a customized version of BETTER for Mexico to support CONUEE’s data gathering efforts and program design targeting private and public buildings. The partnership with CONUEE and the development of a customized version of BETTER will help in creating the data infrastructure needed to expand technical assistance activities to increase energy efficiency uptake in Mexico’s building sector. For more, visit EE4D .

World Resources Institute (WRI) Mexico and the Mexico City Secretariat of the Environment (SEDEMA), with support from the National Commission for the Efficient Use of Energy (CONUEE), the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), and Berkeley Lab launched the second phase of the Efficient Buildings Challenge (EBC) in Mexico City this week. BETTER will be among the software tools utilized in the second phase of EBC to assist buildings to reduce energy usage by 10 percent annually. For more, visit EE4D.

Berkeley Lab introduced BETTER to a group of local experts from public and private institutions in Tunisia. As a result of the webinar, ANME will collect a set of data to work with Berkeley Lab in order to customize and pilot BETTER for Tunisia’s hotel sector. For more, visit EE4D.

BETTER is helping state agencies and school districts to decarbonize their buildings while saving taxpayers money.

BETTER is being used to identify buildings in New England’s underserved neighborhoods that are most in need of energy improvements through a program called Rapid Retrofits.

BETTER V1.0. is live!

Learn why approximately 400 organizations are turning to BETTER to decarbonize their building portfolios.

A new U.S. DOE data tools website for cities interested in pursuing building performance standards (BPS) features BETTER.

Berkeley Lab and Energy Resources Integration (ERI) presented at the CxEnergy virtual conference on how BETTER is being used to assess a portfolio of 450 California state agency buildings, target buildings for audits, validate audit findings, and perform longitudinal benchmarking.

BETTER was named a semi-finalist for the 2021 EarthX Climate-Tech Prize – an award which connects early-stage developers with investors.

Berkeley Lab presents at the Woodrow Wilson Center China Environment Forum webcast on BETTER and the evolution of building energy efficiency benchmarking and analysis tools to speed decarbonization of existing buildings in China and the United States. Click here to listen to the recorded session.

Berkeley Lab delivered a guest lecture on BETTER to graduate students in Fanshawe College's Building Energy Modeling Course as part of Johnson Controls' Global Sustainability Network Earth Month outreach activities.

Beta version of BETTER is live!

BETTER can now estimate potential GHG emissions reductions for buildings and portfolios through improved energy efficiency.

Updated the portfolio report to show energy consumption and savings breakdown, and most frequently recommended energy efficiency measures.

The data entry template is updated. The new template adds more energy units which are the same as the units used in ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager®

Alpha version of BETTER is live!