Questions
Answers
What is environmental scorekeeping and why do I need it?
Environmental scorekeeping ensures that your organization's fundamental performance is understood on issues such as energy, water and climate change, from the point of view of consumption, costs and emissions. It is ongoing, independent and comparative. Scorekeeping is essential for motivating, improving and maintaining environmental performance. Think of a scoreboard at a football or baseball stadium. It's the one place that players, umpires, commentators and the crowd can look to at any time to know instantly what's been done and what needs to be done. (Of course, your organization's environmental scoreboard can be completely private if you wish). How can you measure and improve your performance without one? read more ...
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Environmental Scorekeeping - why is it so important?
Environmental scorekeeping, or the ongoing monitoring of organisation performance across a range of environmental issues, is one of the most important elements of any environmental program. Without access to performance information that is accurate, consistent, and available on demand, an organisation will lack the information it needs to make effective decisions and manage day-to-day issues. Quite simply, an organisation that is seeking to improve its environmental performance without access to regular performance results can be likened to a surgeon operating without any monitoring equipment. It is inefficient, uninformed and potentially dangerous to the credibility of the organisation.
Planet Footprint works closely with its clients to entrench its scorekeeping service as a crucial element of each clients' environmental programs. Organisations are encouraged to draw on Planet Footprint's reports and data regularly in all aspects of day to day operations and decision making. We work to do the measuring and scorekeeping, so you can focus on improving your performance.
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Is Planet Footprint an engineering firm? Is it a consulting firm?
No, we are not engineers or consultants. We use our engineering, consulting and IT expertise to deliver a fully managed environmental scorekeeping service. Environmental scorekeeping must be continuous, independent and affordable, which makes it unsuitable for engineering and consulting firms. If you are lucky enough to be able to afford engineers and consultants, get them to do what they do best: improve your performance by completing specific projects. At the same time you can use Planet Footprint to keep the score, which will help you identify opportunities, set goals, measure results and monitor ongoing performance.
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Is Planet Footprint a software package?
No. We provide a managed environmental scorekeeping service at a much lower TCO (total cost of ownership) than a software package. If you install an in-house software package to track environmental performance you still have to collate, manipulate and upload the data yourself. Many organizations buy expensive software with lots of features only to find it ineffective because they can't reliably get data into it. The result is a time-consuming system that provdes incomplete and inaccurate reports that lack credibility. In other words, a white elephant.
Self-service web-based systems, whether free or commercial or government sponsored, suffer from exactly the same problem as above. A web-based is system is still software, it's just running in a different place.
Planet Footprint are IT experts, but we don't sell software. We provide managed data collection and credible reporting with the ability to compare, benchmark and share results - features that can't be provided by software alone.
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What Programs does Planet Footprint Have?
Energy, Greenhouse and Water
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What sort of reports does Planet Footprint deliver?
Planet Footprint provides the following reports to clients (depending on their subscription):
- Service Detail Reports for Electricity, Gas, Street lighting and Water. These contain a list of relevant accounts and their consumption and cost data.
- Organization Footprint Reports for Energy, Fleet, Street lighting, Water and Greenhouse. These reports also contain benchmarking against similar organizations.
- Property Footprint Reports for Energy and Water. These reports also contain benchmarking against similar properties.
- Organization Anomaly Reports which show possible anomalies for electricity, gas and water usage that Planet Footprint's data analysis has discovered.
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How often are reports delivered?
Reports are automatically delivered to each organization 10 weeks after the end of each quarter.
However, you can contact us at any time to have a report sent to you in a 72-hour timeframe.
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What does a subscription to Planet Footprint cost?
This depends on which services you wish to subscribe to. Please contact us for further information
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Why use Planet Footprint instead of in-house resources?
In-house systems for environmental data collection and reporting are very poor at meeting these essential criteria: comparable, on-demand, independent, continuous, consistent and cost-effective. Why invest resources in a system that will make constant demands on staff time and whose results will be continually questioned by management? Even successful systems usually fail within a year or two because the key champion of the system either leaves the organization or moves on to other projects. Taking ownership of environmental performance doesn't mean doing everything in-house. That approach can really hold you back from getting on with the vital task of improving your performance.
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How does the Planet Footprint subscription work?
Planet Footprint delivers its services in the form of an annual subscription. Organizations pay an annual fee to Planet Footprint to have their energy, water and greenhouse performance continuously monitored, benchmarked and reported. At the end of each financial year, clients are invited to renew their subscription to maintain a continuity of service.
When an organization first subscribes to Planet Footprint, the reporting commences for the financial year in which they have joined. For some organizations, Planet Footprint is able to obtain data from previous financial years to show the historical performance of the organization. This is generally the case for local government and some other sectors, where Planet Footprint can often report on performance for several years prior to the current reporting period, for an additional fee.
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How does Planet Footprint capture the data needed to develop reports?
Managed data collection is a fundamental feature of the Planet Footprint Scorekeeping Service. Planet Footprint uses several techniques to obtain data, all of which are coordinated through our Environmental Data Gathering Engine, or 'EDGE'. Planet Footprint's EDGE can obtain data:
- directly from energy and water retailers
- via online retailer billing systems
- direct from internal client data management systems
- by extracting directly from bills
- from the completion of simple kits (e.g. fleet and waste toolkits for local government).
The EDGE method applied to each organization depends on the sector in which that organization operates, and the complexity of asset and account structure within that organization. Planet Footprint may employ a mix of EDGE methods to obtain the data it needs to generate reports. Whatever approach is taken, Planet Footprint always coordinates and manages the data collection process with the objective of minimizing the input required from clients.
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Planet Footprint is 'independent'. What does this mean?
Planet Footprint is a pure environmental scorekeeper. Our sole business is environmental and sustainability performance measurement, reporting and benchmarking. We don't sell consulting hours, technology or advice, so we have no vested interest in how our clients are performing. This enables us to monitor and report in a completely objective way, giving our service an independence and transparency second to none.
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Is Planet Footprint an energy audit company?
No. Energy audit companies take a snapshot of performance at a point in time, with a view to providing recommendations for improvement. Planet Footprint monitors performance continuously and provides this information to organizations on demand in the form of reports showing stand alone and benchmarked performance. In addition, while audit firms often only focus their attention on a subset of the total properties owned by an organization, Planet Footprint monitors and reports the energy and water performance of every asset, facility and building.
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Our organization has a complicated set of hundreds of energy and water accounts. How does Planet Footprint cope with this?
Planet Footprint has invested hundreds of hours and tens of thousands of dollars into research, development and infrastructure to build our capacity to handle the complexities of utility account management. As a result, we have the systems, processes and knowledge to routinely deal with complex issues such as retailer changeovers, missing accounts........................
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How does Planet Footprint's service differ from technical services that report time-of-use or interval energy performance?
Interval data (also called Smart Meter Data) is very useful for individual energy saving projects involving engineering or behavioral change. However, interval data is very rarely available for all properties or electricity services in your portfolio and data access charges and interpretive software are expensive. Most managers need more complete and readily usable information.
Planet Footprint collects and reports energy charges as well as consumption. Our reports and datasets include cost information (unavailable in interval data), which gives the all-important financial context for making improvement decisions. Any manager can understand Planet Footprint reports.
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How is the privacy of organizations protected when benchmarking?
Benchmarkiing is anonymous. No-one can see who you are, unless you choose to show them.
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What support does Planet Footprint provide to clients?
Subscribers to the Planet Footprint Scorekeeping Service can access the secure login area of the Planet Footprint website, where they can view and download tools, information guides, case studies and other support materials. Further, every Planet Footprint client can access our toll-free telephone (800) number and email support, to obtain first-hand advice on how to interpret and disseminate reports for maximum effectiveness.
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Does Planet Footprint give advice on how to improve energy, water or greenhouse performance?
Planet Footprint is a pure environmental scorekeeper. We deliver a completely objective monitoring, benchmarking and reporting service, and do not give advice on how to improve performance. However, most of our clients find that the breadth of useful information we provide and our ability to show them what that peers have done to improve performance gives them enough information to identify what they should be doing up front, ahead of engaging consultants or engineers for more technical advice later on.
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Does Planet Footprint report anomalies or exceptions in performance?
A key report delivered by Planet Footprint to all subscribers is our Anomaly Report, where we highlight exceptions and anomalies in performance, such as properties with unusual spikes in consumption, or utility accounts where no consumption is being recorded but service charges are still being levied by the retailer.
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Can Planet Footprint report on the energy, water or greenhouse performance of communities?
Planet Footprint is working with several retailers and local governments to pilot a program where the energy, water and greenhouse performance of communities can be measured and benchmarked. Privacy would be protected by keeping the reporting resolution low, such as reporting on performance at the suburb level.
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How does Planet Footprint deal with municipal waste for reporting purposes? (local government only)
Planet Footprint has developed a simple toolkit for capturing municipal waste data for feeding into our local government waste reports. We are currently working to develop a universal waste data capture framework for local governments to use based on EPA's WARM and other approved protocols. The important criteria are that the tools are simple and use readily available data, so that any local government can participate.
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We are a CCP City. How would Planet Footprint help us? (local government only)
Planet Footprint is a great complement to your Cities for Climate protection (CCP) Program. Planet Footprint's ongoing data collection for local governments, and provision of this data to them in the form of reports and spreadsheets, delivers the information needed to quickly and easily populate the CCP online emissions inventory database.
In fact, the ongoing and on-demand aspect of the Planet Footprint Service provide you with continuous insight as to the energy and greenhouse performance of your municipality, which can then be complemented by formal annual or biennial inventory updates via CCP.
The Planet Footprint Property Footprint Reports also enable you to monitor the effectiveness of your Local Action Plan projects by observing the 'before and after' performance of sites. And because all our reports are based on real data, you will know precisely what the bottom line result has been for your organization.
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Our City updates our CCP inventory annually. Why would Planet Footprint be useful to us? (local government only)
The ongoing aspect of the Planet Footprint Service provides you with up-to-date, on demand information regarding the energy and greenhouse performance of your community, which can then be complemented by annual or biennial inventory updates via CCP.
When a manager, elected official, or community member asks the question "What are out current levels of greenhouse emissions for our administration building" you can instantly give them a report and data that is up to date to the end of the most recent quarterly reporting period, rather than draw on a CCP inventory that might already be 6, 12 or even 24 months out of date.
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How does Planet Footprint benchmark performance?
Planet Footprint benchmarking shows your properties' energy and water consumption, costs and greenhouse gases compared to the best, mean and median of other properties of a similar function (e.g. office buildings, schools, libraries, warehouses) and climate zone.
Properties of different size are comparable because we benchmark based on indicators such as consumption per square foot per day; per employee, student or resident; and even per operating hour. We differ from other rating schemes in that we are independent, cover a broader range of property types, provide on-demand updates and, most importantly, because we use real measurements.
For some sectors, such as Local Government, we benchmark the performance of entire organizations. Benchmarkiing is anonymous - no-one can see who you are unless you choose to show them.
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How long does it take before we get our first reports? (local government only)
Account information needs to be checked and uploaded to Planet Footprint's system before requesting the data from utilities. The returned data is then uploaded and checked further before issuing the initial reports to you. Setting up reports for your community can take up to ten weeks from the time we receive your completed Commencement Toolkit but often this occurs in less time.
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What is included in a standard Planet Footprint subscription (local government only)
Communities that subscribe to the standard Planet Footprint Scorekeeping Service - Local Government receive the following:
- On demand access to
> Organization Footprint Reports for Energy, Street Lighting, Fleet, Greenhouse, Water (selected communities only)
> Property Footprint Reports for Energy, and Water (selected communities only) for five properties
> Service Detail Data sheets for Electricity, Natural Gas (if applicable), Bottled Gas (if applicable), and Water (selected communities only)
> Service Detail Reports for Electricity, Natural Gas (if applicable), Bottled Gas (if applicable), and Water (selected communities only)
> Anomaly Reports
> Account Management Toolkits
- Access to the subscribers section of the Planet Footprint website
- Access to telephone, e-mail and online Service support.
Subscription is on a financial year basis, with reports showing performance from the beginning of the current financial year. Communities may purchase historical data from Planet Footprint, depending on Planet Footprint's ability to access this data from retailers.
Communities can purchase extra Property Footprint Reports in addition to the five delivered at no charge.
Subscribe to the Planet Footprint Scorekeeping Service - Local Government.
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