The probability that the government will extend Display Energy Certificates (DECs) to all non-residential properties will put further pressure on building operators to measure and improve their energy consumption. In the case of extensive property portfolios simply managing the vast amount of data will be a severe challenge.

“Managing energy and other sustainability data is one of the areas of sustainability that is often overlooked until the last minute,” warns Steve Dingley of Integrated fm, developers of the recently launched Sustainability iQ. “People are quick to recognise that they can reduce energy consumption but they then have to tackle the challenge of harvesting accurate, audited energy data quickly enough to act on it.

“The need to produce DECs will add to the pressures on timeliness and accuracy. On the plus side, DECs will also help building operators better understand their energy consumption and identify area for improvement,” he added.

Built on over 20 years experience of managing operational data, Sustainability iQ is the world’s first truly auditable management system for CSR and sustainability. It is fully web-enabled and highly configurable to suit each organisation’s processes, as well as industry-wide standards (e.g. Defra, Accounting for Sustainability). It can import data from a wide range of sources, and all data is validated and made available for fast evaluation and reporting, with a full audit trail of origins and any changes.