VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and Rapal Oy have developed a calculator that can be used determine the environmental load caused by various premise solutions.
The tool is based on Rapal's Optimaze.net property management service.
The calculator helps set objectives and monitor results simultaneously with respect to both finance and environmental impacts, and supports property management that is in accordance with sustainable development.
The core of the Optimaze.net service is ASP-based software used with a web browser.
The system combines the perspectives of finance, personnel resources, and premises; and it can be used to calculate costs for particular user groups and premises.
VTT developed a feature into the service that enables the user of the office premises to get an overall estimate of the environmental impact of the premise solutions under examination.
VTT's task in the project was to create a calculation model and collect the necessary background data for the calculation of the carbon footprint of the property.
Using the designed calculation model, the energy consumption resulting from the heating, cooling, lighting, and electricity for devices on the premises can be converted into environmental impacts.
In addition, when estimating the carbon footprint, the location of the office premises is taken into consideration, as well as environmental effects related to travel to the premises, including various forms of commuting and business trips.
In the co-operation project between VTT and Rapal, the environmental perspective has been incorporated into the same tool, alongside other essential factors in property management.
The tool can be used to determine what personnel resource solutions for the use of the premises are possible and what effect they have on costs and the environmental load.
Since commuting is included, it is possible to estimate the effects of teleworking on the property's carbon footprint.
In the project, instructions were also drawn up for the possible utilisation of the organisation's environmental impact data in various environmental-responsibility and environmental-reporting processes as part of comprehensive property management in accordance with sustainable development.
The tool developed in the project enables the reporting of the results as graphic presentations and in table form for the various stakeholder groups of the client organisation and also directly for the end-users of energy, in other words, the personnel.
Initially, the environmental calculation add-on based on VTT's calculation model will only be usable in Finland's conditions, but in the future the solution will be expanded to be usable in other countries.
