ISO 50001 for real estate: certificate online

Energy is one of the largest running costs of a building. In rented property much of it ends up in the service charge statement, so owners, tenants and asset managers all have a reason to ask how it is controlled.

The question reaches property companies in three places. An owner or investor asks the property manager about consumption in the portfolio. A tender for facility or building management asks for evidence of an energy management system. The purchasing department of a corporate tenant sends a supplier questionnaire that includes an energy section.

A certificate does not answer these questions by itself. It gives you a document with a number that the other side can check, instead of a paragraph of promises in your quote.

• ISO 50001 standard page

ISO 50001 does not prescribe technology. It asks you to find out where energy is used, who decides about it and how you notice when consumption drifts. In a property business the same weak points come up again and again.

The standard uses vocabulary from industry in general. This is how the main terms read for a company that owns or manages buildings.

Energy baseline

The reference consumption you compare against later, for example the heating energy of a residential block over one full heating season before any measure.

Significant energy use

The few installations that account for most of the consumption: the central heating plant of an office building, ventilation in an underground car park, lift drives.

Energy performance indicator (EnPI)

A ratio that makes buildings comparable, such as kWh of heating energy per square metre of heated area per year.

Energy objective

A defined aim for a defined scope, for example lower electricity use for lighting in the car parks of the managed portfolio.

Action plan

The answer to who does what by when and with which budget: who replaces the heating control in building B, and in which quarter.

The requirements become manageable when you tie each one to a document you already hold or can produce in a few days.

1. 01

   Build the baseline from invoices and meters

   Take twelve months of utility invoices and meter readings per building. Where a building management system exists, export its monthly values. One table per building is enough.

2. 02

   Rank the energy uses

   Sort the buildings and their installations by consumption. The top few entries are your significant energy uses, and everything else follows from them.

3. 03

   Choose one or two EnPIs per building type

   Residential and commercial buildings need different indicators. Pick figures you can calculate from data you already collect.

4. 04

   Write objectives with an owner

   Each objective names a building or group of buildings, a person responsible and a date. The action plan lists the measures behind it, such as adjusting the heating curve or changing luminaires.

5. 05

   Put energy into the purchasing rules

   When a pump, boiler or lighting system is replaced, the specification asks for the energy consumption and the decision records it.

6. 06

   Review the figures on a fixed rhythm

   Set a monthly or quarterly meeting where the property manager compares the EnPIs with the baseline and notes deviations and measures.

You start with the online self-assessment for ISO 50001. It has 32 yes/no questions. Thirteen of them are mandatory requirements of the standard and all must be answered yes. Of the other 19 questions, at least 13 must be answered yes. You do not need an account to buy.

The certificate is issued by G6 Agency AG under licence from SICE, the Swiss Institute of Certification and Education. SICE reviews every assessment before the certificate is issued. There is no on-site audit. Each year a short online re-audit confirms that the certificate still applies.

Every certificate can be checked publicly by number or by the QR code on the PDF. A tenant's purchasing department or a tender office can open the verification page without contacting you.

• Start the free self-assessment
• See pricing
• How it works

Read the tender documents or the supplier questionnaire first. Most ask for a valid certificate of the standard, with number and issuer. Some name the form of audit they expect. If a client explicitly requires the classic route with an on-site audit by a certification body, ask before you decide.

Define the scope honestly. A company may certify its own offices, the buildings it manages or the whole portfolio, as long as the energy management system really covers them. The guides below compare the routes and costs.

• Compare the certification routes
• Certification without an on-site audit
• Cost of certification