This article is Part 2 of the 2030 DDx Reporting Process. Make sure to review the first section if you have not already here. Also, check out the 2030 Commitment AIA Youtube for other amazing tutorials.

When you go back to the DDx platform, in the portfolio tab, search for your project using the project name or number that you used to save the project in cove.tool. There are 8 sections that appear on the screen described below. Go through the project information and edit it according to the requirements of your project to ensure it is correct and complete.

Once you select the project that you want to set up, 8 sections will be displayed on the screen:

This section will display the current status of the project, whether it’s active, complete, on hold, or canceled. It will show you a) comparisons between your project and other similar projects in DDx, b) progress of the project towards the goal, and c) savings from the baseline based on the project target, predicted project EUI, and 2030 target.

This section, filled automatically by cove.tool, displays the basic information about the project like the project name, number, climate zone, location, energy code followed. The pencil icon on the bottom right corner can be used to edit the information and further move on to the next sections.

This section displays your project use type. If you have multiple use-types, all of them will be displayed in this section along with their areas and the 2030 targets for each building typology.

If you move to this section through the previous section or by clicking on the pencil icon shown in this particular section, you will be asked for more information which isn’t automated by cove.tool like the estimated building, site work, and construction costs. If you have those numbers, fill them, however, they are not one of the required categories (not marked with an asterisk icon).

Further down in the section, you can see the zero tool that is used by the DDx to get baseline energy information. This can be useful if you have no time to run an energy model or you don’t have enough inputs to create a cove.tool model. Zero tool and cove.tool generate similar results since they both follow CBECS to benchmark the buildings with cove.tool creating more detailed results.

This section allows you to set up an energy target for your project.

When you click on the pencil icon, it redirects you to a page where you can choose your own unique target for the project. cove.tool sets it up automatically for you, however, you can still edit it or use the default target value. Whichever one you want to use, make sure that choice is highlighted (green).

It further displays a graph for each building use type showing the predicted EUI savings, code equivalency and 2030 Target percentage. By clicking on the “Save and View Project” button present at the bottom right corner, you complete your first/concept phase project reporting.

This section allows you to add the operational data. To add this information, you must click on the green button on the top right corner of this section and it will redirect you to a page that asks for the reported data, measured EUI, and the reported energy used in the cycle.

This section allows you to report project data for various design phases – Concept, Schematic, Design Development, Construction Documents, Construction Administration. You have to click on the “Add Design Data” button on the top right corner of the section to start adding information. A questionnaire appears with Yes or No questions to be filled according to what applies to your project.

This part has to be filled manually going back and forth between the AIA 2030 page and the cove.tool project page. Currently, there is no API connection for this section to be automatically filled by cove.tool, thus, it is highly recommended to create copies of your project in cove.tool for each design phase to easily track design data for this segment.

a) Track Design Data: Select the reporting phase from the drop-down menu. The reporting date will be automatically filled in for the date you are accessing the page but can be edited.

b) Predicted Energy Use: Select yes, if energy modeling has been done for the specific design phase you are reporting for. When you do so, a number of more options appear. Choose the energy modeling tool used and the party who ran the energy model from the drop-down menu, along with the energy modeling cost (optional).

Further, you have to fill the predicted EUI value that you can easily find on the baseline energy page (shown below) of the project you are reporting for.

c) Renewable Energy Sources: If you have any renewable sources in your project like photovoltaics, select Yes and it will ask you what kind of renewable energy you have in your project as well as off-site.

d) Predicted Lighting Power Density: If LPD has been calculated for the specific design phase which will be true in most cases, then select Yes.

Further, it will ask for the LPD value, that you will have to get from the energy model. If you are using cove.tool, you can go to the baseline energy page of your project. Under the “Usage and Schedules” tab, you will get the LPD (Lighting) value for your project that you can copy and paste directly as shown here. Make sure the units are consistent on both websites. If you are working in W/m sq. in cove.tool, convert that to W/sq. ft. before reporting it to AIA 2030.

e) Embodied Carbon: A new bit of information related to embodied carbon is now required by AIA 2030. If you want to fill this section, you can do so using cove.tool. Go to the optimization page on cove.tool, under the Bundles tab, you will find the baseline embodied carbon in tonnes. Keep in mind that the units on the AIA page are in kg and thus, divide the cove.tool value by 1000 before reporting it to AIA 2030. (Always make sure the units are consistent).

Further, choose the energy modeling tool. The embodied carbon calculations are done for under 60 years by EC3 which is the calculator used by cove.tool.

Select “Other” for the scope included and “Product Stage (A1-3)” for the LCA stages since the embodied carbon value from cove.tool accounts for only A1 – A3 stages, i.e. cradle to gate.

If you have biogenic carbon included in the project, select yes and provide a description.

f) Additional Inputs: Finally, add your window to wall ratio and ASHRAE 90.1 Appendix G baseline energy model. You will have to add these manually. Here is where creating iterations of your project in cove.tool comes in handy, keeping your baseline project information intact.

For WWR, cove.tool currently calculates the envelope areas and glazing percentage for each façade orientation separately that you can find on the geometry page (under the Manual tab) when you click on % under glazing area. Hence, you can use the average of those values in case you don’t have one for your whole project.

Once completed, click on the Save and go to the Dashboard button at the bottom right corner to go back and continue with other sections.

This section allows you to add more people to the team reporting the project to AIA 2030. To do so, click on the green “Add Collaborators” button in that section. You will be prompted to add users by their emails. For each user, you can choose if you want to allow them to ‘edit’ the information or provide it to them as ‘read only’. Finally, you can press on an invite to send them an invitation to join as a collaborator.

The last section on the page lets you add any additional notes related to the project. Click on the “Add Note” button to type and then Save.