Buildings account for a large share of energy demand and emissions, and cities across Africa and beyond are adding floor space rapidly. Governments, banks and corporate owners are launching efficiency standards, green financing and decarbonisation targets, but these initiatives only succeed if performance is measured credibly. Poor data leads to disputed savings, stalled financing and retrofit projects that never repeat.

This course applies monitoring and evaluation discipline to building energy performance. Participants start by defining a results chain for an efficiency or decarbonisation programme, then select indicators, set baselines and design data collection from meters, bills and building management systems. They learn to normalise consumption for weather and occupancy, calculate energy and emissions savings using recognised measurement and verification practice, and judge the reliability of results.

The later sessions focus on evaluation questions: did the programme cause the savings, for whom, at what cost and with what wider benefits for comfort, health and jobs. Participants practise with sample datasets and building audits, producing a monitoring plan and a short evaluation report that can be adapted to their own portfolios.

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Build a results framework for a building energy efficiency or decarbonisation programme.
• Select energy, emissions, cost and comfort indicators suited to different building types.
• Establish defensible energy baselines and adjust them for weather, occupancy and operating hours.
• Apply IPMVP options to verify savings from retrofits and operational changes.
• Compile building and portfolio greenhouse gas inventories across scopes 1, 2 and relevant scope 3 sources.
• Design evaluations that attribute results to the programme rather than outside factors.
• Manage metering, data quality and reporting systems for building portfolios.

The course is designed for people who run, fund or assess building efficiency work, including:

• Energy managers and energy auditors
• Facilities and property managers
• Monitoring and evaluation officers in climate and energy projects
• Sustainability and ESG managers
• Mechanical, electrical and building services engineers
• Public estate and housing officials
• Development partner and green finance programme staff
• Consultants preparing green building and carbon reports

Participants leave with:

• A monitoring and evaluation plan template for a building decarbonisation programme.
• A baseline workbook with weather normalisation they can reuse.
• A worked measurement and verification report for a sample retrofit.
• A portfolio dashboard layout for energy use intensity and emissions trends.
• A checklist for assuring meter and data quality.
• Evaluation questions they can use to test programme impact with funders.

The course is applied, with sample building data used throughout. Methods include:

• Spreadsheet labs on baselines, normalisation and savings calculations
• Worked cases from offices, hospitals, schools and hotels
• A simulated site walk-through to plan metering and data collection
• Small-group design of programme evaluations
• Peer review of each participant's monitoring plan

On satisfactory attendance and completion of the labs and exercises, each participant is issued a CPD-accredited Certificate of Completion by Vision Reach Global Consultancy.