Energy management systems (EnMSs) connect people and technical solutions in a systematic framework to continually improve energy and carbon performance. An ISO 50001-based EnMS meets the requirements of the ISO 50001 standard. By implementing one, any organization can demonstrate its commitment to sustainable energy management and achieve durable energy and carbon savings. They achieve persistent annual energy efficiency gains >3%, surpassing those needed to align with most climate goals (~1.5% annually, Fitzgerald et al. 2023). Informed by stakeholders, Berkeley Lab created a database of >330 case studies called “Energy Management Systems Success Stories & Metrics”. This platform is easily searchable, yielding descriptions of successful real-world energy management efforts and providing an avenue for sharing information within and across sectors. Each case study describes an implementation and associated energy, emissions, and cost savings. End users and those supporting implementation can use the platform to find specific case studies (e.g. by sector, country, or organization size) and see associated metrics aggregated across their selection (e.g., energy performance improvement, annual energy/carbon savings, implementation cost, and payback period). The platform also displays positive testimonials. Shareability is a key feature: a PDF results report summarizes selected case studies, and individual elements are downloadable.

A growing body of research is beginning to collect and analyze data to understand drivers, benefits, and challenges of implementing an ISO 50001 energy management system. One new data source is the annual Clean Energy Ministerial's Energy Management Leadership Awards program. Launched in 2016, this international effort requires ISO 50001-certified organizations to develop a case study of their implementation experience, using a uniform template. Case studies also include quotes from employees, along with energy and cost savings calculations and information on facility locations and industry sectors. Case studies typically range from 5 to 9 pages in length; 35 case studies were tendered in 2016, and 37 in 2017. To analyze these data, researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory employed the method of content analysis, a well-established practice widely used in the social sciences to make sense of qualitative information. This analysis occurs via close reading of each case study and transcription of relevant phrases from the following categories: motivations and goals; role of management and the organization; benefits achieved; keys to success; and challenges. Phrases are then assigned carefully defined "codes" that capture their meaning in order to enable quantitative analysis. This paper presents results from the content analysis of Energy Management Leadership Awards case studies. While organizations undertook ISO 50001 adoption based on a range of motivations and experienced myriad benefits, commonalities exist. The biggest drivers for ISO 50001 certification are existing values and goals, cost savings, environmental sustainability concerns, government incentives or regulations, and gaining competitive advantage via visibility. This analysis of case studies also reveals that top management engagement can play an important role in successful ISO 50001 implementation, cost saving is the most frequently mentioned benefit achieved, availability of disaggregated and transparent energy data is the number one challenge faced, and obtaining top management support is a critical key to success. Policymakers and others looking to promote ISO 50001 uptake can use these results to highlight benefits and incentives that will resonate well when communicating with industrial facilities.

The nation faces tremendous costs required to maintain and improve its water and wastewater infrastructure. Effective management of water delivery and treatment systems would benefit from a regular national water demand data collection effort that captures consumption by economic sector as well as by end use. A water demand survey would provide the data necessary to better understand water demand trends, and ultimately to assess implications for water infrastructure needs and the U.S. economy. This report summarizes current publicly available water demand information and recommends data parameters for a national water demand survey.

Servers’ field energy use remains poorly understood, given heterogeneous computing loads, configurable hardware and software, and operation over a wide range of management practices. This paper explores various characteristics of 1- and 2-socket volume servers that affect energy consumption, and quantifies the difference in power demand between higher-performing SPEC and ENERGY STAR servers and our best understanding of a typical server operating today. We first establish general characteristics of the U.S. installed base of volume servers from existing IDC data and the literature, before presenting information on server hardware configurations from data collection events at a major online retail website. We then compare cumulative distribution functions of server idle power across three separate datasets and explain the differences between them via examination of the hardware characteristics to which power draw is most sensitive. We find that idle server power demand is significantly higher than ENERGY STAR benchmarks and the industry-released energy use documented in SPEC, and that SPEC server configurations—and likely the associated power-scaling trends—are atypical of volume servers. Next, we examine recent trends in server power draw among high-performing servers across their full load range to consider how representative these trends are of all volume servers before inputting weighted average idle power load values into a recently published model of national server energy use. Finally, we present results from two surveys of IT managers (n=216) and IT vendors (n=178) that illustrate the prevalence of more-efficient equipment and operational practices in server rooms and closets; these findings highlight opportunities to improve the energy efficiency of the U.S. server stock.

This report describes the analytical models Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) developed to estimate impacts of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) WaterSense® labeling program. The models assess national impacts for WaterSense labeled toilets, faucets, faucet aerators, showerheads, flushing urinals, commercial pre-rinse spray valves, and weather or soil moisture sensor-based irrigation controllers (WBICs) by analyzing national inputs for water use in residential and commercial/institutional (CI) markets. For irrigation controllers, LBNL’s methodology also incorporates a scenario that evaluates impacts in three key large states that are considered to be the principal market for “smart” irrigation controllers: California, Florida, and Texas. The models estimate impacts for the water savings attributable to the program and the net present value (NPV) of the lifetime water savings from more efficient products.

This report describes the analytical models Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) developed to estimate impacts of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) WaterSense® labeling program. The models assess national impacts for WaterSense labeled toilets, faucets, faucet aerators, showerheads, flushing urinals, commercial pre-rinse spray valves, and weather or soil moisture sensor-based irrigation controllers (WBICs) by analyzing national inputs for water use in residential and commercial/institutional (CI) markets. For irrigation controllers, LBNL’s methodology also incorporates a scenario that evaluates impacts in three key large states that are considered to be the principal market for “smart” irrigation controllers: California, Florida, and Texas. The models estimate impacts for the water savings attributable to the program and the net present value (NPV) of the lifetime water savings from more efficient products.

This report describes the analytical models Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) developed to estimate impacts of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) WaterSense® labeling program. The models assess national impacts for WaterSense labeled toilets, faucets, faucet aerators, showerheads, flushing urinals, commercial pre-rinse spray valves, and weather or soil moisture sensor-based irrigation controllers (WBICs) by analyzing national inputs for water use in residential and commercial/institutional (CI) markets. For irrigation controllers, LBNL’s methodology also incorporates a scenario that evaluates impacts in three key large states that are considered to be the principal market for “smart” irrigation controllers: California, Florida, and Texas. The models estimate impacts for the water savings attributable to the program and the net present value (NPV) of the lifetime water savings from more efficient products.

The formation of organic nitrates and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) were monitored during the NO₃ + limonene reaction in the atmosphere simulation chamber SAPHIR at Research Center Jülich. The 24-h run began in a purged, dry, particle-free chamber and comprised two injections of limonene and oxidants, such that the first experiment measured SOA yield in the absence of seed aerosol, and the second experiment yields in the presence of 10 μg m⁻³ seed organic aerosol. After each injection, two separate increases in aerosol mass were observed, corresponding to sequential oxidation of the two limonene double bonds. Analysis of the measured NO₃, limonene, product nitrate concentrations, and aerosol properties provides mechanistic insight and constrains rate constants, branching ratios and vapor pressures of the products. The organic nitrate yield from NO₃ + limonene is ≈30%. The SOA mass yield was observed to be 25–40%. The first injection is reproduced by a kinetic model. PMF analysis of the aerosol composition suggests that much of the aerosol mass results from combined oxidation by both O₃ and NO₃, e.g., oxidation of NO₃ + limonene products by O₃. Further, later aerosol nitrate mass seems to derive from heterogeneous uptake of NO₃ onto unreacted aerosol alkene.

The yields of organic nitrates and of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) particle formation were measured for the reaction NO₃+β-pinene under dry and humid conditions in the atmosphere simulation chamber SAPHIR at Research Center Jülich. These experiments were conducted at low concentrations of NO₃ (NO₃+N₂O₅<10 ppb) and β-pinene (peak~15 ppb), with no seed aerosol. SOA formation was observed to be prompt and substantial (~50% mass yield under both dry conditions and at 60% RH), and highly correlated with organic nitrate formation. The observed gas/aerosol partitioning of organic nitrates can be simulated using an absorptive partitioning model to derive an estimated vapor pressure of the condensing nitrate species of p_vap~5×10⁻⁶ Torr (6.67×10⁻⁴ Pa), which constrains speculation about the oxidation mechanism and chemical identity of the organic nitrate. Once formed the SOA in this system continues to evolve, resulting in measurable aerosol volume decrease with time. The observations of high aerosol yield from NO_x-dependent oxidation of monoterpenes provide an example of a significant anthropogenic source of SOA from biogenic hydrocarbon precursors. Estimates of the NO₃+β-pinene SOA source strength for California and the globe indicate that NO₃ reactions with monoterpenes are likely an important source (0.5–8% of the global total) of organic aerosol on regional and global scales.