Siemens Financial Services (SFS) has introduced the Decarbonization Business Optimizer (DBO), a cloud-based tool designed to help building managers, construction firms, and other industry professionals decarbonize buildings. This free web tool offers insights into decarbonization processes, including mechanisms for modeling and optimization, and also provides access to project financing. Anthony Casciano, President and CEO of Siemens Financial Services, emphasized the growing demand for companies to report their carbon footprints, especially within the supply chain, where many firms struggle to know where to begin. Casciano highlighted that the DBO aims to address these challenges by offering companies, regardless of size or stage, actionable insights that support long-term value creation and participation in the transition to net-zero emissions.
The DBO leverages data from agencies like the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to generate decarbonization scenarios tailored to each facility. By using specific data such as location, facility size, and type—whether it’s a hospital, office, or manufacturing plant—the tool provides accurate estimates of a building’s carbon footprint and energy costs, improving on broader country-wide averages. For even more precise calculations, the tool incorporates site-specific data, like annual energy usage, if available. Users of the DBO can explore various generation and storage technologies to reduce their carbon footprint, including solar panels, combined heat and power (CHP) systems, thermal energy storage, and battery storage. The tool allows users to customize decarbonization scenarios based on preferences for certain technologies, resilience to grid outages, or budget constraints. The DBO also offers data-driven summaries of estimated return on investment (ROI), making it easier for users to assess the financial viability of their decarbonization efforts. Developed in collaboration with Siemens Technology, the tool runs on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and uses data from the Amazon Sustainability Data Initiative (ASDI). This collaboration allows the utility to integrate public datasets on thermal properties of building materials, as well as key sustainability data such as weather forecasts, weather forecasts and air quality. With this comprehensive approach, Siemens aims to facilitate carbon reduction efforts and encourage greater participation in sustainability initiatives across industries.