How the Scores Work

Each lab building's performance is rated from 1-100, where 100 represents the highest performance. Energy and Operational Emissions performance are rated separately, to give each building a pair of scores. Each rating is a percentile score, meaning that a building with a score of 85 has better performance than 85 percent of similar facilities. Brief descriptions of how each score works are provided below. Please also see the FAQs page for more information.

The Energy Score

The Energy Score takes into account the functional requirements driving the energy consumption of each lab building to calculate an energy "allowance." The allowance factors are based on an analysis of the LBT's database, and include the amount of net lab space, the type of lab space, the number of fume hoods, the hours of occupancy, and the weather experienced by the building. The score is generated by comparing this allowance with the actual annual energy consumption of the building.

The Operational Emissions Score

The Operational Emissions Score builds on the Energy Score methodology. It uses the same energy allowance as the Energy Score, and then converts this into a greenhouse gas intensity (GHGI) allowance. The actual GHGI is compared against this allowance in order to obtain the score. The pilot version of the Operational Emissions Score relates to location-based emissions only, i.e. it uses local electric grid emissions factors and does not take into account any market-based instruments an organization purchases in order to abate its carbon emissions. The LBT dataset currently does not contain enough data on market-based behavior in order to develop a peer-based rating system for market-based emissions, but I2SL intends to add this in future.

The Labs2Zero Scorecard is made available free of charge to LBT users thanks to the generous support of I2SL's Labs2Zero Sponsors. Version 1 scores have been generated for all buildings in our database that include energy usage data. Each score is calculated separately for each year of data you provide, and it is updated automatically any time you update your data.

Score Development and Updates NEW

The Energy and Operational Emissions scores were developed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, in collaboration with the Labs2Zero Energy and Operational Emissions Technical Advisory Councils. A pilot Energy Score was released in October 2023, and the pilot Operational Emissions Score was released in May 2024. During the pilot phase, I2SL gathered feedback and additional building data, and new updated scoring systems were released in February 2026. These new version 1 (V1) scores are now available on the LBT website, and the pilot scores have been retired. The new scoring systems take into account additional properties of lab buildings when assigning scores, including fume hood density, amount of vivarium space, and cold weather experienced by the building. A 1-pager on the score updates is available here.

More details on the score development are available in the technical white papers:

• Original (Pilot) Energy Score Development
• Updated (V1) Energy Score
• Original (Pilot) Operational Emissions Score Development
• Updated (V1) Operational Emissions Score

For some kinds of lab buildings, the scores are not yet well tuned because the peer group database does not yet contain enough data on these building types, including manufacturing laboratories, pilot plants, crime labs, and healthcare laboratory facilities. Submitting data to the LBT on these types of facilities will help I2SL improve the accuracy and applicability of the scoring system in future revisions. Future revisions are expected to occur every 3-5 years.

If you see a triangle symbol next to an Energy Score or Operational Emissions Score, this means that the score may not be accurate. This is typically because the specific building type is not yet well represented in the LBT peer group database, but may also be the result of a problem with data entry or with obtaining weather data for your site. Please click on the or on the building name for detailed information on the warning.