Arc Skoru Inc. is a technology company that offers tools to help people understand the environmental impacts of a city, community, building or space through a performance score. Arc Skoru Inc. offers a software platform (Arc) which collects, manages, analyzes data and communicates it as a score. You can utilize the score to benchmark and report performance on a global scale. Your score also supports certification programs offered by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating systems. Through the use of Arc, you’ll be able to tell how your city, community, building or space can take climate action.

Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI) created Arc to accelerate the transformation of all places to higher levels of environmental performance through data driven decisions. Arc supplements the missions of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and GBCI in delivering green places for all within a generation. Arc believes that information about real world performance empowers people to design, build and operate places that benefit both people and the environment.

Arc provides an array of tools which help you score your project. You enter available data and benchmark performance locally or globally.

Arc is a software platform and offers educational tools to engage in improving the environmental impacts from your project. With the platform, you can input data and visualize a score. This score engages people to take action and influences behavior.

Arc tracks data in five categories: Energy, Water, Waste, Transportation and Human Experience in order to generate a score. The overall score is on a scale of 0 – 100 with higher scores indicating better performance.

With Arc, you can seek a performance category certificate in any of the five categories, you can submit for certification across various LEED rating systems, or you can use it for your annual GRESB submission. All of your projects can be managed in one “Portfolio” within Arc making it easy to monitor and analyze them, whether independently or as a group. Learn more here.

You need data across five categories – Energy, Water, Waste, Transportation and Human Experience - to generate an overall score of 0 - 100. By entering data in one category, you can receive a score for just that one category. Your data generates the current score as of today, the score last month, the score last year, as well as the local and global average.

To generate a score in Arc for buildings or spaces, you must enter data for each category. Learn about specific data requirements here.

For step by step guidance to entering your data and visualizing a score, see these educational courses:

• English
• Spanish

Find out more about using Arc for Cities or Communities here.

Each category must be completed to generate an overall score. The total eligible points for each category is shown below:

• Energy: 33
• Water: 15
• Waste: 8
• Transportation: 14
• Human Experience: 20
• Foundational practices: 10

The score in Arc streamlines the process of achieving recognition for all places; your city, community, building or space. You can select one of more options applicable to your place from the summarized list below.

1. Arc performance certificates
2. LEED v 4.1 O+M: Existing Buildings
3. LEED v 4.1 O+M : Existing Interiors
4. LEED Recertification
5. LEED for Cities and Communities
6. LEED v4 Operations and Maintenance: Transit
7. LEED zero
8. GRESB

    

There is no offering known as “Arc certification”. Arc is a software platform which translates your data into a score. This score can be applied to Arc’s performance certificates, applicable LEED rating systems or simply for benchmarking your project.

Any project, anywhere can get started in Arc at no cost. Learn more about Arc for All.

You can use Arc to submit for certification under one of the LEED rating systems. See the LEED Fee Table for additional information around registration and certification fees.

Yes, there is. USGBC offers two LEED rating systems applicable in different situations and includes different requirements.

Both are applicable to operational buildings and require you to generate a score in Arc.

1. For buildings and spaces that have not previously certified to any LEED rating system, you would use LEED v 4.1 O+M: Existing Buildings.
2. For buildings and spaces previously certified to any LEED rating system, you would use LEED Recertification.

Arc offers two options if your building or space is not yet ready for LEED certification:

1. You can enter your data, generate a score and compare your performance against local and global benchmarks. This allows you to manage and communicate the performance of your project, and use it to drive future improvements. You can create a new project through these three simple steps:
   • Step 1: Navigate to arcskoru.com and login with your User Account or create a new account
   • Step 2: Select Projects in the upper right corner, then the “+ Add a Project” button. Enter the Project Details, and then submit
   • Step 3: Select Meters & Surveys and begin entering data. We suggest starting with Building Settings
2. 1. You can enter your data and seek performance certificates for your project. This allows you to celebrate the performance of your project in one or more categories and achieve a Performance Certificate. This will identify your Performance score and Improvement score for that category. You can create new Performance Certificates through these three simple steps:
   • Step 1: Navigate to arcskoru.com and login with your User Account
   • Step 2: Select a Project, then “Leadership” on the left navigation. You will see current scores for each performance category. Select “Arc Performance Certificates”
   • Step 3: Click “Add a Certificate”, review the validity checks, and view the Performance Certificate. Performance Certificates are saved, and they can be viewed or downloaded anytime.

Any building or space, anywhere can use Arc at no cost to generate a score. Follow these three simple steps to enter data and visualize your score:

• Step 1: Navigate to arcskoru.com and login with your User Account or create a new account
• Step 2: Select Projects in the upper right corner, then the “+ Add a Project” button. Enter the Project Details, and then submit.
• Step 3: Select Meters & Surveys and begin entering data. We suggest starting with Building Settings.

If you decide later you’d like to apply for LEED certification, Arc provides a link that sends all of your data to LEED Online, the web based platform used for LEED registration and certification. Both the Overview tab and Leadership tab in Arc will send you to LEED Online.

You’ve achieved your goal, or started down your path toward that achievement. We want to help you celebrate the accomplishment of your city, community, building or spaces! You can use social media and press releases to discuss your achievement. Sample text is included here. You can also reach out to us at contact@arcskoru.com to discuss your project, your journey, your score and proposed content for communication. We would love to celebrate your project in our newsletter or on the Arc Twitter account.

Arc allows you to score your place in a couple of different ways.

1. You can enter data in any of the five categories – Energy, Water, Waste, Transportation and Human Experience - to generate a score in that category. You can utilize your category score for comparison to the category score from last month or last year, and to local and global averages. As long as you provide data for a 12-month period, you can generate an Arc Performance Certificate for that category.
2. When you enter data covering at least 24 months, Arc will provide an Improvement Score as well. This allows you to compare the performance of your project against itself for other time periods. You’ll have an indication of how you’re doing against your own internal goals.
3. When you enter data across all five categories, an overall Performance Score between 0 – 100 is generated. The Performance Score is based on the criteria established under the LEED rating system by the USGBC. This utilizes consistent criteria for all places worldwide and offers a true global benchmark.
4. Based on your Performance Score, you’ll have an indication whether your place achieves the minimum requirements for LEED certification. After reviewing other pertinent LEED requirements, you can choose to submit for LEED certification at this stage if you choose.

To receive a Performance Score, you must enter data for all five categories – Energy, Water, Waste, Transportation and Human Experience. The score generated in each category looks at the most recent 365 days of data and then translated into a common denominator. For example, water used per unit of area is compared in order to generate a score. There are required building or space settings that are necessary in calculating the score. Those are area (in square feet or square meters), the number of occupants (staff and visitors), the business operating hours and the zip code. This 60-minute video is approved for GBCI CEU hours and offers the practical application of scores.

When you enter data covering at least 24 months, Arc will provide an Improvement Score. This allows you to compare the performance of your project against itself for other time periods. You’ll have an indication of how you’re doing against your own internal goals.

In an effort to share more information about Arc and scoring, we’ve written a number of articles and created an educational video based course. These provide a good baseline for how and why we score:

• How Arc scores
  • Energy
  • Water
  • Waste
  • Transportation
  • Human Experience
• Why Arc scores
• Arc Improvement Score
• Arc Performance Certificates
• Data Tests for Performance Certificates
• CEU approved 60-minute video course

Once a building or space has completed a certification under any LEED rating system, that place is awarded a score of 10 to get started. This score is automatically awarded and supplements the category scores as well as gets applied toward LEED recertification.

Once you enter your project data and the building settings, the following aspects can impact your score:

1. If your data is older than 365 days your score in that category will become zero. For example, if you conducted the Transportation survey more than 365 days prior, the Transportation score will be zero points until a new survey is administered and is made available in Arc. You can find more information on missing data in your project Overview page in the Notifications panel or by selecting the Bell icon in the top right corner of the platform when you’re logged in.
2. You may see your score change when you enter new data into the platform for your project. For example, when new data for water use in entered, and that data reflects higher consumption, you may see a decrease in your score. You can track changes to each category by logging into the Arc platform and navigating to “Meters & Surveys”, then you select “Details”, scroll to the bottom of the page and select “Activity.”
3. Periodically system wide or rating system updates may occur that can impact your score. Arc, USGBC, GBCI offer multiple notifications and tools to visualize the impact to your building or space, ahead of the change.
4. There may be a reason you have to adjust your Building Settings. These include Occupants, Gross Floor Area, Operating Hours, Emissions Factor and Operational Days. Changes to any of these may cause a recalculation to occur which impacts your score.

Yes, please send us an email at contact@arcskoru.com with the LEED ID or Arc ID of your project and any questions you may have. The LEED ID and Arc ID are unique numbers to each project profile and will help us review the profile and best respond to your questions.

The most common reason that a score doesn’t compute for your project is due to missing critical information such as 1) area, 2) operating hours or 3) number of occupants. These are required inputs for calculating a score.

Another reason could be the data entered is older than 365 days. The score is based on data entered in the most recent 365 day window. You can review the notifications for your project profile by selecting the Bell icon in the upper right hand corner to ensure no other information is missing.

Your data is only visible to the project team associated with that specific project profile and select GBCI staff. Because someone is a team member on one project, doesn’t mean they will have access to another project you work on unless they are a team member for that project as well. You can review and edit who has access by selecting the project, then “Manage”, and then “Team”.

Your project’s score is available in a few different places. It can be seen in the project profile located on arcskoru.com, on the leadership board on arcskoru.com under “Today's Top Performers” if it qualifies, on USGBC’s project directory and the App.

Anyone with access to the project profile can also view the score. You can manage who has that access by selecting the project, then “Manage”, and then “Team”.

You have the ability to make your score confidential by selecting the project, then “Manage”, and then “Private”. Two-thirds of the way down the screen are buttons labeled Yes and No under the heading, “Private”. If you choose Yes, the score will be confidential, and only people who have access to that project profile are able to see the score. This will make all engagement with Arc and LEED confidential and your project information will not be published anywhere on the Arc or USGBC platform, including the USGBC’s directory.

Yes, you can. Arc uses an API which connects Portfolio Manager to the Arc platform. This provides a simple process for getting your energy and water consumption data into Arc. There are a couple of steps needed to facilitate this data exchange, and these occur in Portfolio Manager. The key steps required in Portfolio Manager include 1) sharing the profile with “contact@arcskoru.com” and 2) including the LEED ID under Standard IDs. The process will require up to 48 hours for the data to sync initially.

To assist in connecting Arc and Portfolio Manager, you can view a how-to video here.

If your data does not sync within 48 hours, send an email to contact@arcskoru.com with a subject line; Data sync between Portfolio Manager and Arc. Make sure to include the projects LEED ID, the ESPM ID, ESPM Project Name and the project Address as shown in ESPM in the body of the email.

Arc is currently working with several integration partners who can automate your data submission to Arc. A list of those can be found here and also reflected when logged into the platform. We are interested in continuing to grow the partners we work with in order to make your interaction with Arc faster and simpler. If you are using a platform you would like to have integrate directly to Arc, let us know by sending an email to contact@arcskoru.com.

At the current time, only the existing surveys provided on the Arc platform are accepted.

You log into Arc by going to arcskoru.com and selecting “Log in” on the upper right hand side. Your User ID and password are the same as your USGBC User Account, which is used for usgbc.org, LEED Online, etc. You must select the “I accept…” button and then select Log In. Those who do not have a USGBC User Account, you can create a User Account on this Log in screen.

You can create a new project through these three simple steps:

• Step 1: Navigate to arcskoru.com and login with your User Account or create a new account.
• Step 2: Select Projects in the upper right corner, then the “+ Add a Project” button. Enter the Project Details, and then submit.
• Step 3: Select Meters & Surveys and begin entering data. We suggest starting with Building Settings.

If you choose to pursue LEED certification, there will be a registration process in LEED Online. You can connect directly to the registration page from Arc on either the Overview or Leadership tabs.

You are able to add or remove access to a project profile whenever you need to. You do this by logging into Arc, select “Projects” in the upper right hand side, select “Projects” from the upper left hand side and select the project profile you want to update. Within this project, choose “Manage” on the side menu and then “Team”. Everyone with access will show up here. You have the option of inviting someone to gain access through the box at the bottom, or you can choose “Edit” to change or remove a team member’s access.

If you believe you should have access to a particular project and you don’t, any team member already associated with the project profile can add you to the project profile in Arc. You can also reach out to the Arc team at contact@arcskoru.com with the name, address and LEED ID of the building or space you are looking to engage with. The Arc team will determine your relationship with the project profile and confirm with the Owner/Project administrator to provide any new member with access to a project profile.

If the building has been sold or bought, completing a Change of Owner Agreement will facilitate the updates needed to team members.

Arc is a software platform which allows you to collect, score and manage data for a number of purposes. These include seeking LEED Certification or Recertification for LEED. Once you enter all necessary information in Arc, you can submit to GBCI for a LEED review. You will continue entering your performance data in Arc to meet all recertification requirements.

A Performance Score tells you how well your building is performing. The score can give you an indication of what level certification you may achieve if you submit for LEED O+M certification. Certain LEED rating systems require a minimum level of performance, which is represented by a minimum score.

A Performance Score is an indication of how your building is performing at this moment. For projects certified under LEED O+M, the Performance Score can help you maintain your certification and submit for recertification. For projects certified under LEED BD+C or LEED ID+C, the Performance Score can help you insure your building is performing as designed. These projects can also recertify under LEED O+M through their Performance Scores.

Your performance score is a sign of leadership, and your commitment to transparency and accountability, and shows that you care about the ongoing performance of your project. It helps you know whether your building is operating as it was designed to do. Your Performance Score is shown on USGBC’s Project Directory next to your project’s image and overview. The score logo will show with your Performance Score and certification level in the middle. Projects which are not using Arc to determine a Performance Score will show only their certification level on the logo. Those viewing your project are able to click on your score and see the animation of your five categories on the racetrack.

Projects pursuing recertification can use either Arc or LEED Online to enter their data. The data will be synchronized and able to be managed using either tool. Access the LEED Recertification Guidelines for more information.

Just like commercial office buildings, and other types of projects, schools can benefit from using Arc to manage, benchmark, score and communicate their sustainability efforts. Schools can further use it to provide real life examples within the classroom and combine their curriculum with Arc’s tracking and benchmarking tools. School districts can use it to manage and compare performance across all of its schools to identify leaders and laggards, and to track the carbon emissions, energy use, water use, waste statistics, etc. for the entire district.

Arc and the U.S. Green Building Council’s Center for Green Schools has partnered to create a program called Building Learners which provides both access to the Arc platform and sustainability curriculum to your school. Through this program, teachers receive lessons for their students, a green building professional as a mentor and real world activities for students to participate in. The Arc platform is then used by students to see the impacts of their efforts.

Arc and GRESB can be used together effectively. While GRESB tracks the ESG details of a portfolio, Arc looks at the individual assets within those portfolios. Arc provides the ability to manage your assets throughout the year and then has an automated process for loading your performance results into GRESB for your annual GRESB submission. Find out more about the collaboration between Arc and GRESB here:

• Arc Portfolio Management
• GRESB and Arc
• A Performance-Based Future for Real Asset ESG Reporting

• Arc users own the data they enter, load, or share with Arc. They can remove these data from Arc at any time.
• Arc owns all derivative information, including scores, metrics, and the algorithms used to compute them. Users are granted a license to use this information.
• Arc reserves the right to analyze user data and use it in anonymous and/or aggregated forms for business purposes.
• Arc will not provide access to uniquely identifiable data, scores, or other project information without authorization from the project administrator.
  • Exception: Arc makes overall and category scores publicly available for the Top 5 highest scoring non-confidential projects in the system. Users can mark their projects as confidential to prevent the display of this information.

• Arc data are hosted by Amazon Web Services -- an Internet infrastructure composed of servers, storage, and related facilities.
• The physical location of data contributed to the Arc platform varies, and information about specific circumstances is available upon request.

• Arc data access is limited to authorized project team members.
• Project team membership is controlled by the project administrator.
• Arc users are responsible for securing their credentials and taking reasonable steps to avoid unauthorized access.
• Arc is designed and operated to provide multiple layers of protection for user data.
• Arc administration requires the use of a virtual private network (VPN), and services are not exposed externally.

• USGBC and GBCI have developed an enterprise-wide policy to ensure GDPR compliance. Information about this policy is available here: https://www.usgbc.org/terms. This policy applies to Arc.
• Arc transportation and occupant satisfaction survey data are anonymous, and responses are not associated with individually identifiable information.