Leo Rainer

Rapid development of the comprehensive and easy to use Multifamily Building Efficiency Screening Tool for HUD.

A team of BTUS researchers created the Multifamily Building Efficiency Screening Tool (MBEST) for HUD's Green and Resilient Retrofit Program (GRRP). The GRRP covers grants and loans of almost $5 billion of investment in multifamily housing. The tool will be used to screen multifamily buildings and understand current opportunities for energy efficiency improvements.  The tool allows building managers and owners to enter information about lighting, HVAC heating/cooling systems, domestic hot water systems, and the building envelope to come up with a building score that allows HUD to make decisions about investing in building upgrades. The key reason for this SPOT nomination is that the LBNL team worked under considerable time pressure to create the tool in just a few weeks to meet HUDs deadline for launching the program and utilized their expertise and knowledge over a broad range of multifamily building performance to make the tool both comprehensive and easy to use. 

Solving important challenges for society, research that furthers solutions to large social problems, or scientific breakthroughs that have improved the world.