Backpack Product Updates: April 2024

Introduction

April 2024 has been another month of exciting new releases at Backpack! We have introduced a new Action Center to more easily facilitate data-informed decision-making, among other enhancements to our platform! In addition, we have also expanded our reporting capabilities even further to now include GHG emissions tracking through our Environmental Impact Dashboard. With Backpack your building data is always available at your fingertips and we've made it even easier to analyze that data! Read on to discover more about these new features and empower your sustainability initiatives like never before! 

Your Action Center

Backpack's new Action Center provides users with an on-demand snapshot of all ongoing projects in your portfolio, categorized by building. We crafted this all-in-one dashboard for building owners and operators by utilizing digitized data to streamline building operations and organizing it in a manner that is conducive to translating data insights into action.

Starting with project management, the Action Center simplifies project oversight, ensuring efficient and cost-effective execution while removing the hassles of managing projects individually through Excel and email. Stay organized and productive with a personalized list of actions tailored to meet your unique needs.

View of Action Center

Track Green House Gas (GHG) Emissions with the Environmental Impact Dashboard

Our new Environmental Impact Dashboard improves the accessibility of GHG data at both portfolio and building levels. It condenses your Backpack data into comprehensive summaries, making it effortless to understand, utilize, and report on these metrics. GHG emissions tracking serves as a pivotal performance benchmark for utility data tracking, offering a standardized method to gauge performance across a portfolio. This metric is frequently used for ESG initiatives, compliance requirements, public reporting and disclosure requirements, Building Energy Performance Standards (BEPs), and more.

The primary goal of The Environmental Impact Dashboard is to simplify public reporting and disclosure processes. The addition of this new dashboard minimizes users time investment by streamlining the collection calculation and reporting of GHG, energy, and water. Additionally, by highlighting missing data, the dashboard reduces time and effort required to identify issues and manage the data. Backpack users can be confident in the accuracy and credibility of their data, and the GHG calculations presented in the dashboard.

Collecting energy data from a portfolio can be challenging due to the volume of information and coordination required. The new Environmental Impact Dashboard simplifies tracking GHG emissions across your portfolio, offering the following benefits:

1. Automated on demand portfolio-level GHG calculations and tracking

2. Normalized monthly snapshot of utility data, including what is missing

3. Easily exportable & validated metrics for use in reporting and disclosure requirements

Snapshot from the Environmental Impact Dashboard

Building Overview Improvements & Reporting

Just keeping track of the basics of your portfolio can be cumbersome. Where do you go for your source of truth? Where is the contact info for your property teams? Backpack tracks that data and is making it even easier to access and navigate. Also included is an exportable report, putting this data right at your fingertips.

View of Building Overview Report

The new Building Overview report offers users a comprehensive view of essential building data, such as property type counts, building region breakdowns, property rollups, main building contacts, gross floor area, and more.

Property Type Chart and Main Building Contact Examples

This feature serves as a valuable tool for monthly reporting purposes and can be effortlessly downloaded and utilized as needed. With built in filters, reporting is easy and quick for your portfolio. One of the main improvements is the ability to assign users to specific buildings making record-keeping and outreach simple.

Document Management 

Accessing the documents you need just got easier. No one likes to waste precious time by searching for files! Easily find and view documents right from Backpack so you can find the information you need quickly.

Need to share your documents? You can share documents directly from Backpack with built-in security controls. 

View of Documents Navigation

Conclusion 

These updates from Backpack not only facilitate better data collection, reporting, and management but also empower users to drive meaningful change in their building. 

Stay tuned for future updates related to our latest or upcoming releases. If you have a special request or would like to talk to a Backpack team member about how to get started with Backpack, we would love to hear from you:  Contact Us