The assessment framework covers five domains, each scored on a 1–5 scale. The scores aren't the main event — the recommendations are. But the scoring makes it possible to compare across domains, weight priorities, and give clients a clear picture of where they are relative to what's achievable.
Here is what each domain covers and what typically turns up.
Energy is where most clients expect the conversation to start, and they're right — it's usually the largest single line item in a sustainability assessment. The domain covers four major areas: HVAC and mechanical systems, the building envelope (insulation, windows, doors, infiltration), lighting, and plug and process loads.
HVAC is the most consequential in Union County. Most of the building stock served by this practice was built between the 1950s and 1990s, which means furnaces running at 60–70% AFUE efficiency when modern equipment runs at 96%+, and air conditioning systems sized for peak days that no longer reflect how the space is actually used. The efficiency gap is often the single largest source of recoverable savings in the assessment.
Envelope performance is where the energy is actually leaving the building. An HVAC upgrade on a poorly sealed envelope is like turning up the heat with the windows open — the new equipment runs longer to compensate for losses it can't prevent. Air sealing is consistently one of the highest-return interventions on a cost-per-BTU basis, and consistently underrated by clients who haven't seen the blower-door numbers.
Lighting has largely been solved in commercial spaces that have already converted to LED. Where it hasn't, the payback period is short enough that it's almost always a near-term recommendation. In residential settings, the lighting conversation is often more about occupancy controls and daylighting than bulb type.
Plug and process loads — office equipment, refrigeration, commercial kitchen equipment, laundry — matter most at the larger end of the commercial client base. For small retail or café operations, refrigeration case seals and compressor health are often the highest-leverage items after HVAC.
The waste domain covers solid waste generation and diversion, hazardous material handling, and food waste where applicable. It is the domain clients most often underestimate, because waste disposal costs are invisible relative to the utility bill — they just show up as a flat monthly line item and never get examined.
New Jersey has mandatory recycling requirements for commercial establishments that most small businesses are nominally aware of and inconsistently following. A significant fraction of assessments surface commingled recycling streams that would fail a random contamination check, which creates cost exposure and undermines the entire downstream diversion effort. Correcting this costs nothing — it's a procedure change — but it requires someone to actually look at what's in the dumpster.
Food waste is the most significant sub-issue for restaurants, cafés, and institutional food-service operations. Organic diversion is available in parts of Union County through private haulers; composting arrangements through community gardens and municipal programs are expanding but patchy. The assessment maps what's available for a given address and whether the volume justifies a hauler conversation.
Water is often the quickest domain to assess and frequently yields the most concrete near-term savings recommendations — not because water rates are high in New Jersey (they're moderate), but because the most common failure modes are simple and cheap to correct.
A running toilet wastes 200 or more gallons per day depending on the severity of the flapper leak. A dripping commercial faucet at standard flow rates adds up to thousands of gallons annually. Both are $5–$30 repairs. The assessment catches these by interviewing staff about observed issues and reviewing water billing anomalies — most clients haven't looked at their water bills as a diagnostic tool.
For residential clients, the assessment benchmarks fixtures against EPA WaterSense standards and maps federal (§25C, where applicable) and NJ Clean Energy rebates for qualifying replacements. For commercial clients, the assessment looks at process water use — ice machines, dishwashers, cooling systems — and identifies where water-efficient equipment upgrades have short payback periods.
Landscaping is included in the domain for residential clients with substantial outdoor water use: irrigation scheduling, lawn area relative to lot size, and soil composition as a driver of watering frequency all factor into the water score for applicable properties.
This domain examines how the client buys — supply chain choices, consumable specifications, and procurement practices — and is the domain where clients most often find that the lowest-cost option is also the better option.
Paper and packaging are the most common sub-issues for retail and food-service operators. The shift from single-use to reusable packaging often reduces per-unit costs at volume. Bulk purchasing of consumables eliminates overpackaging and reduces per-unit cost. These aren't ideological commitments; they're procurement math, and they're often the easiest wins in the assessment.
For commercial clients with cleaning and maintenance contracts, the purchasing domain examines chemical specifications. Many janitorial chemical contracts are inertia purchases — the same product has been delivered for years and nobody has compared it against alternatives. Green Seal or EPA Safer Choice-certified alternatives frequently exist at comparable or lower price points, and they reduce chemical storage and disposal costs as a secondary benefit.
For residential clients, the purchasing domain is narrower — durable goods specifications, appliance purchase practices, and home supply choices — but still turns up actionable items, particularly around appliance replacement sequencing and Energy Star qualification.
The final domain covers fleet and commuting patterns for commercial clients, and property improvements and capital planning for both lines. It is the domain with the longest payback periods and the most significant capital outlays, which is why it's last in the scoring sequence — not because it matters least, but because the earlier domains establish what's achievable before getting to the capital-intensive decisions.
For commercial clients with service vehicles, the domain assesses fleet age, fuel type, routing efficiency, and driver behavior programs. For office-based businesses, it looks at commute structure and whether any employer-side interventions (transit subsidy, schedule flexibility) make sense at the scale of operation.
The property sub-section is where solar, EV charging infrastructure, major envelope upgrades, and building systems replacements get evaluated. These decisions are governed primarily by the incentive landscape (IRA §25C, §25D, §48E; NJ Clean Energy; PSE&G rebates) and by capital availability. The assessment maps the incentive picture and provides a capital sequencing recommendation — what to do in what order to stack credits most effectively.
For residential clients, the transportation domain folds into property: the major capital decisions are the same (heat pump replacement, solar, battery storage, weatherization), and the federal incentive framework is the same. The sequencing recommendation prioritizes envelope tightening before mechanical system replacement, because the HVAC equipment sizing depends on the post-improvement envelope performance.
The five domains aren't arbitrary. They move from the highest-frequency operating cost (energy) through the invisible cost items (waste, water, purchasing) to the lowest-frequency capital decisions (property and transportation). This means the assessment builds from what's already costing the client money every month toward what might cost them money over the next five to fifteen years. Recommendations are prioritized in the same order — quick wins on operating costs first, capital investments calibrated to incentive timing and payback periods second.
The framework is benchmarked against ISO 14001 principles for commercial clients and ENERGY STAR, EPA WaterSense, and the IRA incentive structure for residential clients. Those benchmarks govern what a "good" score looks like in each domain — not an idealized standard, but a documented, independently verifiable one.
A 15-minute scoping call is enough to know whether an assessment makes sense and what it would focus on.
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