As a part of the University of Pennsylvania Sustainability Plan initiative, the T.C. Chan Center compiled a database of information of campus buildings, including performance parameters for the buildings, the building systems, and their uses. The Building Performance Assessment Toolkit (BPAT+) was then applied to develop basic performance predictions for each building. BPAT+ is designed as a decision making system for energy planning and retrofit. Further validation studies confirm that it provides a sturdy, first-order analysis of overall building energy performance, which is suitable for strategic analysis. Together with the data developed, the BPAT+ results provided the first detailed view of energy usage at the University of Pennsylvania.

Using BPAT+ data in conjunction with detailed investigations and simulations of energy demand and consumption patterns of targeted campus buildings, changes to the building systems were proposed and implemented based on their predicted performance outcomes.