GRITS

The launch of GRITS 3.0 brings many new features designed to make GRITS even more customizable—especially through the new tag (custom groups) feature. The Reports tab has been streamlined while adding additional chart options. Keep reading for more details or log into GRITS now to see the upgrades for yourself! Wiki Getting assistance when using GRITS just got easier, as we’ve moved the GRITS Guide into an online wiki, which you can access here. Follow the “Getting Started” portion of the wiki if you’re just starting to use GRITS. You can also use the search bar to find the topics you’d like to explore. As GRITS continues to add new features, this wiki will be regularly updated—no need to wonder if you have the most recent GRITS Guide! Tags Have you ever wanted to create a custom group of projects that can quickly be analyzed on the Projects tab or graphed on the Reports tab? That is now possible through the new tags feature. Create a custom tag to apply to your projects and use the new Tags filter on the Projects tab to isolate a specific group or groups and view the metrics GRITS calculates. On the Reports tab you are now able to select a single tag and create a graph of your custom project group. View this graph in “aggregate” form or choose “stacked” to display the savings contribution of each project individually, and then customize further by deselecting individual projects from the graph legend. Enhanced GRITS user interface We’ve updated GRITS’s infrastructure, and the platform’s interface along with it. One note in particular: table rows that can be expanded now have a green bar that appears when your cursor hovers over them. Bulk tagging and deleting On the Projects tab you are now able to select and modify multiple projects at once with the new bulk selection feature. Use this feature to add a tag to several projects or delete multiple projects simultaneously. New Reports options and layout We have streamlined the Reports tab, making the layout more concise and adding additional graphing options. You can now view savings over time by facility, campus, project type, or tag. Each graph can be viewed as an “aggregate” form (solid bars) or “stacked” form, which splits the bars according to the savings of each individual project. You can also view savings to date across these categories. A new format for graphing single projects displays their project status (Proposed, In-progress, or Completed). This new layout is a precursor to a fully customizable Reports tab that we will be building in the future! Bulk price changes via upload While GRITS allows you to update your resource prices (and the actual amount saved, if measured directly) for each fiscal year on a project-by-project basis, time constraints may have prevented you from making these updates. Now you can update the resource prices for all of your projects at once! Just send that data to us, indicating the resource type and fiscal years that the prices should apply, and we will input them—improving the accuracy of project calculations by adding additional real-world data. Customizable stats Users now have greater control over the metrics that GRITS calculates. In the new “Math, Units, and Stats” sub-tab on the Settings page, you can choose whether GRITS will use median or mean to calculate average values. Median will be the default, because it diminishes the impact of outliers (projects with savings much higher or lower than the rest of your projects). If you choose mean, which is just a simple average, you can also choose whether GRITS will include only relevant projects in your savings calculations (i.e., when calculating average water savings, only projects with water savings will be used to determine the average) or all projects (even those without relevant resource savings).

We are excited to launch GRITS 2.0, which includes a host of new sharing features (project-level sharing, a Public Library, and an embeddable Public Dashboard), integration with EPA’s Portfolio Manager tool, currency conversion, and several other additions. Log in to GRITS now to see these new features in action! Expanding the GRITS Universe Two new locations have been added to GRITS—Australia and New Zealand! We welcome several new users, including Australia’s foremost research universities: the Group of Eight. For all other users, you can use the location filter or the map in the Library to find projects completed by these institutions to compare against your own.   Custom Currencies As GRITS’ geographical location expands, so has the need for different currencies. All GRITS institutions are now configured to enter financial data in their country’s currency, and GRITS converts to your own currency when you view projects in the Library from different countries. You can view your institution’s currency on the Settings page. If your institution has campuses that operate outside of your country, you can also customize the currency of each campus and make it the default for all projects linked to that campus.   View campus-level savings graphs If your institution oversees multiple campuses/sites, you’re now able to generate campus/site-specific graphs in the Reports tab. Use this option to see the energy, financial, and carbon savings achieved for each location’s group of buildings.   Import facilities from Portfolio Manager If you use the EPA’s Portfolio Manager tool to track building data, you can now import those buildings and their basic characteristics into GRITS. You can find the new “Portfolio Manager” sub-tab under the Facilities tab, where there are instructions for connecting your account to GRITS. After sending a successful connection request and sharing your facility information, you can choose to import buildings into GRITS one-by-one or in bulk—saving significant time. Step 1: Log into your Portfolio Manager account. Step 2: Click the “Contacts” link at the top right-hand corner of the page (next to “Help | Sign Out”). Step 3: Search for “GRITS” in the search bar, then click “connect.” Step 4: Let us know you’re trying to connect by emailing support@gogrits.org (we check for new connection requests regularly, but this will speed things up). Step 5: After we accept your request, share your Portfolio Manager properties with us. You will now be able to click the “load unaffiliated facilities” button in the “Portfolio Manager” sub-tab under the Facilities tab in GRITS. Click the “Import All Unconnected Facilities” button to import all buildings from Portfolio Manager. You can also use the “Affiliate Facilities” button to import individual buildings, and choose to create a new facility in GRITS or merge data from Portfolio Manager with an existing GRITS facility.   Download facilities data You’re now able to download a spreadsheet all of your facility information from GRITS, including building name, type, and location. If you don’t currently use the EPA’s Portfolio Manager tool but plan to, you can use this spreadsheet to upload building data to the tool from GRITS.   Public-facing features GRITS now has several features which enable users to share their project data with the public. Project Sharing: Choose to share individual projects with peers, administrators, or others who don’t have access to GRITS. Project-level sharing is enabled by default for your institution (toggle on the Settings page, under the “Sharing” sub-tab), and you can start sharing individual projects by switching it on within each Project Detail page. Flipping the sharing switch on your Project Detail page will reveal a customized link to your project that can be given to others, even those without access to GRITS, and can be switched off as desired. When at least one project is enabled for sharing, a new filter will appear on the Projects tab allowing you to isolate your sharing-enabled projects. Clicking the public URL will bring you to the public project page. Public Library: Choose to share your completed projects in a library visible to the public. Display your data and project achievements beyond GRITS, inspire others with ways to make their operations more efficient, and raise the profile of your institution. The Public Library is enabled by default for your institution (toggle on the Settings page, under the “Sharing” sub-tab), and you can start sharing individual projects by moving them from the Eligible Projects column to the Public Library Projects column. The projects will appear in the Public Library in two hours. Anyone can access the Public Library at: https://app.gogrits.org/library/public Public Dashboard: Design your own custom dashboard with several GRITS metrics that you can embed into your institution’s website. Navigate to the Settings page and the “Sharing” sub-tab, then scroll down to the Public Dashboard section. Choose between four and eight metrics that you would like to display in the Public Dashboard. These are calculated from the projects marked as Completed unless otherwise stated. Then select the preferred layout. Finally, click the “Save and Regenerate” button. A preview of your Public Dashboard is shown below. Copy the code to the left and embed it into your website to display the Dashboard and share the impact of your GRITS projects.

Last year I wrote about why booking too far in advance can be dangerous for your business, and this concept of margin so eloquently captures what I had recognized had been my problem: I was so booked up with clients that I wasn’t leaving any margin for error, growth, planning, or reflection.