DECODER: Digitalization for Energy-Efficiency Through Commissioning and Decarbonization Retrofits
Summary
Buildings account for 53% of Canada's electrical energy use, and decarbonizing them at scale requires innovative solutions. While many building owners have set ambitious decarbonization goals, they need roadmaps that consider both operational and retrofit constraints from economic and carbon life-cycle perspectives.
This project aims to create an integrated tool to support and monitor decarbonization planning across building portfolios. The DECODER (Digitalization for Energy efficiency through COmmissioning and DEcarbonization Retrofits) platform will use cognitive digital twin (CDT) technology to acquire and process building data, supporting decision-making at both building and portfolio scales.
The platform will include two components: Building DECODER, which uses predictive models to optimize energy use and identify promising retrofits, and Portfolio DECODER, which evaluates multiple buildings and retrofit scenarios to prioritize measures. This scalable tool will reduce the effort needed to implement decarbonization strategies, driving significant energy savings and greenhouse gas reductions across large building portfolios.
Key details
| Principal investigator | Jenn McArthur, Toronto Metropolitan University |
| Co-principal investigators | Manar Amayri, Concordia University Nizar Bouguila, Concordia University Ursula Eicker, Concordia University Yann-Gaël Guéhéneuc, Concordia University Mazdak Nik-Bakht, Concordia University Sumin Song, Concordia University |
| Research collaborators | Seungjae Lee, University of Toronto Marin Litoiu, York University Manos Papagelis, York University John Simpson-Porco, University of Toronto |
| Areas of Research | Modelling and Design Technologies, Monitoring Technologies, Control, Systems, and Access Technologies, Construction-related Technologies, Building and Building Envelope Technologies, Digital Twins, Smart & Ongoing Commissioning, Public Policy and Governance of Energy or Energy-related Technologies, Knowledge Mobilization of Decarbonization and Electrification Processes, Organizational technology adoption and digital system socialization |
| Non-academic partners | NRC, NRCan, Service de la gestion et la planification des immeubles (SGPI), Concordia University - PLAN/NET ZERO, NextGen Cities Institute, Toronto Metropolitan University, Sustainability Office, University of Toronto, Unity Health Toronto (UHT), RYCOM/Ainsworth, Schneider Electric |
Publications:
J. J. McArthur, S. Dunne, and S. B. Ivory, “From compliance to convening: the transformation of the Canada Green Building Council,” Social Movement Studies, pp. 1–18, Sept. 2025, doi: 10.1080/14742837.2025.2563731.
Accepted publications in national and international conferences:
C. C. Chai and J. McArthur, “Unsupervised Multimodal Learning for Fault Detection of Fan Coils Units Using Building Automation System Data,” presented at the 42nd International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction, Montreal, Canada, July 2025. doi: 10.22260/ISARC2025/0120.
M. Kandil, G. Chang, and J. J. McArthur, “Modeling Cooling Tower Fan Speed Using Symbolic Regression,” presented at the 42nd International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction, Montreal, Canada, July 2025. doi: 10.22260/ISARC2025/0151.
Book chapters:
J. J. McArthur, “Full Circle - Leveling Up Building Digital Twins with Videogames,” in Architecture and Videogames, 1st ed., 2025. [Online]. Available: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003408970-18/full-circle-jenn-mcarthur
Sumin Song: John Molson Business Ownership Case Writing Competition, Concordia University, September 26, 2025.
