Skip to content

Reporting Integrity

Our assessments produce recommendations that clients use to make real capital decisions — purchasing new equipment, scheduling production downtime, applying for utility incentives. A facility manager who acts on our numbers is trusting that those numbers reflect what we actually observed and calculated. That trust is the foundation of the program, and protecting it is every student's responsibility.

Accurate and Honest Data Collection

All data collected during an assessment must be recorded exactly as measured or observed. This includes nameplate readings, instrument measurements, operating schedules reported by plant staff, and any photographs or sketches taken on-site.

  • Write down what the meter reads, not what you expected it to read.

  • If a value seems wrong, take the measurement again or note the discrepancy — do not silently "correct" it.

  • Record the source of every number (nameplate, measurement, interview, estimate) so it can be traced later.

  • If you did not collect a piece of data on-site, say so. Do not reconstruct it from memory after the fact.

What Is Not Allowed

The following are serious violations of program standards and may result in removal from the program:

  • Fabricating data — inventing measurements, hours, or equipment counts that were not actually collected.

  • Estimating without basis — filling in a number because one is needed, without a documented source, calculation, or reasonable engineering assumption.

  • Adjusting data to improve results — changing inputs, operating hours, or load factors so that a recommendation meets a savings or payback threshold.

  • Selectively omitting data that would weaken or invalidate a recommendation.

A weak recommendation that reflects reality is always preferable to a strong one that does not.

Correcting Errors After Submission

Mistakes happen. If you discover an error after a report has been submitted to the client — whether in a measurement, a calculation, or a recommendation — report it to the Center Director as soon as you find it. Do not attempt to quietly fix it in a later revision or hope it goes unnoticed.

The correction procedure is:

  1. Notify the Center Director and the lead assessor for that report.

  2. Document what the error is, how it was discovered, and the corrected value.

  3. The Center will issue an erratum or revised report to the client as appropriate.

Self-reported errors are handled as part of normal quality control. Errors that are concealed and later discovered are treated as integrity violations.