This metric is looking for the type of IECC climate region in which the institution is located:

For Wikirate researchers:

Institutions who report to the STARS program are listed on theSTARS Participants & Reports website.

• Use the institution Index, CTRL F, or Command F to search for the institution you want to research
  

• By clicking on the hyperlinked name of the institution, you will be redirected to the page where all their STARS reports are listed. You can select either the most recent report, or one of the older reports to start tracking their performance over time.

  NB: While the values in the reports might apply to different points in time (performance year, baseline year, most recent, etc.), the submission date of the report should be listed as the “year” on Wikirate. This is to ensure that reports of the same submission year can be compared. Any time specific information for the individual values should be included in the comment to that specific metric value.

• To narrow down your search, navigate the reports’ index using the Reporting Category - Institutional Characteristics - and Credit Category - Institutional Characteristics - to finally select the Credit Title: Operational Characteristics.

• You should now be on the report page that discloses the type of IECC climate region in which the institution is located. To locate the exact value you can search the page using CTRL F or Command F with keywords like IECC, and climate.

• Always check the metric question and methodology for the unit of measure or currency - researchers may need to carry out calculations or conversions before entering the final metric value

• Add comments to include details of simple or complex calculations or conversions made to determine the metric value and document any relevant contextual information
  

Further guidance on how to research values is available here, including detailed guidance on adding, editing and checking metric values.

STARS compliance guidance for institutions:

Climate zones are consistent with the climate designations used by the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) and the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE).
The zones correspond to these generalized climate categories:
1 - Very Hot
2 - Hot
3 - Warm
4 - Mixed
5 - Cool
6 - Cold
7 - Very Cold
8 - Subarctic

For further guidance, see IECC/ASHRAE Climate Zones (U.S) and ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2007
(international).