Grid interactive buildings for decarbonization : design and operation resource guide This guide builds on the existing ASHRAE Smart Grid Application Guide by providing specific design and operational parameters for building projects (in the vein of an AEDG) that allow the audience to maximize carbon reduction in their interaction with the grid. Grid interactivity is still a relatively new practice for most members of this audience. There are several significant gaps in broad knowledge and an ASHRAE publication would be a good fit to provide that knowledge. Those gaps include: 1. While there are a number of streamlined guides targeted at mainstream building professionals guiding them in designing and operating high energy performance buildings there is a lack of any companion guide for maximizing grid interactivity with both clarity and specificity. The ASHRAE Smart Grid Applications Guide included some steps in this direction but is both broader (including significant content on the distribution grid utility programs microgrids and more) and less applied than the proposed work. 2. Guidance for control of individual building systems for grid interactive buildings (GIB) is currently scattered among several publications addressing specific systems or even utility program types. And most of this guidance is aimed at researchers and early adopters not a mainstream audience. A guide that describes specific control recommendations for an array of the most common systems is needed. 3. There is a need for guidance on controls to shift toward more real time automated interaction with the grid. Much of the control guidance available does not address that automated connection. 4. This guide could directly inform (and be referenced by) other global standards and initiatives including general sustainability and climate standards (such as those administered by ASHRAE ISO Green Building Councils and others) as well as those that are more focused on comprehensive grid interactivity. A holistic consensus reference does not currently exist. 5. Very little of this mentioned guidance is focused directly on the goal of decarbonization. This guide would have decarbonization as the primary goal which aligns it with the ASHRAE Strategic Plan for 2019 2025. Specifically the Resilient Buildings and Communities initiative which addresses both decarbonization and grid interactivity