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Reports

60 result(s) found

SCALING UP DEEP ENERGY RENOVATION: UNLEASHING THE POTENTIAL THROUGH INNOVATION and INDUSTRIALISATION

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English
Authors:
Maarten de Groote,
Marianne Lefever,
Julia Reinaud,
Patty Fong,
Yamina Saheb,
and Oliver Rapf

The European construction industry, like many others, is confronted by an economy that isundergoing a highly significant change, shaped by megatrends such as greater urbanisation,disruptive new technologies and digitalisation, globalised value chains and sustainability.At the same time, the European economy faces the profound challenge of meeting theambitious climate mitigation goal set out in the Paris Agreement of keeping average globalwarming to well below 2˚C.

Factors Influencing U.S. Homebuilders’ Adoption of Green Homebuilding Products

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English
Authors:
Andrew R. Sanderford,
Matthew J. Keefe,
C. Theodore Koebel,
Andrew P. McCoy

While many researchers have analyzed the obstacles to the diffusion of innovation in building construction, little empirical evidence has been gathered about the factors associated with U.S. homebuilders’ adoption of innovative building products. In this paper, we develop a theory driven diffusion of innovation conceptual model of homebuilders’ adoption of high performance building product innovations. We are among the first to operationalize a regression model to demonstrate an application of the model using a large dataset from the National Association of Homebuilders.

Review of 10 years research on building energy performance gap: Life-cycle and stakeholder perspectives

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English
Authors:
Patrick X.W. Zou,
Xiaoxiao Xu,
Jay Sanjayan,
Jiayuan Wang

The reliability, security, and sustainability of energy generation and supply are of global importance and the building sector accounts for up to 32% of total energy consumption, which makes it a key player in the domain. Previous research has identified that the actual energy consumption in buildings could be as much as 2.5 times of the predicted or simulated.

German and Norwegian policy approach to residential buildings’ energy efficiency—a comparative assessment

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English
Authors:
Gloria Amoruso,
Natasha Donevska,
Gunstein Skomedal

The paper answers three research questions: (1) Which policies prevail in Germany and Norway to foster the deployment of energy efficient and decarbonized solutions for residential buildings? (2) How do these policies respond to country-specific barriers to the energy transition in the building sector, and (3) What effects do they have on the actual implementation of technological and societal solutions?

Paving a Concrete Path to Globalization with China's Belt and Road Initiative Through the Middle East

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English
Authors:
Liana M. Petranek

This article discusses China's economic development and political influence in the Middle East, and the construction of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). It also discusses Xi Jinping's vision for relationships with the Middle East states as its natural partners, the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum (CASCF), the law of value, and the antagonistic contradictions China will encounter in its path to accumulation with US hegemony in the region.

The price of innovation: An analysis of the marginal cost of green buildings

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English
Authors:
Andrea Chegut,
Piet Eichholtz,
Nils Kok

Energy efficiency plays an important role in reducing the carbon externality from buildings, but economic analyses of more efficient, green building have thus far ignored input costs. This paper finds that the average marginal cost of green-labeled construction projects is smaller than the value premiums documented in the literature. However, design fees, representing just a fraction of development costs but paid largely up-front, are significantly higher for green construction projects. These projects also take longer to complete.

Residential energy efficiency standards in Australia: where to next?

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English
Authors:
Stephen Berry,
Tony Marker

Increasing the energy and carbon efficiency of homes has been at the forefront of international climate change mitigation policy. In Australia, recent policy action led to the introduction of minimum energy efficiency standards for new homes within the Building Code of Australia in 2003, with subsequent stringency increases in 2006 and 2010.

Setting a standard for electricity pilot studies

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English
Authors:
Alexander L.Davis,
Tamar Krishnamurti,
Baruch Fischhoff,
Wandi Bruine de Bruin

In-home displays, dynamic pricing, and automated devices aim to reduce residential electricity use—overall and during peak hours. We present a meta-analysis of 32 studies of the impacts of these interventions, conducted in the US or Canada. We find that methodological problems are common in the design of these studies, leading to artificially inflated results relative to what one would expect if the interventions were implemented in the general population.

Focused acceleration: A strategic approach to climate action in cities to 2030

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English
Authors:
Desiree Bernhard,
Michele Bertoncello,
Alex Brotschi,
Lia Cairone,
Ricardo Cepeda-Márquez,
Robert Cervero,
Flavio Coppola,
David Craven,
Andrea Fernandez,
David Frankel,
Bhavin Gandhi,
Anna Gressel-Bacharan,
Clare Healy,
Max Jamieson,
Laura Jay,
Sean Kane,
Kate Laing,
Nicholas Laverty,
Julia Lipton,
Timo Möller,
Eric Morden,
Jesse Noffsinger,
Dickon Pinner,
Angelos Platanias,
Matt Rogers,
Josh Rosenfield,
Caterina Sarfatti,
Lucila Spotorno,
Zachary Tofias,
Andreas Tschiesner,
Helga Vanthournout,
Amy Wagner,
Caroline Watson,
Jonathan Woetzel,
Katherine Wolosz,
and Hong Xia

There is now widespread recognition in the international community that the commitments made by national governments under the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015 cannot be achieved without concerted action by cities. Fortunately, many mayors have shown strong commitment to tackling climate change and a willingness to collaborate to achieve this goal.

Boosting building renovation: An overview of good practices

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English
Authors:
Bogdan Atanasiu,
Ilektra Kouloumpi,
Marine Faber,
Cosmina Marian,
Ingeborg Nolte,
Oliver Rapf,
Dan Staniaszek

The main aim of this report is to contribute to the exchange of good practices and to support EU MS by providing potential ideas for the elaboration of long-term renovation plans. The report compiles renovation requirements as well as financial instruments, support programmes and market mechanisms for building renovation in a number of countries and regions. While the main focus of the report is on selected EU MS, a few global examples are also presented.

Incorporating Green Building Features and Initiatives into Commercial Property Valuation

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English
Authors:
Saul Nurick,
Karen Le Jeune,
Emma Dawber,
Ryan Flowers and Jennifer Wilkinson

The rapid acceptance of green buildings internationally has led to awareness of green building features and initiatives (GBFIs) in the South African property industry; however, among South African valuers, it seems the awareness is still in its infancy. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with valuers of varying degrees of experience in Cape Town, online surveys were completed by a sample of South African valuers, and a valuation simulation was conducted to determine the impact of GBFIs.

Drivers for green building: A review of empirical studies

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English
Authors:
Amos Darko,
Chenzhuo Zhang,
Albert P.C. Chan

This paper presents a comprehensive literature review of what drives the adoption of green building (GB) practices among construction stakeholders. The review is based on literature that have been published in peer-reviewed journals. Through a systematic review of the literature, authors are able to identify generic drivers for stakeholders to pursue GB. A total of 64 drivers were identified from reviewing 42 selected empirical studies. The paper presents a classification framework for the GB drivers.

ADDRESSING FINANCIAL OBJECTIONS TO SUSTAINABLE DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION

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English
Authors:
Susan Aiello

This article provides useful information that could help you address some barriers to sustainable initiatives: Every executive that you speak to is aware that data can be manipulated and may be skeptical of studies conducted by organizations that could benefit from a particular set of results. So I've included information on independent third-party studies. In challenging economic times, people are particularly concerned about short-term cash flow.

Urban Efficiency: A Global Survey of Building Energy Efficiency Policies in Cities

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English
Authors:
Tomoko Takagi,
Ryuichi Horie,
Gregory Trencher,
Yuko Nishida,
Kaoru Nakanishi,
Kanako Okano,
Zoe Sprigings,
Shannon Lawrence,
Eric Ast,
Cristina Paula Miclea,
Peter Graham

A Global Survey of Building Energy Efficiency Policies in Cities is a resource for city officials around the world as they design new policies for building energy efficiency, or review existing ones. The research should help close the evidence gap regarding city-level activity in building energy efficiency. As such, it is designed to be accessible to those working in the field in general, including researchers.

From Brown to Green: SUSTAINABLE BUILDINGS IN LEGACY CITIES

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English
Authors:
ROBERT SIMON,
EUNKYU LEE

The research examines the installation of sustainable (green) property development, typified by Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification in legacy cities in comparison to non-legacy cities. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), green buildings represent resource-efficient models for construction and operation that are designed to use fewer resources and generate less pollution.

Analysis of the transition effects of building codes and regulations on the emergence of a low carbon residential building sector

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English
Authors:
Robert A.Enker,
Gregory M.Morrison

It is now established that energy use in buildings is a significant source of global greenhouse gas emissions and that abatement by the building sector can provide significant social, economic and environmental benefits. This paper examines the application of socio-technical transition theory to the building sector with Australian energy policy as a case study. The relatively high level of local building construction offers significant opportunities for market transition with appropriate policy settings so this national case has international implications.

Improving the economics of building energy code change: A review of the inputs and assumptions of economic models

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English
Authors:
Stephen Berry,
Kathryn Davidson

Building energy code change in Australia, and many other developed nations, is subject to standardised economic tests, with a net present value calculation at the heart of the economic analysis. Although many nations have introduced minimum energy efficiency standards for residential and commercial buildings, increases in stringency have been hindered by limitations to the range of private and societal impacts typically incorporated in regulatory impact assessments.

Saving energy is not easy: An impact assessment of Dutch policy to reduce the energy requirements of buildings

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English
Authors:
Kees Vringer,
Manon van Middelkoop,
Nico Hoogervorst

The Dutch Government stimulates the application of energy efficiency measures to reduce the energy requirements of buildings, which are responsible for about 20% of the Dutch CO2 emissions. For our assessment, we followed a qualitative approach, due to a lack of data. We reviewed the mix of policy instruments and used stakeholder surveys and interviews. We found that energy use is not very likely to decline fast enough to achieve the Dutch policy targets for 2020. For new buildings, the policy mix works well, but its contribution to the policy targets is limited.

BUILDING A GREEN NEW YORK: Construction Unions and Community Alliances

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English
Authors:
James Nugent,
Maria Figueroa

This chapter examines the experience of construction unions and community organizations as they enter into strategic alliances to create new markets in energy efficient systems. I focus on two recent policy initiatives: PlaNYC for the retrofitting of public and commercial properties in New York City, and Green Jobs/Green New York (GJ/GNY) for the retrofitting of non-commercial residential properties in the rest of the city and the state.

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