The Asia-Pacific region has experienced significant growth in its green building market. APEC members have supported a number of related activities over recent years to advance building rating systems, promote life-cycle analysis for products and materials, and document policies regulating building design and construction. The common goal of these efforts is to work toward a sustainable built environment supported by the free flow of trade in products and technologies.

This document is an example of Recommendations for EU states that gives guidance on how to proceed with zero-energy buildings.  It is likely the recommendations apply elsewhere.  The document answers questions like "How do renewable energy sources contribute?".  Other information includes

Without strong and ambitious policy support, the energy efficiency potential of cities is likely to remain largely untapped. Often cities have the opportunity to implement policies and programmes in the building sector that are complementary, more stringent or reflect greater ambition than national activities. 

This is the third in a series of papers intended to guide states as they embark on the path to Clean Power Plan (CPP) compliance. As one of many approaches to reducing pollution and complying with the CPP, states and localities can offer energy efficiency programs to low-income households or businesses and community-based organizations that serve low-income communities. This guide discusses some best practices for implementing and evaluating low-income energy efficiency programs and addresses considerations in using them for CPP compliance.

In summary: 

1. As a result of Colombia’s new green codes, buildings are expected to consume 10 to 45 percent less energy and water. These reductions will avoid nearly 190,000 metric tons of greenhouse-gas emissions by 2021, helping big cities like Bogota achieve a goal to reduce 2019’s greenhouse-gas emissions by 16 percent compared to 2007.2,3

To maximise the benefits from its application of BIM to infrastructure projects within its annual capital program, this framework will support the effective use of BIM across Queensland Government infrastructure delivery agencies. A focus of the framework includes BIM capability development across government and industry.

USGBC local communities around the country are helping cities jumpstart their building performance benchmarking efforts. And the results are pretty exciting. After four years of benchmarking in New York City, buildings there are using almost 15 percent less energy according to MIT professor David Hsu, one of the most widely recognized experts in energy benchmarking analysis. Learn more in this Benchmarking in Cities brief.

Potential gains from improving energy efficiency are substantial — not only in terms of saving energy and combating climate change, but also in terms of contributing to an array of other co-benefits, including improving human health and creating jobs. We asked Tim Farrell, Senior Advisor at the Copenhagen Centre on Energy Efficiency, what works best when it comes to boosting energy efficiency. He stressed that targeted policy measures and sufficient resources to support implementation and compliance are among a number of critical ingredients for success.

This guidebook aims to be a practical resource for governments (ministries of energy, environment, housing, climate change, finance, planning and others), private sector investors and civil society organizations by illustrating how to create a Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action (NAMA) for energy efficient buildings based on a country-led national strategy, possibly articulated as a Nationally Determined Contribution.

This article is part of our Urban Expeditions series, an initiative made possible by a grant from United Technologies to the National Geographic Society. As the world’s urban population expands, architects and planners are mapping out ways to make cities more sustainable. Cities produce a vast amount of emissions and waste, putting a strain on both human and ecological health. But our buildings themselves may hold a solution.

This toolkit is designed as a first step in helping countries, cities and experts in developing, adopting and implementing their codes. In its present form, this toolkit is set out as a useful reference, but also as a means of assessing the potential of such information to help governments and other stakeholders. The toolkit covers five main topics: guidance for cities and jurisdictions that are just getting started, and tools that can provide inspiration and knowledge regarding code development, adoption, implementation and evaluation.

Buildings are central to meeting the sustainability challenge. In the developed world, buildings consume over 70% of the electrical power generated and 40% of primary energy, and are responsible for 40% of CO2 emissions from combustion. While developing countries will need to accommodate 2.4 billion new urban residents by 2050, in Europe 75-90% of buildings standing today are expected to remain in use in 2050. Renewable energy technology alone cannot meet those requirements, despite recent improvements.

Energy transition of the EU building stock, from being an energy waster to being highly energy efficient and an energy producer, is a prerequisite for Europe’s carbon neutrality, as well as for meeting Europe’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Achieving these targets requires shifting the emerging energy renovation market from a market of step-by-step and shallow energy renovation financed by grants to a market of industrialized and holistic energy renovation leading to zero energy buildings financed by long-term loans.

The earth is on a trajectory to warm 3-4°C by 2100. This heat map details how that rise in temperatures will affect major metropolitan hubs.

Smart Cities Dive took a closer look at how this would affect six major metropolitan hubs, and what the respective mayors and city leaders are doing to curb climate impacts as the clock ticks.

More and more large energy users across Australia are exploring distributed energy solutions to reduce costs, lower their exposure to volatile energy markets and drive down carbon emissions. With opportunities such as generating electricity on site using solar PV and load management through the use of batteries, corporates can take a far more active and strategic role in energy management.

The Central Melbourne design guide has been prepared by the City of Melbourne to support the use and interpretation of the Urban Design in the Central City and Southbank Design and Development Overlay Schedule 1 (DDO1) within the Melbourne Planning Scheme. The guide is intended to raise the bar on the design quality of development outcomes in the Central City and Southbank.

Residential and commercial buildings accounted for over 2,000 Million Metric Tons (MMT) of carbon equivalent emissions and 40% of the total energy consumed in the United States in 2016. New construction and major renovations in buildings have a long-term impact on emissions as many of the features incorporated at time of construction will impact energy consumption for decades.

The Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB) and the former Australian Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (DEWHA) developed this Handbook to assist users with the application and understanding of the National Construction Code (NCC) Volume One energy efficiency provisions.

New research finds that people are willing to pay more for energy efficient housing, making the case for a mandatory national rating system for existing homes. 

“Location, location, location” is a time-honoured mantra for pricing property, but research shows buyers and renters are also prepared to pay a premium for energy efficiency.

Light, reflective surfaces can have a dramatic impact in cooling the surrounding air – in cities, but in the countryside too. Whitewashed walls, arrays of photovoltaic cells, and stubble-filled fields can all provide local relief during the sweltering decades ahead. But policymakers beware. It doesn’t always work like that. There can be unintended consequences, both on temperature and other aspects of climate, like rainfall. Even local geoengineering needs to be handled with care.