In February 2015 the principle of ‘Efficiency First’  (E1st) was formally endorsed by the European Commission within the framework of the Energy Union.

This paper outlines and critically ‘maps’ existing roadmaps relevant to transitions to a low or zero carbon built environment in Australia. A roadmap describes the measures required to achieve goals and/or map future innovation opportunities. The three questions addressed by a comprehensive roadmap are: Where do we want to go?, Where are we now?, and How can we get there? The review identified 13 roadmaps/plans that have been produced by: peak industry bodies (Australian Institute of Refrigeration Air Conditioning and Heating); academic research groups (e.g.

Green Public Procurement (GPP) is an important tool to achieve environmental policy goals relating to climate change, resource use and sustainable consumption and production – especially given the importance of public sector spending on goods and services in Europe.

Energy is a complicated topic, and energy performance can also be challenging to determine. This book is about understanding and shaping energy performance of an entire economic sector, using the residential sector as the example, although not at a detailed level. The historical record of attempts to reduce energy use or carbon emissions of countries and the world is primarily one of failure. Should the response to continued failure be to continue to do more of the same? Insanity is sometimes defined in such a manner.

This document contains the highlights from the high-level roundtable organised in the framework of the RenoValue project. The event took place at the European Parliament, in Brussels, Belgium, on 26 January 2016, providing the opportunity to discuss how policy makers can strengthen the role of property valuers as drivers of the market transition towards sustainable buildings.

China has made energy conservation and energy efficiency one of its top priorities as a means of guiding its economic and social development. In the past three decades, while China’s economy increased eighteen‑fold, energy consumption increased only five‑fold. The energy intensity of China’s GDP declined by about seventy percent during the same period. In the face of resource and environmental constraints, China vowed to make energy conservation a foundation of its economic and social development strategy, as well as its energy and climate change strategy.

Policies that promote green growth need to be founded on a good understanding of the determinants of green growth and need to be supported with appropriate indicators to monitor progress. This book is an update of the 2014 edition.

Delivering the quality of growth to which citizens aspire requires concerted action across countries and within ministries invested in green growth – finance, economy, industry, trade and agriculture, among others.

For building owners, the renovation process can be a hassle, shaped by the ambiguity of the measures to implement. Uncertainty is one of the reasons why the renovation rate continues to linger around 1% and private investments remain limited. Achieving the full market potential of renovation calls for a paradigm shift, where a more service-oriented supply-side together with a deeper awareness on the demand-side play key roles. The BetterHome case study shows how innovative business models can drive energy renovations across Europe.

This report is an update from a similar document published in 2013. In 2018, evidence gathered by the International Energy Agency has identified six critical factors to guide policy makers in realising potential savings in both new and existing buildings through the modernisation of building energy codes.

This document is the companion to parts 1 and 2 of the guidance on how to use Level(s). In part 1 a general introduction to Level(s) is provided, together with in Part 2 an overview of the macro-objectives, performance indicators and the three Levels of performance assessment (Level(s) - Part 1 and 2). The three Levels are:

The current shift from fossil energy resources to “green” energy — renewable energy plus storage in smart grids, many with electric vehicles providing grid services — is now a global phenomenon (International Energy Agency 2016; International Renewable Energy Agency [IRENA] 2017b).

This book uses energy and economic models to assess the potential for further energy-efficient improvements in the transport, building, industry and power sectors of China. The report starts with a modelling assessment of the role of energy efficiency in supporting China to achieve its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) of reaching a peak in its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by around 2030.

Economic development will lead to higher demand for various end-use goods and services in India. Energy-efficient technologies provide a way forward to achieve economic growth at relatively lower costs due to associated multiple benefits such as resource conservation, lower energy consumption, higher productivity and lower emissions intensity per unit of output.

The report undertakes the following analysis to identify High Impact Opportunities (HIOs):

Cities are increasingly taking actions such as building code enforcement, urban planning, and public transit expansion to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide in their communities and municipal operations. However, many cities lack the quantitative information needed to estimate policy impacts and prioritize city actions in terms of carbon abatement potential and cost effectiveness. This report fills this research gap by providing methodologies to assess the carbon abatement potential of a variety of city actions.

The EU building sector needs to develop and deploy more innovative solutions in order to enhance the building stock’s energy efficiency and help meet energy and climate policy targets. The European Union is therefore supporting projects that address design and construction processes as well as new technologies, with funding from the Horizon 2020 programme. The results developed by these projects address key challenges at each stage of the value chain for new nearly zero-energy buildings, deep renovation of existing buildings, and energy-smart buildings.

The growing per capita income in India is expected to increase the demand for various energy-consuming products and services among Indian households. Enhancing energy efficiency remains one of the cheapest options to “produce” energy in India, as the efficiency of many energy systems has a large scope for improvement, and as this option plays an important part in enhancing India’s energy security.

The U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED®) green building certification has transformed how the building industry
and the public consider sustainability in the built environment. The most recent update to LEED, known as LEED v4, is the new standard for high-performance

Analysis of energy renovation costs, as provided by the French Observatory for Low Energy Buildings, identified the following:

This report is the Interim Technical Report for the Building Code Energy Performance Trajectory Project. It accompanies the Interim Synthesis Report for the Building Code Energy Performance Trajectory Project, entitled The Bottom Line – the household impacts of delaying improved energy requirements in the Building Code and which was published on the 8th of February 2018, providing more detail on the assumptions behind and the preliminary results from the underlying modelling work.

The report provides the following key items:

Most energy efficiency programs target only one fuel, usually electricity or natural gas. While they achieve savings, they sometimes miss opportunities by failing to address other fuels. Dual-fuel programs, on the other hand, have the potential to save more energy, reduce program costs, and improve customer satisfaction. Yet many utilities still do not offer them because they often require collaboration with other utilities or program administrators, making them more difficult to run.