The building sector has been identified as a sector with large potential for delivering energy savings and mitigation of GHG emissions. Yet it has been unclear what the specific role of building energy efficiency codes play in achieving these savings. Thererfore, between July 2011 and June 2012 the Global Buildings Performance Network, facilitated the development of scenarios for energy savings and GHG mitigation related to thermal energy efficiency in buildings and an international survey of the impact of policy best-practices.

Recognising both the recent surge in interest in low carbon refurbishments of residential buildings and the diversity of emergent terminology and perspectives, the authors set out definitions for key terms and frame a discussion of the phenomenon of refurbishments. The paper focuses on owner-occupied detached homes that dominate Australia’s existing residential building stock.

Creating sustainable cities requires rethinking the built environment, a fundamental component of mitigating the environmental impacts of buildings. To evaluate this, stakeholders in Australia increasingly rely on third party verification via green building rating schemes. These rating schemes address and encourage a variety of green features which are incorporated into the design and construction of a building.

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.

The energy benefits of increased code compliance have generally been viewed through the lens of energy savings – kWh and therms. Peak demand reduction as an additional benefit of increased code compliance is a comparatively unexplored area – despite a general acknowledgement that there are electric demand savings (kW) associated with increased energy code compliance. The ability to include peak demand reduction as a component of the code compliance savings has important and significant benefits.

The energy demand in the residential building sector represents a big challenge for Albania, Montenegro, and Serbia. Within our project entitled “Support for Low Emission Development in South East Europe”, the authors developed residential building topologies and using them as an input, designed and applied bottom-up simulation models to assess the impact of decarbonisation policy packages applied to this sector. The models were prepared in co-operation with national policymakers in the LEAP software, for which they were trained in a parallel project.

In 2009 the Washington State Legislature updated the legislation authorizing the Washington State Energy Code (WSEC). In the process, the legislature also set a goal that the total energy of new buildings would be reduced 70% over the performance of buildings built to the 2006 WSEC by the 2031 code cycle. To meet this ambitious goal the Washington State Building Code Council (SBCC) was authorized to develop incremental steps that would achieve this goal over the eight code cycles anticipated by 2031. The first step on that path was developed for the 2009 WSEC.

The purpose of this paper is to present data and discussion on a critical review of a sample of multi-storey and mixed use residential buildings in the subtropical city of Brisbane in order to understand how contemporary buildings are achieving local authority policy outcomes and resident-identified attributes of locally-appropriate subtropical living.

In 2014, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) issued a FOA (Funding Opportunity Announcement) to conduct residential energy code field studies using a radically different methodology from previous studies. Historically, studies defined and measured “compliance” as the portion of all code requirements being met on a house-by-house basis. Compliance was assumed to be a surrogate for energy, but that connection was never empirically established.

In Australia, there is an increasing interest in using extensive green roofs to make buildings more sustainable and provide a number of social, ecological, aesthetic and thermal benefits to cities. The potential of green roofs to reduce building energy consumption has been extensively studied overseas in a variety of different climates. However, in Australia the green roof industry is relatively new. There is still very little information on the thermal properties of Australian green roofs and their performance.

A significant body of research confirms the major contribution that improved building performance can make to national energy and greenhouse abatement policies. The challenge facing governments is how best to realize the potential of energy efficient buildings. This paper reviews the effectiveness of economic instruments for building energy policy compared with alternative interventions such as building regulation and information campaigns.

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

Currently, 37 states, covering almost 90% of the US population, have adopted at least the 2009 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC). Adoption is only the first step to more efficient buildings. To generate the promised energy savings, builders need to comply with the code. There have been many studies done to evaluate code compliance over the years, however, different studies use different methodologies; making it difficult to compare within or across states as well as across time.

Improvements in building energy codes cannot be fully realized unless targeted stakeholder education, training and outreach is provided to support increased understanding of and compliance with the minimum requirements. With Michigan’s adoption of the 2012 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC), an analysis determined statewide annual energy savings of approximately 480,000 MMBtu and $4 million in annual utility bill savings for homeowners from bringing below code residential new construction up to minimum requirements.

Most large developing countries have a building energy code or other building efficiency policies. However, testing and rating systems to assess the energy performance of building materials often lag behind these codes and policies. Building materials play a key role in setting the energy footprint of a building. Poorly performing or poorly labeled materials can result in higher energy use and lack of market incentives to produce high efficiency products.

Does the adoption of new energy codes impact construction activity? As jurisdictions throughout the country continue to adopt increasingly stringent codes, this question is asked time and again. In 2015 the Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships (NEEP) and the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance (SEEA) each purchased and then independently undertook an analysis of Construction Market Data (CMD) and publically available U.S.

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. 

While government policies aim to increase residential energy efficiency, policymakers know little about the efficiency of the U.S. housing stock and improvements in efficiency over time. This paper estimates the average space heating efficiency of U.S. homes, improvements in residential space heating efficiency over time, and impacts of building energy codes on residential space heating efficiency. Homes built in the 1990s were about 30% more efficient than those built before 1950.

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.

To reach its goal of an 80% carbon reduction by 2050, New York City (NYC) must embrace a radical change to its buildings. The Passive House design’s performance-based standard ensures occupant comfort and very low energy use. It is a pathway for NYC to transform its building stock to reach a low-carbon future. New York seeks to radically reduce its carbon emissions from buildings (60%) through regulatory and voluntary actions.