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Reports

59 result(s) found

EROI of different fuels and the implications for society

Journal article
Authors:
Charles A. Hall,
Jessica Lambert,
Stephen Balogh

Abstract: All forms of economic production and exchange involve the use of energy directly and in the transformation of materials. Until recently, cheap and seemingly limitless fossil energy has allowed most of society to ignore the importance of contributions to the economic process from the biophysical world as well as the potential limits to growth. This paper centres on assessing the energy costs of modern day society and its relation to GDP.

Measures to enforce mandatory civil building energy efficiency codes in China

Journal article
Authors:
Qiang Guo,
Yong Wu,
Yan Ding,
Wei Feng,
Neng Zhu

Mandatory civil building energy efficiency codes strictly govern the energy consumption of new buildings in China. As the promotion of building energy efficiency in China has increased in recent years, compliance with mandatory civil building energy efficiency codes has also improved, increasing from less than 10% in 2000 to nearly 100% in 2012, a remarkable achievement. However, because the promotion of energy efficiency strategies in China has followed a unique pattern, some researchers doubt these statistics.

What are the steps? Set targets and develop policies

Presentation
Authors:
Philip Cornell

The content discussed how to go about developing policies that prioritised energy efficiency for building by consulting with key stakeholders. The purpose of the slides is to teach emerging professionals in the emerging economies about how targets and policies can be used in tandem to meet energy and development goals. This course will provide examples of how targets have been created to meet targets and how country goals can be met by setting targets and complementary building energy efficiency policies.

Analysis of existing building energy saving policies in Japan and China

Journal article
Authors:
Beijia Huang,
Volker Mauerhofer,
Yong Geng

Building sector accounts for a large percentage of the total national energy consumption in most of the countries, thus it is critical to formulate and implement appropriate energy saving policies in the building sector. This paper focuses on energy saving policies in the building sector by conducting a comparative study between Japan and China. The exiting Building Energy Saving (BES) policies, actual effectiveness of policy implementation and obstacles to the effective policy implementation are compared in sequence.

PNNL’s recommendations on changes to the VBEEC

Presentation
Authors:
Mark Halverson,
Meredydd Evans

Buildings currently account for over 35% of Vietnam’s total energy consumption. Buildings codes could result in 30-40% buildings energy savings. The Vietnam Building Energy Code (VBEEC) was introduced in 2013 and now scheduled for revision in 2016.

In 2016, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) provided the following key recommendations for the revision of the Vietnam Building Energy Efficiency Code (VBEEC):

Climate co-benefits of green building standards: water, waste and transportation

Journal article
Authors:
William Eisenstein,
Gwen Fuertes,
Soazig Kaam,
Kimberley Seigel,
Edward Arens,
Louise Mozingo

This paper quantifies the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions co-benefits associated with water, waste and transportation usage in certified green commercial office buildings in California. The study compares the measured values of water, waste and transportation usage self-reported by office buildings certified under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system for Existing Building Operations and Maintenance (LEED EBOM) to baseline values of conventional California office buildings.

Carbon reductions and health co-benefits from US residential energy efficiency measures

Journal article
Authors:
Jonathan Levy,
May K. Woo,
Stefani L. Penn,
Mohammad Omary,
Yann Tambouret,
Chloe S. Kim,
Saravanan Arunachalam

The United States (US) Clean Power Plan established state-specific carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions reduction goals for fossil fuel-fired electricity generating units (EGUs). States may achieve these goals through multiple mechanisms, including measures that can achieve equivalent CO2 reductions such as residential energy efficiency, which will have important co-benefits. Here, we develop state-resolution simulations of the economic, health, and climate benefits of increased residential insulation, considering EGUs and residential combustion.

Building governance and climate change: roles for regulation and related polices

Journal article
Authors:
Henk Visscher,
Jacques Laubscher,
Edwin Chan

The contribution of buildings to climate change has become widely acknowledged. On 3 December 2015, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) held the first ‘buildings day’ at COP 21 (the UN Climate Change Conference) devoted to the decarbonization of the building stock. There are several forms of negative contributions that buildings make to climate change, but high on the list are embodied and operational energy demands, which largely depend on fossil fuels and result in greenhouse gas emissions.

Cost-optimal energy efficiency levels are the first step in achieving cost effective renovation in residential buildings with a nearly-zero energy target

Journal article
Authors:
Marco Ferreira,
Manuela Almeida,
Ana Rodrigues

In Europe, the latest updates in the directive on the energy performance of buildings introduced two fundamental concepts, namely the cost-optimal energy requirements and the nearly-zero energy buildings (nZEB). Although these concepts are related, the cost-optimal is focused on costs while the nZEB prioritise the energy performance and the use of renewable energy harvested on site.

Setting up a formal energy code development process

Presentation
Authors:
Meredydd Evans,
Mark Halverson

The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is a leading organization globally on building energy codes and standards. PNNL has served as the technical lead for DOE’s Building Energy Codes Program in the U.S. and worked on building energy codes in many countries including Vietnam, India, China, and Russia.

How much energy do building energy codes save? Evidence from California houses

Journal article
Authors:
Arik Levinson

Regulations governing the energy efficiency of new buildings have become a cornerstone of US environmental policy. California enacted the first such codes in 1978 and has tightened them every few years since. I evaluate the resulting energy savings three ways: comparing energy used by houses constructed under different standards, controlling for building and occupant characteristics; examining how energy use varies with outdoor temperatures; and comparing energy used by houses of different vintages in California to that same difference in other states.

Overview of stakeholders participation in adoption & implementation of building energy codes

Presentation
Authors:
Volha Roshchanka,
Meredydd Evans

This presentation shows a brief overview of some of the principles and practices and stakeholder engagement related to building energy codes. It also includes a brief example of the Australian government that has engaged in code assessment. There's a commitment to continually engage with stakeholders, both through the development and revision process, technical committees, working groups, and the stakeholder surveys that they've done recently to understand implementation.

Energy efficiency of housing for older citizens: does it matter?

Journal article
Authors:
Wendy Miller,
Desley Vine,
Zakaria Amin

Global population ageing has significant implications for public policy in areas such as health, housing and economic security. The notion of housing as a public health issue is not new, yet very little research has examined the links between housing specifically built for older people, energy performance and occupant health and economic security.

Toolkit: Building energy efficiency policies

Presentation
Authors:
Philip Cornell

The content of these slides was to identify, prioritise and quantify these policy options for interventions to rapidly increase energy efficiency during the change of government and the incoming government. The purpose is to teach emerging professionals in the emerging economies about building energy efficiency policies that can be used to reduce energy use in buildings. This course will include information that has been examined in IEA’s policy pathway series and the sustainable buildings book.  Trainers: Brian Dean, Ksenia Petrichenko and Adam Hinge

Energy codes 101: benefits for the residential real estate industry

Presentation
Authors:
Alison Lindburg

Building energy codes lay out the minimum requirements for the envelope (insulation, windows and air sealing), mechanical equipment and lighting of a building (residential and commercial) in terms of energy efficiency/conservation for new construction or major renovations. National model energy codes are updated every three years to incorporate continual improvements in building efficiency in a collaborative, transparent process by a diverse group of stakeholders.

Modelling and analysis of post-occupancy behaviour in residential buildings to inform BASIX sustainability assessments in NSW

Journal article
Authors:
Marini Samaratunga,
Lan Ding,
Kate Bishop,
Deo Prasad,
Kevin Yee

Sustainability assessment tools aim to promote high sustainability outcomes in residential buildings, ensuring less consumption of water, energy and less emission of greenhouse gases. However, existing literature often presents variations between the estimated outcomes from the assessment tools and actual outcomes after building occupation. Research suggests that actual energy consumption could be significantly influenced by resident behaviour in addition to the dwelling conditions and the energy efficiency of appliances.

Developing policies and programmes for green buildings: What can Nigeria learn from Malaysia's experience?

Journal article
Authors:
Iheanyichukwu Joachim Onuoha,
Norhaya Kamarudin,
Godwin Uche Aliagha,
S. A. Okeahialam,
Moses Idowu Atilola,
Fidelis Osagie Atamamen

Nigerian government has begun to develop plans that will address green buildings and environmental sustainability, a matter and issue on which Malaysia has wide-ranging experiences. Through a comparative study on green building policies in Malaysia and Nigeria, the study identified important lessons relevant to Nigeria green building policies and programmes and creates a general explanation of Malaysia green building policies that could be applicable to Nigeria.

A review of studies on green building assessment methods by comparative analysis

Journal article
Authors:
Yuanyuan Li,
Xiaochen Chen,
Xiaoyu Wang,
Youquan Xu,
Po-Han Chen

Green building assessment methods, which play an essential role in promoting the development of greenbuildings, have attracted much attention in recent years. Many studies have been conducted on the development of new assessment methods and improvement of existing ones through comparative analysis. However, there is no comprehensive study that explicitly explores these efforts. For this purpose, a systematic review of the existing literature on green building assessment methods through comparative analysis is carried out in this paper.

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