Mainstreaming high-performance buildings could deliver a 124% return on investment globally through building-related energy cost savings by 2050 says a new comprehensive assessment study of the costs and benefits of low energy building pathways published by the GBPN.

Mainstreaming high-performance buildings could deliver a 124% return on investment globally through building-related energy cost savings by 2050 says a new comprehensive assessment study of the costs and benefits of low energy building pathways published by the GBPN in cooperation with the Central European University’s Center for Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Policy (3CSEP) and Advanced Building and Urban Design (ABUD).

Today, buildings still account for almost half of the global energy consumption and carbon emission. This highlights the necessity to increase energy efficiency requirements worldwide in a common effort to reduce the construction sector's impacts on the environment. The current energy policies are driving toward a design that relies on airtight and highly insulated envelopes. As a consequence, energy efficient houses are found to have insufficient indoor air change rates, impacting on the indoor air quality and resulting in higher latent loads.

Improving the energy efficiency of the residential building stock has increasingly been promoted by policy makers as a means of reducing energy demand in the residential sector. We review the literature on some non-energy impacts of energy efficiency retrofitting measures aimed at increasing the air tightness and thermal insulation of residential properties. Specifically, we review the impact of retrofitting measures on indoor pollutants, mould growth, attenuation of radio signal and overheating.