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.

Rigorously enforced stringent building codes can cost effectively achieve energy savings, reduce energy bills and curb greenhouse gas emissions. This paper combines on-site data from some 800 dwellings, energy use information, survey data and computer simulations to evaluate the impact of the most recent energy efficiency provisions of the British Columbia Building Code on residential energy use in British Columbia, Canada. Key findings are as follows:

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.

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.

Low-income energy efficiency programs are an important component of ratepayer-funded efficiency portfolios throughout the country, but there is room for improvement and expansion. In this report the authors address the challenges and opportunities of low-income programs that target single-family homes. This report includes a survey of the low-income program landscape and advice on scaling up energy efficiency in this sector.

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.

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.

This has been a major project of the AIBS Board over the past five months and represents a significant achievement in enabling AIBS to lead and influence public debate around building regulatory reform throughout Australia.

First adopted in 2007, and most recently renewed in 2015, New Mexico’s Sustainable Building Tax Credit supports the greening of many building types across the state. Released in October, 2017, this case study captures the impacts of this landmark policy and highlights the context and people that helped to create and sustain this nation-leading green building policy.

This is an example of LEED being used in an innovative tax policy across the United States and potentially serve as a tax model elsewhere.

Housing affordability is defined and measured in a variety of ways. For ASBEC, affordability means enabling people to make a housing choice that suits their needs within their available budget – regardless of whether it involves renting, ownership or having options as they age.

The recent European energy proposals for the revision of the Energy Efficiency and the Energy Performance of Buildings Directives emphasize the importance of driving investments into the renovation of building stocks and stimulating retrofitting demand. Moreover, the ambitious targets on Green House Gas’ abatement and energy consumption reduction require refurbishments to a high level of performance. This high level of performance subsequently represents high cost for households.

This report, produced jointly by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the International Energy Agency (IEA), and the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21), offers policy makers a comprehensive understanding of the options available to support the development of renewables.

In the global push to lowering our carbon emissions by transitioning to renewable energy production and improving energy efficiency epitomised in the Paris Agreement in 2015, the importance of housing tenure to the adoption of low carbon living, particularly for those on lower incomes, is often not fully appreciated. Lower-income households are more likely to be renters on social benefits, and have limited ability to afford either the normally higher priced energy efficient appliances or access renewables due to the problem of split incentives.

Improved energy performance of buildings presents a win-win-win opportunity, reducing stress on the electricity network, offering bill savings, supporting a least-cost pathway to a zero carbon built environment, and improving health and resilience outcomes for households and businesses.

Cities and states are always looking for ways to more efficiently and effectively deliver public services, such as flood management, resource conservation, pollution prevention, social equity and human health. Green infrastructure is an integrated set of strategies that help realize these outcomes in the built environment through the deployment of design, materials and methods that uses or replicates natural systems.

The National Construction Code is a ready-made policy instrument to influence the energy efficiency of new buildings and major renovations. Improved building energy efficiency presents a win-win-win solution, reducing stress on the electricity network and supporting a least-cost pathway to decarbonisation while also delivering cost savings and improved comfort to households and businesses.

This paper focuses on the ex post evaluation of national energy efficiency policy mixes in the building sector, more specifically the effectiveness of implemented policy packages on helping to achieve energy savings and avoided greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). The analysis covers all Policies and Measures (PaMs) affecting heating and cooling of residential buildings. Main research questions are: Is there a relationship between improvements in energy efficiency and GHG mitigation and the PaM history set-up within a Member State (MS)?

Current regulatory pathways to compliance in energy efficiency for Australian housing are via provisions in the National Construction Code (NCC). This paper first identifies performance evaluation criteria set out in the code presented as a comparative analysis across the different methods of achieving compliance. Jurisdictional and concessional variations are discussed and thereafter an examination of the effect of specific design and location factors that impact the commonly used deemed to satisfy route to compliance.

Since 1990, the carbon emissions of dwellings in the UK have declined by around 20%. This reduction per dwelling is mainly ascribed to the impact of energy efficiency measures, such as improvements in building codes/regulations. In the UK, national energy models of the building stock are used to support the formal cost benefit analysis of policies.

The purpose of this project is to identify and discuss potential policy instruments that can accelerate a transition toward a circular economy in the Nordic construction sector. Sixteen interviews were carried out with actors representing stakeholders from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The objective of a transition toward a circular economy in the construction sector is to maintain, reuse, refurbish and/or recycle resources and materials used in all parts of the value chain.