Energy use by buildings offers a tremendous opportunity for governments seeking to foster clean energy technologies. Sustainability-minded policymakers should focus on three interlinked policy approaches related to better buildings: 1) energy policy that favors energy efficiency and distributed renewable energy sources, 2) climate policy that recognizes and internalizes the cost of carbon pollution; and 3) standards and performance criteria for the building envelope and the building components.
Buildings are Mexico City’s number one source of greenhouse gas emissions and the focus of a new partnership to improve energy efficiency and create a more sustainable, competitive city. Photo by Alejandro Mejia Greene/Flickr.
Buildings are an important part of the sustainability picture for Mexico City.
Retrofitting public buildings to be more energy efficient is an important step toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions in China. Photo by Brendan Corey Benson/Flickr.
As China urbanizes, buildings in the country’s cities are a growing source of emissions and air pollution.
A growing coalition of cities, NGOs, and private companies are advancing building efficiency efforts that save money and greenhouse gas emissions. Photo by Omar Barcena/Flickr.
Urbanization is reshaping the economy, energy systems, and climate of our planet. By 2050, the world’s cities are expected to add 2.
Improving building efficiency presents a major opportunity to curb greenhouse gas emissions while saving money and improving quality of life. Photo by deano7000/Flickr.
If you want to find major emitters of greenhouse gases, look no further than your city’s skyline.
An Institute for Building Efficiency Roundtable Dialogue The private sector can play a major role toward doubling the rate of energy efficiency improvement by 2030, as targeted by the United Nations Sustainable Energy for All (SEFA) initiative. State-of-the-art policies and advanced building design and technologies, along with behavior change, could reduce energy demand from buildings by half...
Demand management and distributed generation could transform how consumers interact with the electricity grid and manage energy. Energy consumers may be shifting to view themselves as both consumers and increasingly as suppliers - with renewable energy generation on-site and demand response capability. This new consumer model and the concept of a distributed energy system may be disruptive...
Existing power plant carbon performance standards being developed under the Clean Air Act could include supporting or crediting energy efficiency projects which reduce CO2 emissions by reducing electricity use in buildings. Payments for CO2 reductions or incentives and rebates, on top of energy cost savings, could shorten payback on efficiency projects, including energy service performance...
District energy is gaining attention for its ability to tackle large-scale, global energy problems on a local level, with local resources. District energy produces and distributes steam, hot water and chilled water directly to buildings through a network of underground pipes from a central plant, eliminating boiler and chiller rooms in individual buildings.[1] Heating and cooling in this way...