Buildings Box 7: Reliable measurement and accounting

To ensure that information is accurate, there is a need to collect robust data on the performance of green buildings and their subsequent costs. Current methods of accounting mainly include energy audits and labelling, Triple Bottom Line28 indicators and sustainability certificates. These tools can be effective, but must be tailored to target group needs. Energy audits and labelling identify opportunities to upgrade built environments and track the progress of existing energy efficiency investments. Recent evidence on the performance gap in one of the certification systems (LEED) has highlighted the importance of such measures (Murphy 2009), triggering renewed discussion on their efficiency. Building certification systems can

causes emission reductions to be offset by increased consumption. The latter provides an example of where the instrument needs to be combined with other instruments to guide users to more efficient use of technologies.

Improved enforcement requires adequate education and training, for example, of building-inspection and procurement officers. This is confirmed by recent examples of energy-efficiency improvement measures introduced in the public sector in Mexico, China, Thailand, South Africa, Kenya and Ghana. The case of Mexico has shown how introducing public procurement regulation at the city level may be a more effective point of departure before launching a programme nationally.

In the case of building codes applied to new buildings in developing countries, the basis for improved enforcement can be laid through starting with voluntary schemes, the use of incentives and improved inspection. China is showing how building regulations, together with voluntary and self-regulating market systems for green buildings can become key drivers in ensuring a higher level of energy-efficient construction and the deployment of environmentally- responsive technologies. Anderson, Iyer and Huang (2004) propose with regards to developing countries a structured implementation phase, including the necessary provisions for building code administration and

enforcement structures, the development of

and conduction of training programmes and the construction of multiple demonstration buildings.

28. The concept of the Triple Bottom Line (TBL), also known as “people, planet, profit” or “the three pillars” represents a comprehensive set of criteria for evaluating the development of organisations and societies – economically, ecologically and socially.

be static, i.e. based on engineering design estimates and assumptions, or dynamic, being updated as building-use patterns change. A wide range of audit systems are available, many of which are voluntary, although governments are increasingly favouring mandatory audits as opportunities to collect data and enable interventions. An important challenge posed by energy audits is the significant administrative cost posed by their implementation, including energy consultants, monitoring, and time and resource burdens on the owner. Energy benchmarking, as opposed to auditing, can serve as a lower burden alternative to identify energy-saving potential. In the benchmarking process, energy use is measured and compared with related values.

Control and regulatory mechanisms, especially codes and standards, can be a rapid way to implement effective technology and best practices and lure risk- averse investors (Granade et al. 2009). In the general assessment of energy efficiency in building codes two mayor types of energy codes can be identified:

“prescriptive” and “performance-based” (Hitchin 2008; Laustsen 2008). Although performance-based codes are more complex in their application, they yield a number of benefits, These, according to Hitchin (2008), consist in the flexibility for policy makers to weight different aspects of the building’s energy balance, even after the first implementation of the legislation; and also in the possibility of using the calculation procedure to integrate an energy performance labelling scheme or energy audits.

Mandatory energy audits are an extension of building codes and commissioning processes (UNEP SBCI 2009b) and underline the importance of reliable measurement and accounting (Box 7). In many European countries, governments have made energy audits mandatory for their public buildings as well as other major energy consuming sectors. in

Buildings Directive

The EU’s Energy Performance (EPBD)

requires mandatory

energy performance certificates to be presented to the customer during any sale or lease transaction of a building. It also requires public buildings of a certain size to publicly display their energy certificates, although critics point out that it does not account for the energy used by buildings’ occupants, which constitutes a large part of overall performance (Ries et al. 2009).

Economic and market-based instruments These

instruments include contracting, cooperative energy performance procurement, efficiency 363