Category: buildings

Impact of energy performance certificates questioned in Scotland

Malcolm Cannon of ESPC.com in Scotland writes in the Guardian about the impact that EPCs are having on the Scottish housing market.   Energy performance certificates won't change human behaviour Scottish government plans to improve energy efficiency can't prevent buyers placing more space above green credentials In late January, the Scottish government published a draft … Continue reading Impact of energy performance certificates questioned in Scotland →

New survey tries to come to grips with “deep” energy efficiency in buildings in Europe

The Global Buildings Performance Network and its European Hub, the Buildings Performance Institute Europe, have just released a survey undertaken by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) to better understand what the “buildings community” is thinking on the importance and feasibility of going “deep,” achieving very ambitious savings, compared to past performance.   Are Businesses Ready … Continue reading New survey tries to come to grips with “deep” energy efficiency in buildings in Europe →

India looks to energy efficiency in buildings

Radhika Khosla recently wrote for the Natural Resources  Defense Council’s blog on the aftermath of the Clean Energy Ministerial recently held in New Delhi.  Importantly, India is looking to improved energy performance of high rise buildings and NRDC launched an important new report on the importance of energy efficiency in buildings.  These are all important … Continue reading India looks to energy efficiency in buildings →

How big a problem is there in measuring floor area?

Tanya Powley writes in the Financial Times about the discrepancies in measuring the floor area in residential buildings in the UK.  The discrepancy can be 10 to 15%.  While it seriously affects valuation of properties, it can also impact on the UK’s total floor area, an indicator used in developing its buildings energy performance strategies.  … Continue reading How big a problem is there in measuring floor area? →

New energy efficiency regulations for renovation work in Finland

Finland’s Ministry of the Environment issued new regulations on February 27th for improving the energy efficiency of buildings during renovation and alteration works. The regulations will come into effect on June 1, 2013 for buildings in public use and on September 1, 2013 for other buildings. The regulations define the minimum requirements for energy efficiency … Continue reading New energy efficiency regulations for renovation work in Finland →

More interaction . . .

In the past few months, we have had data hubs from the IEA’s Sustainable Building Centre and the BPIE.  They are both excellent, and constantly evolving, which is good. On February 8th, EiD had a post that included reports coming from ENTRANZE, a project funded by Intelligent Energy Europe to support policy making to encourage … Continue reading More interaction . . . →

Focus on buildings

There are some very interesting books that have come out recently on the energy performance of buildings.  Here are some of them: 1 Simply Green This book presents an overview of all main global and some national environmental and energy assessment systems. It discusses six environmental and three purely energy-based certification systems along with fourth … Continue reading Focus on buildings →

What is going on in energy efficiency in the UK?

For the past couple of weeks, EiD has had posts on the VAT spat that the British government is having with the European Commission.  Already this year, there have been raised concerns about the flagship financing programme, the Green Deal.  Now we have another major issue that appears to be going to the courts to … Continue reading What is going on in energy efficiency in the UK? →

The rising priority for energy efficiency in buildings

Richard Matthews writes in theenergycollective.com about the benefits from improving the energy efficiency of new buildings.  While the report is about the United States and it admits that the US has lagged behind many other nations, it refers to a recent United Nations study and has important lessons for Europeans. Growth of Energy Efficient Buildings … Continue reading The rising priority for energy efficiency in buildings →