[News] New Report and Web Portal Support Greater Energy Savings from Buildings through International Collaboration on Building Energy Codes

The International Partnership for Energy Efficiency Cooperation (IPEEC), in partnership with the Global Building Performance Network (GBPN) and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), recently completed a new report on key areas for international collaboration on building energy code implementation. The three organizations also launched a new web portal to facilitate more efficient international exchange of practices and experiences in the implementation of building energy codes.

Globally, the wide deployment of best-available technologies and energy efficiency policies could lower annual final energy use in buildings by more than 50 exajoules by 2050—equivalent to the combined building energy use in China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States in 2012. Effective implementation of energy codes ensures that buildings are built to code-required design, leading to the deployment of the technologies and construction practices needed to achieve the energy savings potential.

Realizing the energy savings potential in buildings would deliver a range of benefits: lower electricity and fuel costs for businesses and households; greater reliability in meeting energy demand without costly disruptions; and reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants that pose a threat to human health.

Click here to read the report 

Click here to read a 2-page report summary 

Click here to access the web portal

While countries have different code requirements, they face common challenges in implementation, including within priority areas highlighted by government representatives: systems for ensuring compliance with code requirements; programs for measuring the performance of buildings against code-required design; and incentives to promote code compliance and encourage beyond-code performance; among other areas. International collaboration can increase the effectiveness of policies and practices in these areas.

The web portal will help support more efficient international collaboration on building energy code implementation. Initial features of the portal include summaries of code implementation practices in major economies and a network of experts to help link code practitioners and policymakers with resources and other professionals with relevant expertise.

The report and web portal support the implementation of a building performance effort that was initiated by the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, a high-level international forum dedicated to reducing emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases. This work is also an output of the building efficiency track under the Energy Efficiency Action Plan that was established at the G-20 Brisbane Summit in November 2014. The work was coordinated by the IPEEC Building Energy Efficiency Taskgroup (BEET), GBPN, and PNNL, and benefitted from the participation of government representatives from major economies as well as non-governmental building energy experts.

The report serves as an input to ongoing discussions among major economies to advance energy efficiency and other elements of a sustainable energy future.

Also worth checking, the report Building Energy Performance Metrics.

Related News

• [Event] Webinar – 22 October 2015 – Implementing Building Energy Codes: Status of Building Energy Code Development & Implementation Globally and in China, France and the USA
• [News] Content Available from the Webinar of 22 Oct 15 – Implementing Building Energy Codes
• [Event] Webinar – Implementing Building Energy Codes: Implementation & Compliance Actions, 12 November 2015, 4:00 p.m. CET

Related Report Bundles

• Delivering Energy Savings in Buildings
• A guide for incorporating Buildings Actions in NDCs

Related Laboratory Projects

• Building Energy Codes Portal