Energy Conservation and Management in Buildings

The fight against climate change requires a paradigm shift across all sectors. The building sector, accounting for 36% of the world’s total energy use and around 40% of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, is an important stakeholder in the global energy and environmental scenario. Buildings have to play an important role in the global sustainability drive. Buildings consume energy throughout their life cycle. The operational phase can account for up to 90% of a building’s life cycle energy use. Energy efficiency (EE) or energy conservation and management (ECM) is an in integral part of sustainability efforts in buildings. With the commercially available and viable solutions, energy demand in existing and new buildings can be cut by 30-80%. This chapter provides an overview of the energy and environmental load of buildings before exploring their potential for energy efficiency. It also presents the case for energy efficiency in new and existing buildings.