Going deep in energy consumption in buildings: How to achieve the best case scenario for deep savings in building energy consumption

The building sector has been identified as a sector with large potential for delivering energy savings and mitigation of GHG emissions. Yet it has been unclear what the specific role of building energy efficiency codes play in achieving these savings. Therefore, between July 2011 and June 2012 the Global Buildings Performance Network, facilitated the development of scenarios for energy savings and GHG mitigation related to thermal energy efficiency in buildings and an international survey of the impact of policy best-practices. The scenarios produced support the view that building energy efficiency offers a greater potential for final energy savings than previous models. However the survey of the impact of best-practice policies in the field identified an alarming gap between the trajectory our current policy settings are taking us and the technically potential savings available with the application of state of the art policies and technologies. This paper presents the outcomes of this and more recent research on how to implement 'the deep path' scenario in USA, EU, China and India; the four regions representing about 65% of the energy savings potential of the building sector.