This guide is designed to address the need for further extending the scope and ambition of building sector actions in Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), the opportunities for aligning with commitments made by non-party actors, and the renewed support for successively increasing ambition and implementing actions of NDCs. It provides a simple process for incorporating or...

Modern residential building energy codes provide a component tradeoff mechanism by which builders can trade reductions in the efficiency of some building components in trade for corresponding improvement in other components. One common tradeoff approach is based on maintaining a building "UA value," which represents the building envelope's overall thermal conductance. The building UA is...

Heat recovery ventilators (HRVs) save energy by recovering heat that would otherwise be exhausted as part of energy code-mandated mechanical ventilation systems. Residential HRVs can be life cycle cost effective depending on equipment/installation costs and the severity of the climate. This brief evaluates HRV cost effectiveness in the context of building energy codes to identify...

RISE is a tool for policymakers to compare national policy frameworks for sustainable energy and identify opportunities to attract investment. RISE assesses countries’ policy support for each of the three pillars of sustainable energy – access to modern energy, energy efficiency, and renewable energy.

This Global Status Report documents the status and trends of key indicators for energy use, emissions, technologies, policies, and investments to track the buildings and construction sector, globally and in key regions. Central findings of this report include: