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Abstract: This paper aims to present the more recent advances regarding the climatic zoning based on the Climate Severity Index and its relation with the building energy requirements. Three are the major contributions in this paper, the first one is the comparison of the energy performance requirements in different European Union Member States; secondly the definition of the global Climate Severity Index, and finally the definition of the Climate Severity Index for tertiary buildings. Regulators and building designers are the most interested in these results. The comparison of the energy requirements, gives to the regulators, valuable information in order to establish a consistent requirement in their own country. Thanks to the definition of the Global Climate Severity Index, the previous can be done in terms of global-heating plus cooling-energy needs, allowing a homogeneous comparison along Europe or Worldwide. Also, these results allow comparing the energy requirements in one country to those with similar climate. From the designer point of view, the results of this paper could be used to estimate the thermal properties –U values – of the building envelope, and the solar shading factor of the windows of a tertiary building assimilating it to a residential building in an equivalent climatic zone. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: To meet the goals of the directive 2010/31/EU on the energy performance of buildings, the building sector in Europe now faces a transition towards more energy efficient buildings. Research and development of new energy solutions and technology will be necessary for the transition and the importance of analyzing building energy performance increases. This paper aims to review and evaluate different methods that are commonly used to analyze energy performance in residential buildings in Nordic countries, primarily in Sweden, Norway and Finland. A short international review of regulations is also included. The goal is to find commonly used methods and possibilities for the future. The introduced methods are summarized, categorized and compared based on their advantages and disadvantages. Although the three Nordic countries have similar climate conditions and building traditions, the review shows relatively large variations in the definitions of energy performance for residential buildings, as well as variations in how measurements and calculations are used in the methods for energy performance analysis. In the conducted review, methods, or parts of methods, are also found to be used. The methods used to analyze energy performance are found to be more similar than the concepts of energy performance itself in the three countries. These aspects may be considered in further work to develop an international policy practice for energy performance of residential buildings in cold climate. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Building regulations and governmental policies create pressure on the construction industry to minimize the environmental impacts that are caused by buildings. Achieving energy efficiency, and thereby low-carbon construction, is only possible by cooperation among the participants in the construction supply chain. Clients in particular have an important role in promoting environmental sustainability. In this paper, the carbon-reduction process is analyzed from a construction client's perspective. A framework is developed to analyze the interrelated components of this process, including the drivers, initiatives, challenges, facilitators, solutions, and achievements. A qualitative case study methodology was employed to gain a better understanding of the project-based practices and corporate policies in achieving energy efficiency. The study presents the results of three award-winning construction projects from the U.K. in which innovations for improving environmental sustainability were based on the Code for Sustainable Homes. The study outlines the initiatives and strategies of clients for carbon reduction, obstacles faced by project teams, mechanisms that helped overcome the difficulties, and low-carbon solutions applied to design, construction, and operation in the selected cases. Effective leadership, corporate responsibility, a focus on end users, repeatable nature of projects, and integrated teams are found to be the main success factors. The findings of this study are expected to guide construction professionals in implementing innovative low-carbon practices in collaborative project environments. The proposed framework can be used to better understand the carbon-reduction process in other projects and other countries where different regulations and conditions prevail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]