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We investigate greenhouse emissions of office workers in Sydney, drawing on census data, national building energy benchmarks as well as journey-to-work and energy data from two study buildings. Comparing work locations in the central business district (CBD) and Macquarie Park Corridor with metro-wide averages, we find that building emissions dominate over commuting emissions across the city, but commuting is increasingly important as building energy efficiency increases. Furthermore, our results indicate that efforts to improve a building's energy efficiency at Macquarie Park are largely negated by high reliance on car travel despite the introduction of the Epping–Chatswood train line. We conclude that improving building energy efficiency, office space utilisation and network connectivity (currently evident only in the CBD) delivers the best opportunity to reducing the carbon cost of workplaces. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The nature and form of the urban environment is a critical determinant of the sustainability of our society, as it is responsible directly for a large proportion of consumed energy, and influences indirectly the patterns and modes of energy consumed in everyday activities. We examine the current state of research into the energy and greenhouse gas emissions attributable directly or indirectly to urban form. Specifically, we look at the embodied (construction) and operational energy attributable to the construction, maintenance and use of residential dwellings, and we review the literature on the relationship between urban structure and private travel behaviour. While there is clear evidence from both intra- and inter-city comparisons that higher density, transit-oriented cities have lower per-capita transport energy use, the effect of housing density on residential (in-house) energy use is less clear. More detailed research is needed to examine the relationships between urban form and overall energy use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]