Energy Performance Assessment

With the increasing awareness of sustainable development in the construction industry, implementation of an energy rating procedure to assess buildings is becoming more important. The most representative building environment assessment schemes that are in use today are Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) and Green Star. This paper aims to focus on the investigation of energy performance assessment for new office buildings within the LEED, BREEAM and Green Star schemes.

The existing buildings stock in European countries accounts for over 40% of final energy consumption in the European Union (EU) member states, of which residential use represents 63% of total energy consumption in the buildings sector. Consequently, an increase of building energy performance can constitute an important instrument in the efforts to alleviate the EU energy import dependency and comply with the Kyoto Protocol to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.