Building Energy Rating Schemes - Assessing Issues and Impacts

Building energy rating schemes are gaining traction throughout the world, with a growing number of jurisdictions mandating building performance rating as part of a comprehensive energy efficiency policy package targeting buildings. The International Partnership for Energy Efficiency Cooperation (IPEEC)1 has established a Buildings Energy Efficiency Taskgroup (BEET) to increase multilateral cooperation in the field of building energy efficiency, specifically in relation to the development and implementation of building energy rating schemes. The BEET has launched an initial project to understand how building energy rating schemes can be used to have the greatest impact on meeting building energy efficiency policy goals. This is intended to be helpful to policy makers in IPEEC countries. Our intent was not to perform assessments of existing rating schemes, but rather develop an assessment framework that policy makers can use going forward as part of developing or refining building rating schemes. We also believe that this framework might serve as a useful foundation for future research comparing the effectiveness of schemes in different jurisdictions to understand which types of schemes are delivering the greatest impacts.