Leticia Ozawa-Meida

A Decision Support Framework for Evaluation of Environmentally and Economically Optimal Retrofit of Non-domestic Buildings

Currently, the building sector has an oversized carbon footprint as it represent the single largest contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), with approximately one third of global energy end use taking place within buildings. The challenge to successfully reduce the energy consumption in the building sector is to find effective strategies for retrofitting existing buildings. Significant emissions reductions are possible from applying low carbon retrofit intervention options to existing buildings. The choice of low carbon retrofit intervention options involves evaluation of applicability, energy end uses, environmental impact and cost of application versus energy savings. To develop energy efficiency strategies for building stock, there is the need for optimised methodologies and decision aid tools to evaluate whole-life economic and net environmental gain of the options. This paper describes the development of an integrated framework for a Decision Support System (DSS) based on the optimal ranking and sequencing of retrofit options for emissions reduction in non-domestic buildings. The DSS framework integrates economic (cost) and net environmental (embodied and operational emissions) cost or benefit parameters and an optimization scheme to produce an output based on ranking principles such as marginal abatement cost curve (MACC). The methodology developed can be used to identify and communicate trade-offs between various refurbishment options to aid decisions that are informed both by environmental and financial considerations.

Using Policy Instruments to Drive Optimal Living and Sustainable Consumption in the Built and Natural Environment

In order to drive optimal living and sustainable consumption in the built and natural environment, there is the need to develop more sustainable, less energy-intensive systems and approaches that offer economic advantages, better operational performance, environmental merits and social acceptability. Measures to achieve these objectives including low-carbon technologies such as renewable energy generation technologies and energy efficiency measures are widely available today. Current focus on these technologies to reduce operational energy requirements has led to the neglect of embodied energy. This may result in obscuring the actual or net environmental gain for a given technology. Understanding the actual life cycle environmental gains is therefore necessary if a holistic effort in achieving sustainable built environment is to be attained. Furthermore, these environmental measures (operational and embodied) must be considered within an economic context. Against this backdrop, this chapter illustrates how policy instrument such as Marginal Abatement Cost Curve (MACC) can be used as a mechanism for evaluating low-carbon technologies taking into account both operational and embodied emissions and financial cost. The implication of emissions embodied in international trade flows within a MACC framework is also discussed.

Integrating an ICT carbon calculator tool into procurement processes at De Montfort University: lessons learned

Background: This paper presents lessons learnt from a Jisc-funded research project that developed and implemented an information communication technology tool enabling staff to understand the environmental impact of their activities and support sustainable procurement across De Montfort University (Leicester, UK). Results: An environmentally extended input–output calculation approach was adopted to calculate the emissions and a ‘dashboard style’ approach was used to present the information. While the tool was developed successfully, its institutional impact was limited by numerous barriers. Conclusion: These challenges provided several key learning points: cost remains the main priority in procurement teams much higher than environmental aspects; committed ‘champions’ are key to organizational change; and information communication technology carbon/sustainability tools need to be an integral part of an organization’s existing procurement systems.