It's been a while since my last blog back in February. That's because I have been extremely busy completing the second EEB report – Transforming the Market – that was launched at the end of April.
The big question was whether we could make energy efficiency in buildings “news”. We know is not exactly a “sexy” topic for most journalists, but it is important: buildings use around 40% of all energy (even more in most developed regions) and more than 30% of all greenhouse gas emissions can be attributed to buildings. Most people do not know this – even people in the building and construction sector underestimate the energy used in buildings.
In fact our report got much better coverage than anticipated. More than 100 news articles have been written and the report has been downloaded at a rate of more than a thousand copies a day. This was the result of media activity in Beijing, Washington and Paris – where we launched during the EE Global event. But I'm sure it was also because we have produced something different:
- First, it is a business report.
- Second, we adopted a “bottom-up” approach using real data on different building types, in developed and developing regions, warm and cold climates, etc.
- Third, we have tried to quantify the impact of policy, finance, technology and design and behavior changes on buildings' energy performance
- Fourth, we have assessed the cost implications at a global level
- Fifth, we have produced a full set of recommendations to transform the building sector
- Last but not least, we have developed a roadmap showing who needs to do what
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