China Energy Outlook 2020 - Flipbook - Page 87
Currently, Shanghai’s Changning District, which has operated a comprehensive building energy
performance monitoring platform for the district since 2011 (Szum et al., 2019), is undertaking
initiatives to improve upon Shanghai’s initial benchmarking and transparency practices (NRDC,
2018)
Better Buildings China Program
The Better Buildings China program was established under the U.S.-China Energy Efficiency
Action Plan (EEAP) by the U.S. Department of Energy and China’s NDRC based on the
successful experience of the U.S. Better Buildings program. The China program,
implemented by the China Association of Building Energy Efficiency (CABEE), has 15
partners and organizations. Alliances for green hospitals, green universities, and green
commercial office buildings have been established. The Better Building China Program also
created a commercial building commissioning committee to provide technical assistance to
the stakeholders participating in the program. Besides the alliances and technical
committees, the program has also worked with a local building retrofit, benchmarking, and
data disclosure pilot in the Changing District of Shanghai. The program provides
measurement and verification trainings as well as energy data and total building energy
calculation trainings.
The U.S. Better Buildings program uses a multi-pronged approach to drive improvements in
energy efficiency across the residential, commercial, and industrial sectors. Launched in
February 2011, the program targets a 20% improvement in energy efficiency across
different types of buildings over a 10-year period. The program has four main pillars:
Market Leadership, Better Information, Federal & Community Leadership and Workforce
Development. Within the market leadership pillar, there are three key programs: Better
Buildings Challenge, Better Buildings Alliance, and Better Buildings Accelerators. Each of
these programs complements each other and the Better Buildings program’s successes,
along with its evolution over time, offer an example of how, with the right tools, the
government can partner with businesses to achieve significant strides in energy efficiency
(Liu, et al., 2017).
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