Building envelopes

The majority of countries in the world lack mandatory building energy codes, meaning billions of square meters without mandatory performance requirements are added to the buildings stock each year.

Key findings

Factors influencing residential buildings energy use, 2015-2018

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Structural changes are outpacing efficiency gains for residential buildings

In residential buildings, structural changes have consistently matched or outpaced efficiency gains since 2014. These include increased device ownership and use and a significant growth in average per-capita residential floor area in all economies.

Energy Efficiency 2019

Global building construction area by type of building code in the Sustainable Development Scenario, 2019-2030

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Countries must move towards mandatory building energy codes

Almost two-thirds of countries lacked mandatory building energy codes in 2019, meaning more than 5 billion m2 were built last year without mandatory performance requirements. To be in line with the SDS by 2030: all countries need to establish mandatory building energy codes; new high-performance construction needs to increase from around 275 million m2 to cover almost 5 billion m2; and energy intensity reductions currently effectuated by energy-efficiency renovations of existing building stock must double from 15% to at least 30 50%.

Building Envelopes: Tracking progress 2020