Buildings can't be called green until they have been lived in

摘要

The government announced in the budget that it is now committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 34% by 2020. To achieve this, our existing non-domestic building stock is going to have to save up to 11MtCO_2. And yet the new Display Energy Certificates show that many of our sustainable buildings are performing worse than the design predictions.rnFor example, at the early design stages, the Greater London Authority's City Hall was predicted to use a quarter of the energy consumed by a typical high-specification office building. But, in reality, the extended hours of operation and other factors have driven down the energy rating to an E on its certificate.