Analysing co-benefits of the energy conservation and carbon reduction in Chinaʹs large commercial buildings

Energy consumption keeps increasing in Chinaʹs building sector with the constant growth of urban population and peopleʹs living standard. In order to achieve co-benefits of reducing energy use, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy costs effectively, all respects related to the energy performance in the building sector need to be addressed. Considering the fact that over 80% of total energy use in a buildingʹs lifecycle is contributed by the operation stage, the studyʹs focus is put on this stage for well understanding the energy consumption and carbon emissions and exploring the approach to achieve the effectiveness of co-benefits. The energy use in large commercial buildings is 4–6 times higher than residential buildings in China, thus IKEA Xuhui Store as one of large shopping malls in Shanghai is selected as the case study by using the method formed in the study. The outcomes of research show that the benefit of annual 170 MWh of energy use and 150 tons of CO2e reduction as well as the significant economic benefit have been achieved by implementing different measures in IKEA Xuhui Store between 2008 and 2011. Existing investment, technology and capacity barriers to co-benefits approach in a wider consideration of Chinaʹs building sector are described. The assessment for evaluating co-benefits of cutting energy use and CO2 emissions in the production and demolition stages in a buildingʹs lifecycle are also addressed by the paper. However, it is very complicated to make a lifecycle assessment on the overall co-benefits in the building sector because of the complexity and the lack of available data for the research.