A methodological framework for assessing the employment effects associated with energy efficiency interventions in buildings

• The employment benefits of energy saving investments in buildings are analyzed.
• Estimates are based on input–output analysis and the adjusted earnings gain approach.
• All interventions examined result in significant net employment impacts.
• Employment benefits amount to 10–24% of the corresponding energy costs savings.
• Estimated employment benefits increase in economies with high unemployment rates.

The global trend toward a low carbon, sustainable economy is widely acknowledged to create a large number of jobs across many sectors of the economy. The deployment of renewable and energy efficiency projects represent a large share of the so called green jobs and help retain current levels of employment especially in countries facing the socio-economic threat of increasing unemployment rates. These effects should be taken into account during the process of energy planning, but due to difficulties in their quantification this is not always feasible. This paper utilizes the input–output analysis and the adjusted earnings gain approach for assessing the employment effects associated with the implementation of energy saving interventions in the building sector, with a view to produce results that can be easily incorporated into cost–benefit analyses. The proposed framework, which comprises four basic steps, namely identification of all the potential changes in employment due to energy efficiency interventions, quantification of these employment effects in physical terms, calculation of the net present value of the estimated employment effects and monetization, has been implemented for three energy efficiency interventions widely implemented in Greek buildings. The results of the analysis clearly show that the exploitation of energy saving technologies in the Greek building stock generates significant employment benefits, ranging between €0.11 and 0.23 million per €1 million of investment in the base case scenario and reaching the 10–24% of the energy costs savings attributed to the implementation of these interventions throughout their entire lifetime.