Promoting low carbon sustainability through benchmarking the energy performance in public buildings in China

• Two main energy performance benchmarking methods are adopted in China’s public building sector.
• There are several existing barriers and weaknesses in the current benchmarking systems.
• A new energy performance based benchmarking method is worked out.
• Establishing sound data bases and energy performance baselines is recommended for improving current benchmarking systems.

Two main energy performance benchmarking methods under the National Public Buildings Energy-efficiency Design Standards and the Evaluation Standard for Green Building are adopted for saving energy consumption in the public buildings in China. However, several existing barriers and weaknesses in current benchmarking systems prevent the overall energy conservation and carbon reduction from being achieved. This paper explores a new comprehensive energy performance based benchmarking method for addressing the energy saving from both technical and non-technical measures. The overlooked base load energy use is also highlighted in the new method. More importantly, the approach of establishing accurate and efficient data bases and forming sound baselines for assessing and monitoring the energy performance in different types of China’s public buildings are recommended in the paper. Governments can play a vital role in improving current benchmarking systems for promote the comprehensive low carbon sustainable development in China’s public building sector.