Technologies and measures which are aimed at reducing the use of energy in buildings could have several advantages, such as lower energy bills, increasing comfort of living or working, and reduced impact on the environment, including reduction of CO₂ emissions. The options considered for energy savings particularly leading to CO₂ emission reductions include the following:

• Use of renewables for heating, cooling and electricity;
• Improvements to the building envelope, including materials, natural ventilation and daylighting; and
• Improvements to building services, including heating, mechanical ventilation and air-conditioning.

Included in the latter category are: commercial offices, retail, warehouses (excluding industrial), hotels and catering, transport and communication (building-related energy use only), sport and leisure including libraries and theatres, education (schools and universities), health centres, hospitals, government and other buildings including churches, mosques and community centres. Within buildings energy saving can take place through refurbishment of existing property or by building new buildings which replace old buildings and/or which energy performance is better than that of existing buildings.d