Abstract
Within the context of the UN Sustainable Development Goals for the Agenda 2030, this article aims to explain and understand the usefulness of energy audits and hteir potential to reveal energy eficiency opportunities in a small public building located in northwestern Mexico. The methodological structure was adopted from the Cleaner Production–Energy Eficiency Manual published by the United Nations Program for the Environment. A case study approach was employed to examine how energy audits might potentially increase energy e_ciency opportunities in the participating building. Amongst the findings, the primary source of energy wastage was occupants’ behaviors. Furthermore, this study showed that energy audits could be useful to establish a baseline in situations where previous data were not available, to allow comparisons as well as to identify opportunities in old buildings for the purpose of increasing their energy e_ciency performance. As a practical implication of this research, the Sonora government can be in a better position to assist the Mexico federal government in reaching some of the country’s General Law on Climate Change objectives, particularly the one related on cutting down greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by the year 2020, and 50% by the year 2050, compared to those registered in 2000.
Translated title of the contribution | Eficiencia Energética en Edificios Públicos: Un paso en dirección de la Agenda 2030 de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo Sustentable. |
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Original language | English |
Pages (from-to) | 1-18 |
Number of pages | 18 |
Journal | Sustainability |
Volume | 12 |
Issue number | 3 |
Early online date | 7 Feb 2020 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 7 Feb 2020 |