The Application of Eco-efficiency in University Buildings: Policies and Decision-Making Processes

Abstract

In recent years, a growing interest about energy efficiency have become significantly relevant both in terms of environmental and economic aspects. Several initiatives have been launched by national and international regulations and have awakened environmental responsibility within universities worldwide. From these initiatives, reference values and index ratings were obtained for energy performance in the Universities’ building stock. The evaluation of the positive and negative features lead, thereby, to a methodology that could verify its applicability at the University of Passo Fundo—UPF, located in southern Brazil. Four aspects have been developed during the study: consumption of energy resources; comfort conditions; decision-making processes and eco-efficiency reference indexes. A simulation using the software DesignBuilder was applied in order to obtain diagnosis, real and ideal condition models. As the present study identifies and assesses the evolution of incident factors towards energy consumption, it is expected that universities promote a reflection in their practices in order to develop tools, which contribute for Educational Sustainability measures. It is imperative that making-decision practices follow guidelines to evaluate inversions and costs when measuring environmental management strategies and their implications. This paper contributes to the debate on university policies, from an inclusive perspective as it includes infrastructure and sustainable practices and, consequently, its relation to concrete exemplars in order to improve Sustainability Education practices.