Greening the built environment: A review of Danish and German energy efficiency policy to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions in the services sector

The aim of this paper is to serve as an additional report for the larger study “GREENING THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT. A review of Dutch, German, Danish and British energy savings policies to reduce the energy consumption and CO2 emissions in the residential sector”. This study focuses on the building stock of the Danish and German services sector in the residential sector. Another student report focuses on the services sector of Germany, which has a short description of the Dutch services sector as well. The trends analysed in this paper indicate that the energy consumption in the services sector of both Denmark and Germany has remained somewhat steady, whilst Germany and especially Denmark are making use of more environmentally friendly fuels. The results are even more positive when the energy consumption is analysed with reference to the floor area occupied by the services sector in both countries. According to the Odyssee-Mure database, the Danish policy agenda includes only three measures. On the other hand, the German services sector is targeted by twenty-six policies measures and six of them are categorised as high-impact. The German central bank, with its direct links to the German government, has promoted the improvement of energy efficiency in the service sector mainly through financial policies.