
Building Envelope
Category: Energy Demand, Energy Efficiency, High-performance Buildings
A building envelope consists of the walls, windows, foundation and roof and isolates the building’s climate from the exterior climate. The U.S. DOE claims that a building’s envelope accounts for “approximately 30% of the energy consumed in residential and commercial buildings and plays a key role in determining levels of comfort, natural lighting, ventilation, and how much energy is required to heat and cool a building.” Retrofitting a building’s envelope or designing a new building with the envelope in mind is essential to the building’s energy efficiency.
Benefits
- Increases indoor comfort
- Reduces energy bills
- Reduces carbon emissions
- Increases productivity of building users
- Can be subsidized with government rebate programs.
Challenges
- Can decrease ventilation, increasing the risk of trapping harmful gasses within the building.
- Expensive upfront cost.

Impacts
GHG Impact
Moderate
More InfoVariable to how current state of building envelope. More emissions mitigated in less efficient buildings.
Economic Impact
Neutral
More InfoDifficult to predict due to many variables including: age of building, quality of improvements, cost of energy, location of building, aspect of building.
Feasibility
Difficult
More InfoWorks well alongside other retrofitting projects.
Timeline
2-5 years
More InfoBuilding studies, cost-benefit scenarios are typical before implementation is started.
Maintenance
Low / None
More InfoOnce installed, an updated envelope decreases the amount of maintenance required.
Publicity
That's interesting
More InfoNot very creative, appears to be more routine, logical, cost saving solutions rather than a sustainable one.