Analysis of the Financial Equilibrium on the Building Sector - Case of Romania

This paper is in fact an analysis of the financial equilibrium on the building sector in the period 2001 – 2006 of a sample of 11 enterprises from Galati County – Romania. The aim of this analysis is reflecting to the microeconomic level of the financial equilibrium of enterprises belongs to the building sector as well as the influence on the financial equilibrium of the sector exerted by some enterprises which hold a significant weight.financial equilibrium, building sector, financial balance sheet, financial working capital, net treasury

Analysis of the Financial Equilibrium on the Building Sector - Case of Romania

This paper is in fact an analysis of the financial equilibrium on the building sector in the period 2001 – 2006 of a sample of 11 enterprises from Galati County – Romania. The aim of this analysis is reflecting to the microeconomic level of the financial equilibrium of enterprises belongs to the building sector as well as the influence on the financial equilibrium of the sector exerted by some enterprises which hold a significant weight.financial equilibrium, building sector, financial balance sheet, financial working capital, net treasury

Building Sector: Stimulus Packages Make an Impact

The sharp slump of the German economy has left its mark on the building sector. Commercial construction has been especially affected by the significant decline in companies' propensity to invest - triggered by the macroeconomic downturn. However, due to the stable development of real wages and the overall labour market as well as targeted supporting programmes, the recession has more or less bypassed residential construction. Public sector construction even increased in 2009, most notably during the later half of the year when the effects of the second stimulus package came into force. Nevertheless, due to idle capacities in commercial construction, only moderate price increases are to be expected. Overall - and in real terms - , 2009 will see little change in German construction volumes compared to the previous year. In 2010, stimulus packages will encourage a noticeable recovery, which - in turn - will have a positive effect on the country's overall economy. All in all, construction volumes are expected to grow by more than two per cent (adjusted for price) in 2010 and the main construction industry will profit disproportionately. From an economic point of view, the investment programmes thus meet their intended goal: stabilisation of the construction sector.Housing demand, Construction industry, Forecast 2010

Components reuse in the building sector – A systematic review

© The Author(s) 2020. The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in Rakhshan, K., Morel, J.-C., Alaka, H., & Charef, R. (2020). Components reuse in the building sector – A systematic review. Waste Management & Research, 38(4), 347–370 by Sage Publications Ltd. All rights reserved. It is available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/0734242X20910463.Widespread reuse of building components can promote the circularity of materials in the building sector. However, the reuse ofbuilding components is not yet a mainstream practise. Although there have been several studies on the factors affecting the reuse ofbuilding components, there is no single study that has tried to harmonize the circumstances affecting this intervention. Through asystematic literature review targeting peer-reviewed journal articles, this study intends to identify and stratify factors affecting thereuse of components of the superstructure of a building and eventually delineate correlations between these factors. Factors identifiedthroughout this study are classified into six major categories and 23 sub-categories. Then the inter-dependencies between the barriersare studied by developing the correlation indices between the sub-categories. Results indicate that addressing the economic, socialand regulatory barriers should be prioritized. Although the impact of barriers under perception, risk, compliance and market subcategoriesare very pronounced, the highest inter-dependency among the sub-categories is found between perception and risk. Itsuggests that the perception of the stakeholders about building components reuse is affected by the potential risks associated with thisintervention.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Evaluation of PV technology implementation in the building sector

This paper presents a simulation case that shows the impact on energy consumption of a building applying photovoltaic shading systems. In order to make photovoltaic application more economical, the effect of a photovoltaic facade as a passive cooling system can result in a considerable energy cost reduction, with positive influence on the payback time of the photovoltaic installation. Photovoltaic shading systems can be applied to both refurbishment of old buildings and to new-build, offering attractive and environmentally integrated architectural solutions

Experimentation in policy design: Insights from the building sector

The current article questions how experimentation in policy design plays out in practice. In particular, it is interested in understanding how the content and process of policy-design experiments affect their outcomes. The article does so by building on an original study into 31 real-world examples of experimentation in policy design in the building sector in Australia, the Netherlands, and the United States. All examples aim to improve the environmental sustainability of the building sector. The article finds that these 31 examples have attracted moderate to substantial numbers of participants (policy outcome HO.i), but have not achieved substantial numbers of buildings built or retrofitted with high levels of sustainability (policy outcome HO.ii). By carefully unpacking these policy designs into a number of key characteristics, it finds that this mismatch between the two outcomes may partly be explained by flawed policy-design processes. The article concludes with the main lessons learnt and provides some suggestions on how to improve experimentation in policy design

Energy Efficiency in Buildings: A Global Economic Perspective

At the 2008 summit in Hokkaido, Japan, G-8 leaders called for a 50 percent reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050 in order to avert the most serious dangers from climate change. An essential component of meeting this goal will be improving the energy efficiency of buildings, which has been heralded by some studies as the most cost-effective way of reducing GHG emissions. Until now, however, few studies have attempted to assess the cost of completely overhauling the building sector in order to meet this emission-reduction goal. Using a newly developed model from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) [pdf], Trevor Houser studies the economics of improving building-sector energy efficiency. While improving the energy efficiency of the building sector would be more expensive than some studies have suggested, Houser finds that the GHG abatement costs of improved building efficiency are cheaper than the abatement costs in other sectors. However, significant barriers to investments in energy efficiency will make it difficult to take advantage of these lower abatement costs, even if a relatively high price for carbon is established. New financing approaches, improved building standards, government investment, and enhanced awareness of the energy cost savings from increased efficiency are all needed to reduce emissions from the building sector and thus to assist in meeting the 50 percent reduction target.

The Economics of Energy Efficiency in Buildings

At the 2008 summit in Hokkaido, Japan, and again this summer in L'Aquila, Italy, G-8 leaders called for a 50 percent reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050 in order to avert the most serious dangers from global climate change. Improving the energy efficiency of buildings is essential: The International Energy Agency (IEA) has estimated that meeting the G-8's emission-reductions goal will require reducing annual GHG emissions from the building sector by 8.2 billion tons by 2050 below business as usual. While previous studies have shown that the cost of emissions abatement in the buildings sector is cheaper than in many other sectors, few studies have attempted to model what policies will be required to reduce building-sector emissions in line with the IEA's calculations. Trevor Houser, expanding on his earlier PIIE policy brief, uses the World Business Council for Sustainable Development's (WBCSD) model to study the economics of improving building-sector energy efficiency. Houser agrees with previous studies that the GHG abatement costs of improved building efficiency are cheaper than the abatement costs in other sectors (though more expensive than previous studies suggest), but he finds significant barriers to investments in energy efficiency. A carbon price alone--a key part of any successful climate policy--will not be enough to overcome these barriers, and complementary measures, such as improved financing approaches and enhanced standards and codes for building energy efficiency, will be needed to incentivize long-term building-sector investments and to meet the emission-reductions goals outlined by the IEA. Failure to enact such policies, and thus to take advantage of lower cost GHG abatement opportunities in the building sector, will force greater emission reductions in other sectors and will carry a much higher price tag.