Identifying Determinants of Energy Use of Schools in England for Benchmarking Purposes

Carbon emissions from the school stock account for approximately 14% of emissions from the UK's public sector. Energy performance benchmarks play an important role in the built environment which encourage building operators to achieve higher energy efficiency. The robustness of benchmarks and the methodology in CIBSE TM46 which underpins the DEC scheme is vital to obtaining an accurate evaluation of operational performance. Potential ways to further improve comparability of buildings via complex statistical approaches are identified. Statistical analyses of the school stock and information on building characteristics and students have led to identification of determinants of energy use of primary and secondary schools in England. The ways in which the identified determinants could be utilised to improve the relevance of benchmarking process are explored.