Welcome to Buildings as Sustainable Energy Systems, and in particular to the first course in this program, Energy Demand in Buildings.

Buildings and their energy systems are responsible for around 40% of the worldwide energy consumption and carbon emissions. Therefore, they have an essential role to play to achieve carbon reduction targets and increase the sustainability of the built environment.

With this program, consisting of four courses, you will acquire knowledge about thermal processes in buildings, the generation of heat, cold and electricity, and the interactions between building, occupants and energy systems. This will support you in making sustainable designs for buildings, their indoor climate and energy systems. It will also help you better understand policies in this area. We have a tremendous task to achieve to make the world’s building stock sustainable and I hope this program will contribute to it by giving you the tools you need in order to address this challenge.

This first course, Energy Demand in Buildings, has been developed to give you the opportunity to learn which tools and ‘buttons’ you can use to quantify and reduce the energy demand in buildings in order to minimize their impacts on the environment during operation while keeping them comfortable and healthy.

I hope you will enjoy these modules and wish you good luck!

Prof. dr. L (Laure) C.M. Itard and the BSES team