Developing energy policy for the built environment poses many challenges related to the fairness of requirements for regions with substantially different climates. Climatic zoning provides tools to identify areas in the territory with similar conditions, where the same set of policy tools and targets can be applied. Adequate climatic zoning is essential to the implementation of successful energy conservation policy and certification in the built environment. Climatic zoning is also indispensable when countries, states and/or institutions provide guidance to the building industry regarding suitable voluntary energy conservation measures for different regions of the territory.  

Buildings are responsible for a large portion of energy usage worldwide. National/local governments and private  institutions have created a range of strategies to improve practices in the building industry, reducing building energy consumption and related carbon emissions. The following policies can typically benefit from adopting a suitable climatic zoning proposal:

• regulations specifying minimum performance requirements for walls, roof, windows, doors, heating and cooling systems;

• targets for energy consumption for heating, ventilation and air conditioning; and

• targets for energy generation using renewable sources.

Dozens of techniques have been used to identify climate zones and up to a few years ago there was little understanding about their advantages, disadvantages and adequacy to particular countries. Recent research in the field demonstrated the many advantages of defining zones based on the building performance, rather than sole using climate data. Read more about the our latest contributions to advances in the field, and open source software we provide for academics and practitioner interested in climatic zoning.