Contribution of commercial buildings towards GHG emissions : Sri Lankan perspective

Adverse impacts of uncontrolled Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions have been identified by the global community and ratified by the Kyoto Protocol (KP). Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) under the KP is a flexible mechanism by which developing countries could harness benefits by way of offering GHG arrays through various GHG reduction measures. This study aims at investigating the "Contribution of Commercial Buildings towards GHG emissions", as an initial step towards offering GHG arrays through Commercial Buildings. The focus of the study is placed on 20 high rise buildings in the Colombo Metropolitan area as it attracts more investment than other parts of the country and also is the main financial centre of the country. According to statistics, more than 60% of financial transactions take place in financial institutions located in Colombo. The selected sample is a collection of ten office buildings, five hotels and five mixed developments. Monthly energy consumption details of the selected buildings were collected by analyzing electricity bills of Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and self generated electricity units consumed. In order to come up with the derived contribution of commercial buildings towards GHG emissions by the demand placed on the grid; existing thermal power plant data and their share of electricity supply on to the national electricity grid was examined. Based on the above data Derived Contribution of Commercial Buildings towards GHG emissions was quantified.