California Institute for Energy and Environment (CIEE)

This white paper explores the links between community design and energy efficiency, and establishes a research agenda for the new Center for Resource Efficient Communities (CREC) at UC-Berkeley. The paper describes the context of resource efficient design in California (especially with respect to climate change), and identifies five links between community design and energy efficiency: 1. The Transportation-Land Use connection 2. The Street Design-Transportation Connection 3. The Urban Heat Island Effect and Cool Communities 4. Solar Access and Building Energy Use 5. Community Resource Use and Embedded Energy Management For each of these areas, the paper summarizes the major findings in the research literature and identifies major research gaps. In addition, it discusses development code barriers and other institutional impediments to resource-efficient community design, and briefly summarizes the literature on the property value implications of resource efficient design features. Overall, the white paper argues that dramatic reductions in carbon emissions – on the order of 88 percent per capita by 2050 – are necessary throughout California’s economy, and that community design must play a central role in achieving them. Community design sets the physical context for the energy demand associated with both surface transportation and building operations, which collectively produce about 60 percent of CO2 emissions in the state.