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The purpose of this paper is to describe the effect of attitudes in promoting sustainable operations in hotels. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the interaction between the users' behaviour and the way energy is consumed in Greek hotels in a long‐term period.

In total, two scenarios are developed, using the Long Range Energy Alternative Planning software (LEAP). Each scenario exhibits different findings proposing significant, but easy to apply alterations to hotels. The first one is the Business as Usual (BaU) scenario, and it is developed based on the current trends in energy use in hotels. The second is the Policy scenario, which is developed based on the existing legislative framework, Greek and EU. Through interviews with open‐ended questions, hoteliers' responses reveal their views and attitudes in energy initiatives, along with the level of information they have on the existing energy legislation – Greek and European – to reduce energy consumption in buildings.

This research project, aims at identifying the hoteliers' views in applying energy efficiency measures in their facilities. The BaU scenario displays the current energy consumption in hotels, without policy interventions. The Policy scenario displays the effectiveness of each proposed measure in all services offered in hotels. This analysis provides recommendations in order to improve the current energy framework.

This methodology provides the development of a model that combines the existing energy measures considering also the end‐users' behaviour. It shows the areas that need to change in order to reduce energy consumption in the whole population of Greek hotels. It is a process that could be applied easily in other countries, not only in Greece.

This paper is a generic research analysis. The data collection has been selected for the first time from the sample of hotels. This type of research has not been developed previously in Greek hotels, since attitudes, energy consumption and measures have not been combined previously, in order to promote sustainable operations in hotels.

The purpose of this paper is to solve the optimal power dispatch problem of thermal generating units with cubic fuel cost and emission functions.

The proposed Simplified Direct Search Method (SDSM) is developed from the Direct Search Method (DSM) that is a prevailing method for solving economic dispatch (ED) problems. The SDSM performs a direct search on solution space that starts with the minimum generation limits and provides the most economical schedule in a single execution for all load demands that the system can meet.

A simple methodology is developed to obtain the optimal dispatches of the generators in a thermal power plant. The results of the proposed methodology illustrate improvements in the savings of total cost and marginal reduction in transmission loss. It is also suitable for solving environmental constrained power dispatch problems. The proposed approach is computationally efficient for large‐scale systems.

A simple methodology has been developed to obtain the real power dispatches of thermal generating units with higher order fuel cost and emission functions.

The purpose of this paper is to present a case of an office building in England and show how the technology in energy efficiency in building will contribute to energy conservation.

The paper presents a case of an office building. The building is then modelled and analysed using IES Virtual Environment VE to estimate the Target Emissions Rate (TER) and the Building Emissions Rate (BER) to see how the building could satisfy Part L of the Building Regulations.

The building in case use various sustainable solutions such as limiting the heat loss and gain through the fabric, ventilation system with a good high heat recovery system, increasing the availability of daylight and good lighting control system. The office building in the case study is in full compliance with Part L of the Building Regulations. The sustainable technology in the building will assist the compliance with Part L of the Building Regulations.

This is a single case study building; more case studies for buildings of this nature are required.

The paper demonstrates various feasible solutions of sustainable technology in buildings that might help comply with the regulation.

The case study building is a real case taken directly from one of the author's projects when he was working as a building services engineer. This case study building and its sustainable features have not been presented before in an academic journal.

Research on customer value in business markets is still at an early stage. More specifically, business marketing literature is largely silent on how customers' value expectations interact with suppliers' value propositions and how the interaction leads to development of new products and services. The purpose of this paper is to explore this interaction process and map the journey of the development of a new service and a new relationship.

Following a case study approach, data were collected from representatives of supplier firm – GASCO, and the buyers in CERACO, through in‐depth interviews. In total, 21 ceramic manufacturers (customers) were also visited who represent CERACO. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with few key representatives of ceramic manufacturers, equipment supplier representatives, and GASCO representatives. Also interviewed were two vendors of GASCO and a representative of the gas pipeline (infrastructure) company close to GASCO. Themes were identified in the analysis of the semi‐structured interview transcripts, focus group discussions and the documented information.

The authors' case study highlights a nine‐step CVE‐SVP interaction process: reduce business discontinuities for customers; latent value co‐creation opportunity for a new supplier; collaborative partnership with high customer involvement; enhancing CVE of the new offering; keeping customer switching costs low; offering alternate customer solutions; reduce potential new business discontinuance for the customers; create value for customers' end customers; and co‐create value for customers in the long term.

The authors' case study, in an emerging market context of India, probably for the first time studies the interplay of regulatory forces, customer value expectations, and supplier‐driven markets in shaping the supplier value propositions. This context of the case study, which is so different from a customer‐driven market, makes this case study unique.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate “best practice” building strategies and sustainability‐oriented techniques and tools used to assess the energy performance of housing developments. The objective is to propose guidelines that can integrate futures thinking into the selection of energy‐related design responses, such as materials, building components and energy systems, from the early project stages.

An interdisciplinary approach is adopted with the inclusion of social, economic and environmental aspects of the energy supply and demand. A multiple case study approach is employed, which focuses on the residential sector of European mixed‐use developments that represent sustainable communities of “best practice”.

The investigation of “best practice” housing developments reveals that the majority of design responses cover mainstream environmental design strategies. Energy efficiency measures are still the “low hanging fruit” towards meeting the sustainability objectives. In addition, established sustainability‐oriented techniques and tools used focus mostly on projections of almost certain facts rather than explorations of a portfolio of plausible futures.

The paper represents a shift away from the short‐term mindset that still dominates design and construction practices. It provides an overview of building strategies and decision‐support techniques and tools for improving and incentivising sustainable energy solutions over the long term.

The US natural gas industry has gone through regulatory changes and consequently restructuring over the last 40 years, in an effort to be more market driven. The purpose of this paper is to present an economic analysis of price cointegration in the US natural gas industry as a result of industry restructuring.

In particular, this paper tests if access to the same major pipeline transportation corridor translates to cointegration of residential natural gas prices.

Results indicate a high degree of cointegration for States within the same transportation corridor and a greater percentage of State residential prices are cointegrated post the period of full wellhead deregulation (post 1993) versus the transitional period (1989‐1992). In fact, within the Southwest to Southeast transportation corridor, 100 percent of the price‐pairs examined were cointegrated.

The paper shows that the combination open access as a result of restructuring, complemented with an expansive and integrated transportation and distribution network, have likely increased the overall efficiency in the industry.

The purpose of this paper is to present a methodology to improve decision making about investments that reduce buildings' energy consumption.

A three‐stage methodology was developed and tested to analyse an existing Australian office building's energy use, its energy rating, and its life cycle investment. In total, seven cases of sets of improvements were modelled for energy performance. Their investment value was evaluated using a life cycle‐based analysis across several investment options.

A holistic approach to investment shows that the most effective sustainable refurbishments need not be the most expensive. Optimised investment can take advantage of the timing of both re‐investment in component renewal and efficiency gains from the refurbishment. Furthermore, relatively small changes in income can offset capital expenditure for refurbishments and protect against obsolescence.

Much work on sustainable refurbishments rarely considers the investment basis, across a life cycle, of that expenditure, generally seeing them as a cost and rarely considers the optimal time for that expenditure in the asset life cycle. This paper addresses both concerns.