Energy Indicators for Sustainable Development: Guidelines and Methodologies International Atomic Energy Agency United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs International Energy Agency Eurostat European Environment Agency

(c) Limitations of the Indicator: It is often difficult to measure and interpret energy 
intensities per unit of value added within sub-sectors (private services, public services, 
etc.) because different activities often take place in the same building, hence the real 
allocation of energy use among activities is uncertain. In such cases, intensities 
expressed per unit area disaggregated by building type may be more easily related to 
real energy efficiencies. However, these have the similar problem that a variety of 
activities may take place in a particular type of building. A hospital, for example, will 
contain space for food preparation or laundry services, as well as for health care. 
(d) Alternative Definitions/Indicators: None. 

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62 
ASSESSMENT OF DATA 
(a) Data Needed to Compile the Indicator: 
• Energy use by service/commercial sector. 
• Electricity consumption by service/commercial sector. 
• Real value added of the sector. 
• Built areas or occupied space (sometimes, heated space). 
(b) National and International Data Availability and Sources: Data on value 
added or GDP in one-digit service sector branches of the International Standard 
Industrial Classification (ISIC) system are available for almost every country. More 
detailed data exist for Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development 
(OECD) countries, both from national sources and from the OECD national accounts, 
as well as from the OECD’s STAN database.
Energy-use data at the sector-wide level are available for almost all OECD countries 
and for most others, but there are some important caveats. First, one must check the 
residential sector data from the same source to determine whether liquid and solid 
fuels have been divided between these sectors (service/commercial and residential). In 
many of the IEA time series, this division is not made, and one sector or the other has 
all of the liquid or solid fuels. For developing countries, this split is a problem for gas 
as well, which is often entirely allocated to either residential use or services rather 
than being split. Second, it must be checked whether the service/commercial sector 
contains data from other sectors — for example, agriculture, construction, street 
lighting and even non-energy utilities like water and waste disposal. 
Regional data are available from regional organizations such as the Asia Pacific 
Energy Research Centre (APERC) and the Organización Latinoamericana de Energía 
(OLADE).