BUILD UP

The construction sector has significant potential for cost-effective energy savings. With the EU planning a nearly-zero energy target for new buildings by 2020, the construction sector is confronted with the urgent need to upskill its workforce. This implies both meeting the targets and learning how to use innovative approaches and technological solutions to maintain the high quality of construction and increase building energy efficiency.

In integrative building design, interaction among all building disciplines and stakeholders is sought from the earliest development phases, with the aim of achieving optimal solutions through iterative and lean approaches. The quest for energy efficiency is a key component in this systematic methodology, intended to minimise the burden that construction imposes on the environment while promoting positive effects, such as a healthy indoor environment, positive social interactions, and the maintained or enhanced value of materials.

Every month, BUILD UP highlights publications covering a specific topic. August’s Topic of the Month is: ‘Financing energy efficiency of buildings’. The website is already open for contributions and BUILD UP’s editorial board is eager to receive your discussion papers, news and articles.

‘Renovation of buildings is by far the most cost-effective way to tackle the climate problem,’ said Roel Vermeiren from the Flemish Energy Agency, speaking at the LIFE Platform meeting on Climate Action and the Building Sector on 17 June 2019.

When energy-saving measures are planned in social housing buildings, the environmental objective is combined with the aim of reducing inequality. In Zaragoza, Spain, a team of social workers is helping the tenants of a multi-family building to accept a challenging refurbishment. If energy-saving measures came knocking at the door, wouldn’t it be reassuring to have someone on hand to help you navigate the benefits and inconvenience, someone to help dispel your doubts?

Today, over 20 countries from the World Green Building Council's (WorldGBC) Europe Regional Network (WorldGBC Europe) have published a manifesto entitled ‘A Sustainable Built Environment at the Heart of Europe’s Future’. It urges European decision-makers to recognise the vital role the built-environment sector plays in delivering a climate-neutral Europe.

Good indoor environmental quality is a cornerstone of ensuring health, comfort, well-being and productivity in buildings, while reducing the building stock’s climate impact is essential to the EU’s commitments under the Paris Agreement. The amended Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD, 2018/844) mentions energy-performance requirements defined by governments in all EU countries.

European Local Energy Assistance (ELENA) is a successful joint initiative between the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Commission (Smart Finance for Smart Buildings). It offers technical assistance for investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy in buildings.

In April 2019, Spain’s Hotel Arima received the Passivhaus certificate from the Energiehaus company. The building has managed to reduce energy costs, resulting in a demand for heating of 7 kWh/m2 and another for cooling of 6 kWh/m2. These values are rated at factor 10 below the energy consumption of conventional hotels, thereby achieving very high energy autonomy for the building.

Covering an area of 1,348 m² at ground level, the building comprises a single volume, on one level, marked by an entrance marquee for customers. The building consists of a wooden frame set on a concrete base. Blades made from the northern or Scotch pine have been sanded and treated with a walnut saturator to bring warmth to this modern wooden facade.

The main goal of QUEST is to promote investments in Sustainability and Energy Efficiency by identifying and empirically risk-grading factors that influence performance. QUEST will develop a simple toolkit to evaluate these investments. It can be easily applied to all types of sustainability and energy-efficiency investments and covers project design-construction-operation risks.

The main objective of CitizEE is to support European public authorities in scaling up investments for energy efficiency in the building sector by attracting citizen private investments. CitizEE will address this objective by integrating tailored and widely adopted crowdfunding and cooperative financing schemes.

As part of the NOVICE project, Joule Assets Europe conducted a research study measuring the appeal and financial viability of the NOVICE dual revenue stream energy performance contract (EPC). This looks into combining energy efficiency and demand response.

RESTORE studies an promotes the restorative sustainability for new and existing buildings across Europe. It is a knowledge transfer project comprising 40 countries and 150 working members. The project is divided into five working groups and is coordinated by the core group and the members' committee representing each of the participant countries.

Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Commission, and the European Investment Bank launched a new Practitioner's Guide on the Statistical Treatment of Energy Performance Contracts on 8 May 2019.

The main purpose of this decision-support tool, implemented via an online web-based application, is to apply different energy-efficiency measures to help local and regional authorities to calculate, relatively easily and quickly, energy and financial savings in individual public buildings and for the whole building stock.

The EU-funded ExcEED project collects data from new and energy-efficient buildings (such as energy performance, CO2 emissions, etc.), and gathers them into a database. Through the data collected, the platform will foster energy awareness and will build analysis of energy performances regarding data from existing buildings.

The central topic of this conference will be to assess the challenges of and impacts on energy markets of the complex and changing conditions in technology, policy and geopolitics in this domain. Sessions would address topics as Energy efficiency policies, investments and implementation by end-use sectors; Energy demand: behaviour, demand-side management, energy poverty, Business cases/ case studies.

Building Simulation is the premier international event in the field of building performance simulation. This is an exceptional opportunity to share information about simulation tools and applications, and to present and get updates on recent achievements and new developments in the research.

The Sustainable Built Environment (SBE) regional conference 2019 is a platform for sharing research and innovation among researchers and practitioners within the construction sector. The focus is on the resilient built environment for sustainable Mediterranean countries.

The SBE19 Graz conference is part of a major international series of events focusing on sustainable buildings and construction. The conference series was launched by the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction (CIB).