BUILD UP

The European Commission estimates that about 35 % of the EU's buildings are over 50 years old, and almost 75 % of the building stock is energy inefficient. At the same time, only 0.4-1.2 % of the building stock is renovated each year (depending on the country). This means that buildings are a key target to reduce primary energy use and greenhouse gas emissions and to generate renewable energy rather than consuming fossil fuels. Indeed, buildings should move from energy consumers to producers, contributing a significant share of renewable energy generation.

The passive house standard was defined and put into practice for the first time in Darmstadt, Germany, in 1991 – almost three decades ago. In October 2019, the 23rd International Passive House Conference will take place for the first time outside Europe, in Gaobeidian, China. Earlier this year, passive-house pioneering city of Heidelberg in Germany hosted the Achieve Better Buildings! Passive House Conference.

Every month, BUILD UP highlights publications covering a specific topic. September’s Topic of the Month is: ‘Digitalisation of the building and construction sector’. The website is already open for contributions and BUILD UP’s editorial board is eager to receive your discussion papers, news and articles.

The main goal of Solar Decathlon Europe – a global leader in architectural competitions – is to foster the cooperation of university researchers and developers with industrial partners and sponsors. The aim is to build on the creativity and innovative abilities of young people, and design such innovative and energy-efficient houses as showcase homes demonstrating sustainability, based on the use of renewable energy and the conscientious use of resources.

Estimates suggest that around EUR 100 billion must be invested annually in the EU to achieve Europe’s 2020 energy-efficiency targets – mainly in buildings. At present, annual investments are below half of these requirements. Highlighting financial benefits of deep renovation could help mobilise further investment and improve market financing conditions.

By streamlining existing measured data series related to buildings and their contexts (meta-data), the ExcEED platform is raising awareness of how different kinds of buildings perform in practice. Furthermore, it is providing information on how to fill the gap between designed and actual performance, thereby enhancing the energy efficiency of buildings while ensuring healthy and comfortable indoor environments.

The study will focus on the drivers, opportunities and challenges around the adoption of digital innovations in the construction sector. It will then draw up recommendations for EU policymakers and other relevant actors on how to support and foster the adoption of drones and 3D printing by construction companies.

In order to grow the market so that energy-efficient mortgages can be made available to every borrower in Europe, the finance and the green building sector must work together more closely. The roadmap set out for building, construction and energy-efficiency organisations will help the market for green finance to flourish – with the potential to transform millions of buildings across Europe.

CUBE 2020 is an energy and CO2-saving contest that provides a framework for non-residential buildings to reduce an average of 10-25 % of energy consumption per year. The principle behind the one-year competition, which is open to all non-residential buildings, is to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions by adopting the user’s best practices and fine-tuning the technical installations through low-investment measures.

This rehabilitation and energy renovation of a 1970 condominium concerned a small joint ownership of 23 lots in Sevran in the suburbs of Paris, France. The work included insulation of the roof terrace, installation of thermal insulation from the exterior, replacing all the joinery, installation of humidity-sensitive ventilation, insulation of the lower floor and establishing the building's safety measures.

The overall objective of the Carbon Risk Real Estate Monitor Project (CRREM) is to contribute to increasing energy-efficiency investments in the real-estate sector by addressing the need to understand the down-side risk of climate change. Thus, the project focuses on the decarbonisation requirements of the assets under management compared to the overall sector targets and Intended nationally determined contributions.

HousEEnvest aims to demonstrate the viability of the financing scheme defined for the full renovation of energy in multi-family houses in Extremadura, Spain. It will depend on a combination of innovative tools for standardisation, pooling, bundling and de-risking. The funding scheme focuses on a regional market with investment of over EUR 35 million.

With 90 % of total building stock having been built before 1990, and society becoming increasingly aware of the negative impact of our living environments, improving our building stock is long overdue. BIM-SPEED aims to address this challenge by developing a combination of methodologies and tools built around one central information source: the building information model (BIM) which is a digital representation of a building. This model will be the catalyst for a smarter, more efficient method of deep renovation for the residential building sector.

HOLISDER brings together a wide range of mature technologies and integrates them into an open and interoperable framework, comprising a fully-fledged suite of tools addressing the needs of the whole demand-response value chain. In this way, it will ensure consumer empowerment and transformation into active market players, through the deployment of a variety of implicit and hybrid demand- response schemes.

This webinar, co-organised by FEDARENE and the ManagEnergy teams, targets potential applicants for the open call for proposals ‘Project Development Agency’ and ‘Integrated home renovation services’ under the Horizon 2020 programme.

The goal of the EU’s H2020 STUNNING (SusTainable bUsiNess models for the deep reNovation of buIldiNGs) project is to promote successful and innovative building-renovation packages and business models around a virtual and collaborative knowledge-sharing platform. The STUNNING Renovation Hub aims to accelerate their adoption.

The geo-clustering tool, in particular, enables the user to cluster buildings according to selected key performance indicators to present the resulting clusters on a map. By using the ExcEED geo-clustering tool, users can get a better understanding of their building’s performance in order to easily evaluate potential energy and cost savings.

With 'My2050', the Belgian government aims to encourage a debate among all citizens (and pupils in the 3rd year at secondary school, in particular) as to how we can make our society evolve towards a low-carbon society by 2050.

STUNNING’s goal is to promote successful and innovative building-renovation packages and business models around a free, digital and collaborative knowledge-sharing platform: the STUNNING Renovation Hub. This webinar is the second to take place in collaboration with the BUILD UP platform.

The event will be central to finding research and innovation solutions for this great transition by working across polices, setting the direction, spurring innovation and triggering investment. It will be the moment for all stakeholders to meet and co-create the strategic priorities for the European Commission's investment in research and innovation.

This exhibition will showcase best practice renovations of different types of buildings across Europe, as well as highlighting programmes, both public and private, which are incentivising renovation work and enabling energy-efficient renovation. Its aim is to show that renovation is not only possible but is already under way.

The Roger Léron Award celebrates outstanding contributions to the development of sustainable energy at the EU, local and regional level. The prize, established in 2014, is named in memory of Roger Léron, a pioneer of regional energy development in Europe and one of FEDARENE’s founders.