Energy-efficient buildings index enables Europe-wide comparisons

Integrated benchmarking system will help countries to reach Europe’s 20% energy efficiency target

Report from – Jo Smit

Property consultant Knight Frank and Climate-KIC, the European Union’s principal climate innovation vehicle, have joined forces to create a single online index to benchmark the energy efficiency of European building stock.

Currently EU member states operate separate building energy performance certificate (EPC) schemes, leading to a lack of comparability given the differences in how EPCs have been derived. An integrated index of EPCs across states should increase transparency and understanding of energy efficiency retrofits for commercial property.

Potential energy savings of 61% are estimated in residential buildings, and 38% in tertiary buildings such as offices, shops and hospitals. The new database, the Energy Efficiency Performance of Properties Analysis (EEPPA), will enable estates managers to target inefficient properties and benchmark the energy efficiency of buildings, enabling better investment decisions to be made and more cost-effective energy services to be provided by the commercial sector.

The integrated approach will help EU states to achieve Europe’s 20% energy efficiency target, which prioritises renovation of existing building stock as the single largest potential sector for energy savings.

The system will reveal the full market potential for green property-related technologies and business models, and inform government and commercial plans for sustainable communities and regions. Investors and owners will be able to map EPC trends across the EU, estimate potential energy efficiency gains from building management, and identify market opportunities to upgrade building components and management.

The proposed EEPPA model is also intended to support European governments by:

Creating a framework to monitor the overall and regional energy performance of European building stock

Giving governments access to innovative data analytics, and allowing them to benchmark energy performance of one country’s building stock against that in others

Identifying regional energy needs, resulting in better energy generation and delivery managed at European level.

EEPPA has been developed in consultation with more than a thousand organisations across Europe. The project was funded by Climate-KIC, which also manages an extensive network of stakeholders across the EU that can contribute to the project in the future. Corporate partners expressing support for the project include global investment, retirement, and insurance group AXA and environmental services firm Veolia.The Climate Group, the Institute for Sustainability, the University of Ferrara, the University of Wolverhampton, the Instituto Valenciano de la Edificacion, and the EU Commission Delegation for Energy (Energy Efficiency Unit) were also involved in developing the EEPPA proposal.

Images: Energy efficiency in buildings in cities as diverse as Venice (top) and Bruges could be compared using EEPPA.

Source:

http://www.building4change.com/article.jsp?id=2427#.U71EFfldWKI