According the European Directive on Buildings, all new and renovated public buildings have to meet energetically high level standards by the end of 2018. Time is running!
In this context, we have been invited in Bruxelles by the EACI (European Agency for Competitivity and Innovation) to discuss on Nearly Zero Energy Buildings (nZEB). A lot of international projects such as MountEE financed by the IEE program are dealing with energy efficient buildings and have participated to the discussion with some representants of different european institutions.
Our demands:
- Need of a common definition of nZEB and certification
- LCC and grey energy have to be taken into account! If possible impacts on the environment, society and local economy as well (that’s why we as MountEE partners prefer to work on sustainable buildings instead of nZEB, which are too limited on one aspect: the final energy consumption of the building). Eco- and local material, SME’s have to be supported.
- Calculation of nZEB is not the reality! Most of the time the energy consumption is very different at the end! Control and monitoring of buildings are needed!
- Need of funding schemes and banking possibilities, expecially for small municipalities who also need technical and administrative support!
- The different political levels have to work together (EU/State/Land/Province/county/group of municipalities/municipalities), otherwise they are just waiting that the others go forwards. The EU should support this cooperation, not only from above.
- Need of capacity building and trainigs (craftsmen, arch, ing, builders, owners, builders, users, facility managers, politics…) and exchange of information, including partnerships with other stakeholders
- More political focus on renovation.
We hope our position and propositions will be taken into account in the future work of the European Commission and by the member countries.
More information about barriers and solutions for implementation of sustainable buildings in mountain areas in this post and in the MountEE report
