Creating a regional service-market for the ecological refurbishment of buildings

Wibke Tritthart, Harald Rohracher, and Christian Gummerer, Inter-University Research Centre for Technology, Work and Culture

Abstract

Most retrofitting of municipal and private residential buildings is done without properly harnessing potentials for an energy and ecological optimisation. This is partly due to the absence of a market offering competitive services for sustainable refurbishment and to the absence of qualified and articulated demand on the part of house owners.

The paper will present a programme called "Thermoprofit Plus" in the City of Graz, Austria, to pump prime a regional market for new building services aiming at a comprehensive ecological retrofitting. The programme is set up with support of the European Union as the LIFE-project "New services for the ecological renovation of buildings"

The main elements of this project, which could serve as a model to other cities, are:

1) Stimulation of supply by developing and adapting schemes for the energetic and ecological appraisal of retrofitting options; development of innovative service packages including performance-contracting, joint activities in marketing and continuing vocational training.
2) Stimulate demand for sustainable retrofitting by establishing an information and marketing program aiming at building societies and municipalities; introduction of special brands of service packages and public control of service standards.
3) Model renovations of three housing estates will put the concept to a test. The project is managed by the Graz Energy Agency and was developed together with the IFZ Graz (Inter-University Research Centre for Technology, Work and Culture). Several other institutions are taking part in the modules of the project.

The paper will focus on the proposed service packages for integrated optimisation of energy and ecological aspects and on the results of a social survey among regional construction companies.