Enlarging the market for low consumption commercial buildings

Werner Neumann, Municipal Energy Agency
Paolo Bertoldi, European Commission
Peter Garforth, Garforth International llc Energy Productivity Solutions
Adam W. Hinge, Sustainable Energy Partnerships

Keywords

advanced low energy commercial buildings, building performance, investors' decisions, best practices, building codes

Abstract

In the Europe Union and elsewhere, commercial buildings consume up to 20% of all energy used, causing a rising level of carbon emissions. Despite the presence of building codes, there is little effort and apparent incentives to design and build new commercial buildings with substantially lower energy consumption than required by the codes. This is in the face of a growing body of evidence that low energy buildings are economic to construct, lower cost to operate and more productive.

The paper identifies some recent low consumption non-residential buildings around Europe, which have been operated for a while. The operational results (construction cost, energy consumption and costs, comfort and productivity) compared to the design performance will be presented, along with the technical solutions employed. The paper will discuss the original motivations of the investors, the building occupants and the architects, to create such advanced buildings, and explore whether their expectations have been fulfilled. In particular the paper shows that the traditional power of the architect to drive the game is still strong, but is becoming subordinate to the desires of the developer. Most importantly, it will summarise how architects and developers' experiences may affect their future decisions on other buildings.

By analysing the motivations and the incentives for all players in a very competitive market, the paper discusses ways to motivate the building owners to invest in low energy non-residential buildings. It discusses potential activities to further expand the realisation of cost effective low consumption buildings, reinforcing the potential for the EU industry to be the clear world leader in the design, construction and operation of high-performance building. It will also explore the potential incentives that may exist when the building is a part of a larger, energy efficient wide-area development.