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On 1 July 2014, the European Commission published its long-awaited Communication on Resource Efficiency Opportunities in the Building Sector, in which it recognises a lack of reliable, comparable and affordable data, methods and tools to analyse and benchmark the environmental performance of buildings. The ACE fully shares the Commission's conclusions and welcomes its initiative to set up a framework of core indicators for the assessment of the environmental performance of buildings.
The Commission’s initiative responds to ACE calls which highlighted, in its response to the Consultation on Sustainable Buildings, that the lack of data, the complexity and great variety of calculation methods make assessments of the environmental footprint of buildings prohibitively expensive and individual products and buildings difficult to benchmark. ACE advocated transparent calculation protocols and metrics to enable built environment professionals to report on the environmental footprint of buildings cheaply and routinely. This is essential to facilitate a better consideration of lifespan as well as the lifecycle impact of buildings and components in design solutions. ACE also emphasised the need for a better understanding of the natural resource requirements of the construction, occupancy and dismantling of buildings, as well as the effect of these on human activities taking place within them.
ACE believes that a set of clearly defined and measurable indicators will allow professionals to compare building performance predicted in the design phase with the operational performance actually achieved, and to monitor the real consumption of resources (materials, water, energy, land, etc.). However, ACE contends that the benefits of such a framework of indicators may be increased if the data collected are disclosed and freely available in the public domain. A database containing real building performance data would ensure that investments in energy retrofitting are based on evidence of their effectiveness, would spur competition in the construction sector and would contribute to inform and underpin future legislation affecting the built environment.
ACE calls on the European Commission not to overlook economic and social considerations and encourages the Commission to consider incentives and promotional measures to ensure the uptake of the framework. ACE considers that it will be essential to build on existing technical standards and certification schemes, but also on good practice examples, such as the FP7 Open House project, the CarbonBuzz initiative and the Energy Efficiency Performance of Properties Analysis (EEPPA).
ACE welcomes the Commission’s willingness to consult stakeholders and looks forward to participating in the consultation process in order to contribute to the elaboration of a consistent and effective framework of core indicators.
