Energy efficient buildings ─ it’s all about mid- to long-term impact. On our environment, on our relationship with our environment, on the way we live, on the way we work.
There are two key factors in boosting the impact of our EeB projects: we need to ensure replicability, and we should embrace technology transfer more.
This was the focus of the Energy Efficient Buildings workshop held in Brussels on 18-19 April. This annual gathering brought together EeB projects of various maturity levels to share insight and plot a course towards the best value and impact over the projects’ lifetimes and beyond.
Participating in the workshop was Julia Vicente from CITyFiED coordinating partner Fundación CARTIF. Other projects present included City-zen and SINFONIA.
José Riesgo from DG RTD set the stage by examining replicability and technology transfer as the vital ingredients for all projects present. He pointed to the need to convince users that project findings are not only interesting, but also reliable. He went on to stress how regulatory and legislative barriers remain in place due to lack of available data, and how case studies should be crystal clear about replicability.
Technology transfer should be driven by more and better connections between projects. And these projects must show their worth by using quantified results. Key performance indicators, benchmarks and building passports can all help compare EeB projects, and measure their impact. This theme is as deep as it is broad, and the workshop attendees were called upon to discuss concrete measures to apply to their own projects. Over the coming months, the CITyFiED team will be drawing on these ideas and we’ll be reporting on how we are implementing them.