European research projects

Significant EU resources have been devoted to the development and piloting of sus-tainable development tools and technologies for cities and regions during the (5^th and 6^th) Research Framework Programmes. Projects have included both generic and sec-tor specific research, as well as dedicated research on urban sustainability mainly car-ried out within the key action ‘City of tomorrow and cultural heritage’. Some impor-tant projects are named in this paragraph.

EUROACE (1998)

In 1998, twenty European companies involved in the manufacture, distribution and installation of a variety of energy saving goods and services joined forces as The European Alliance of Companies for Energy Efficiency in Buildings (EuroACE).

This initiative followed an invitation from the former deputy Director General of the

Environment at the European Commission to attend a meeting in Brussels where, in the presence of the then Chairman of the Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, they were informed about the importance of reducing energy consumption in build-ings - responsible for over 40% of Europe's greenhouse gas emissions. The challenge was set: why do you not work together to ensure this happens? Since that time, the EuroACE project has been in continuous dialogue with those in the European Un-ion charged with developing programmes, both to assess and realise this objective.

The EuroACE project has commissioned several substantial research documents, in-tended to facilitate effective policy making in this area (www.euroace.org).

SUREURO (2000)

Sureuro (Sustainable Refurbishment Europe) offers housing companies practical management tools that enable them to integrate sustainable development and tenant participation into their refurbishment management processes without exceeding con-ventional project timescales and budgets. SUREURO has developed new design tools for construction companies, designers and engineers, and new models for the improved planning, design and technical specifications of refurbishment projects.

Tested in the sustainable refurbishment of more than 13 000 apartments in seven European countries, SUREURO’s innovative systems have been shown to deliver significant environmental improvement and energy savings (www.sureuro.com).

CRISP (2000)

CRISP is a European Thematic Network gathering 24 partners from 16 countries, whose general objective is to create a group dynamic in the field of Construction and City Related Sustainability Indicators. The main activities of the Network are:

⋅ To define a framework and general methodology for construction and city related sustainability indicators.

⋅ To stimulate and co-ordinate the development and use of such indicators.

⋅ To gather and organise indicators within a database including information on vali-dation, testing and criteria of use.

⋅ To widely disseminate the results of the research carried out.

The indicator database is the main deliverable of this network and is included in a public website gathering several other types of information regarding sustainability indicators. (http://crisp.cstb.fr).

ENPER-TEBUC SAVE (2001)

The ENPER-TEBUC study deals with the issue of harmonisation in European Building Codes integrating the project proposals 'ENPER' and 'TEBUC' into a single clustered project programme.

The first part of the study concerns the investigation of the possibilities to design harmonised building codes at the European level. Therefore, the existing European building regulations are compared, extending existing work in that field. Since within the time frame of the Kyoto protocol (2008-2012), the existing building stock will be responsible for most of the energy consumption and CO2 emissions, possible meas-ures to foster energy efficiency in this field will be particularly scrutinised. On this basis general principles for a model building code for use in new buildings and, where applicable, renovation will be developed. Furthermore, the questions of check-ing the application and buildcheck-ing certification will be investigated, so that this code can serve as a reliable and visible tool for ensuring building energy efficiency.

Since the Energy Performance (EP) standardisation and legislation is in many mem-ber states considered to be an attractive tool for increasing the energy efficiency of new buildings and existing buildings, the second part of the study is dealing with this issue in detail. Several countries already have an Energy Performance Regulation

(EPR) in place and/or are preparing a new regulation. Whereas a whole range of European standards are prepared and/or adopted that cover several sub-domains of an EP standard, there are major differences in the overall approach used in the dif-ferent countries for determining the EP level of a building. Setting up a platform for information exchange among the prominent national players, to systematically collect and summarise the different approaches and to develop suggestions for a European

‘model code’ is therefore another major goal of this project (www.enper.org).

EUROPROSPER (2002)

Europrosper's objective is to improve the energy performance of existing buildings, specifically in the office sector, across the EU by the process of energy audit, benchmarking and certification. The project focuses on office buildings because of the rapid expansion of this type of building in the EU, both in terms of floor area and energy intensity. In addition, there is a wealth of good practice information on achieving lower energy design and operation for this building type. The concept of benchmarking the energy use of existing office buildings as a tool for saving energy has been promoted for many years in some EU countries, but nevertheless is not widely applied. The Europrosper project will make the methods of implementing this good practice procedure accessible to all. Good practice methods of energy bench-marking office buildings have benefits beyond saving energy cost and reducing CO₂ emissions: they can lead to improved thermal and visual comfort for occupants, thereby creating a healthier and more productive working environment and greater occupant satisfaction. All these benefits can lead, in addition, to an increase in the as-set value of the building. The key outcome of the project will therefore be the com-bination of creating quality assured good practice procedures and a training package that will enable the know-how embodied in the procedures to be disseminated effec-tively to practitioners in each country (europrosper.energyprojects.net).

FRAMES (2003)

The FRAMES project (Framework Innovations for Building Renovation) aims to improve the framework conditions for building renovation in Member States and CEE Countries. The principal focus of the project is the regulative framework. The guiding idea of the FRAMES project is to involve relevant stakeholders in a process of framework innovation and implementation. Key actors (representatives from the housing and real estate sector, representatives from regional and national administra-tion) participate in National Focus Groups, which are initiated and hosted by the project partners. Based on the national framework analysis and the discussion in the National Focus Groups the FRAMES project concentrates on five core issues (each of them specifically related to the issue of renovation of residential building blocks):

⋅ Implementation of Energy Certification according to the EPBD

⋅ Energy Audits as a prerequisite for Energy Certification and Financial Incentives

⋅ Ownership problems with respect to comprehensive renovation in the residential sector

⋅ Guaranteed Energy Services (Energy Performance Contracting, Third Party Fi-nancing, Guarantee Models)

⋅ Financing incentives for comprehensive renovation in the residential sector On each of these five core issues, the project team produced a position paper con-taining the basic requirements for beneficial framework conditions, draft

recommen-dations and examples of good practice

(www.energyagency.at/projekte/frames/index.htm).

REVIVAL (2003-2008)

The global objective of this project is to demonstrate that tertiary buildings from the post-war pre-energy conscious era, can be refurbished economically, with improve-ments in energy performance that lead to lower life-cycle CO2 emissions than the original building, or an equivalent new building. Thus, refurbishment would make a significant contribution towards the EU policy of meeting the Kyoto protocol. The work focuses upon the refurbishment of six buildings:

• one hospital

• one educational building

• and four office buildings

All have the common characteristics of poor insulation standards, an over-provision of glazing, inefficient plant, and degraded fabric. The local design teams will develop refurbishment packages of fabric and system improvements, aimed at improving en-ergy performance, whilst simultaneously addressing the problem of fabric degrada-tion and the quality of the internal environment. They will include both ‘design-based’ solutions, which may involve re-modelling and re-organisation, and ‘product-based’ solutions which will apply innovative products newly available from industry.

The OFFICE design manual will be used as a basis. A procedure for life cycle analy-sis will be developed early in the project to asanaly-sist the prioritising of various environ-mental measures. The methodology will also be extended to populations of buildings, enabling building owners to assess the impact of broadly similar refurbishment strategies on their building stock. By carrying out a CO2 emissions budget, they will be able to test their building stock renewal and refurbishment programme against the Kyoto commitment. A major component of the work will be the support offered to the local design teams by the Scientific Committee, mainly through the activity of the Design Forums using the OFFICE design manual, where participants and invited experts meet to expose the current stage of the local projects. As well as peer review of the design proposals, the Scientific Committee will act as broker for specialist con-sultation – for example computer simulation or physical modelling. All buildings will be monitored, both technically and socially. The results will allow a critical assess-ment to be made of the success of the measures to meet their targets, and will assist in the main dissemination task, the revised Design Guide for Refurbishment.

DEMOHOUSE (2005)

The overall goal in DEMOHOUSE research and innovation is to reduce the energy consumption of heating, cooling, ventilation and domestic hot water in the renova-tion of housing by at least 30%, compared to the present standards. In addirenova-tion, a decision support tool will be developed to assist project developers, housing corpora-tions etc. with a viable implementation of the measures suggested. This includes a closer look at organisational and financial aspects of renovation. The objectives in DEMOHOUSE are to:

⋅ Develop minimum standards for sustainable renovation.

⋅ Develop a decision-making tool to improve sustainable renovation.

⋅ Create long-term management structures to implement a lifetime orientation to-wards sustainable renovation.

⋅ Create long-term communication structures to guarantee ongoing dissemination and training concerning sustainable renovation.

⋅ Develop, implement and demonstrate technological solutions to reduce energy con-sumption by a minimum of 30% compared to the present renovation standards.

⋅ Develop a multidisciplinary approach to sustainable renovation to improve quality of life. (www.demohouse.net).