Multiple benefits of renovating buildings
EUSEW 2015
As part of the EU Sustainable Energy Week High-Level Policy Conference, EuroACE organises on Wednesday 17th June 2015 an interactive event in cooperation with its member company The VELUX Group, entitled “Quizzing the Stakeholders: Renovating Buildings to Meet Energy Union Goals Maximising the Multiple Benefits for EU Citizens”. Emphasis is placed at this year’s event, now a firm fixture in EUSEW, on the potential of deep energy renovation of the building stock to ensure that the achievement of long term EU goals is of maximum benefit to the EU economy and society.
The EU Energy Union Strategy aims to bring the EU into a new era of more integrated, secure, sustainable and affordable energy system and it has become a cornerstone of the Juncker Commissions’ new approach for the EU. It contains five dimensions, including energy efficiency that must be addressed in order to achieve the vision of an EU Energy Union.
Even today, many people are unaware of the fact that 40% of the energy consumed in the EU is consumed in our buildings and that most of that energy need not be used.
Items that the event addresses are:
- The cost of non-renovation to the EU
- The financing of building renovations
- The reasons to renovate and the benefits that result
EU citizens are paying for a massive waste of energy as much of the EU building stock is not energy efficient. The best way of securing our energy future is to reduce our energy demand, and there is no better sector to provide that reduction than the buildings sector. Our event clearly sets out the huge beneficial impact that renovating our building stock to make it highly energy efficient can have for each and every one of us.
80 million Europeans are living in cold, damp and unhealthy buildings. Energy efficient buildings should therefore also be healthier places for people to live, to learn and to work in. Research has revealed that there are multiple drivers that can motivate home owners to renovate such as improved health and better indoor climate as well as increased energy performance.
Ingrid Reumert points to recent findings in the Healthy Homes Barometer – a study conducted by Wilke for the VELUX Group – that shows homeowners are motivated to undertake renovations by their wish to have greater comfort and better indoor climate, going beyond lower energy bills.
There is a need to create incentives by making an attractive legislative framework that integrates energy efficiency and other key parameters for indoor comfort, health and well-being.
As the Commission and Member States brainstorm around effective ways to implement the ambitions set out in the Energy Union Framework, it is certain that the contribution of the building sector should not be ignored as it has a proven energy savings potential of 61% and 38% in residential and tertiary buildings, respectively, by 2030 (Analysis of a European Reference Target System for 2030 (Fraunhofer ISI, October 2013)).
Learn more about the event: www.euroace.org