Smart Buildings Magazine spoke to Susanne Geissler, SERA GmbH about building energy certificate.
Buildings remain the single largest energy consumer in the EU, accounting for two-fifths of the region’s energy consumption, according to official figures. Despite that, only one per cent of Europe’s buildings get energy renovations each year.
The EU’s revised Energy Performance in Buildings Directive (EPBD) was adopted by the European Council in April 2024. EU member countries are now required to calculate and disclose whole life cycle carbon emissions for all new buildings from 2030.
Dr Susanne Geissler, a sustainable buildings expert at the Vienna-based consultancy SERA global GmbH, believes that creating ‘dynamic’ Energy Performance Certificate (EPCs) will help authorities and building owners to better plan ways to reach their energy performance goals.
She is part of the EU-funded TIMEPAC project, which will help improve the certification processes and move from single, static certification to more holistic and dynamic approaches.
What did this project set out to achieve?
The implementation of the EPBD led to different approaches on the national level and regional levels, but we also have different approaches for existing and new buildings, and those that are residential or non-residential.
That high level of complexity makes it difficult for the administration, since all those laws need to be enforced. But we are not interested in a lot of paperwork. We’re interested in implementing energy efficiency in buildings.
We also include other aspects; not only energy efficiency but the performance of building materials and so on. The main contribution of the project is to reduce complexity.
We want to develop procedures which are feasible in practice, don’t put additional burden on administration, and are enforceable.
What did this drive for simplicity lead to?
The major issue is that a conventional EPC represents the building’s condition at a certain point in time. In TIMEPAC, we have created what we call a ‘dynamic EPC,’ which means the certificate is tracking the building performance over time.
In terms of building renovation, it means we will create a building renovation passport. That means creating a renovation roadmap for the building, and combining that with building information modelling which is used as a tool to track that process over time. That allows people to see how the building will improve by implementing the building renovation measures. It’s a method for a stage renovation.
Zooming out a bit, what trends have you seen in the last few decades?
Around 2000 I was involved in developing the green building assessment system in Austria, or what is known as the LEED system in America, or the DGNB in Germany.
We also created our Green Building Council in Austria. At that time we were just starting and people were saying ‘this is too complex, who will be interested in that?’ It wasn’t easy to start it.
Since then, green building assessment is now a nearly universal practice, and the EPBD is part of it. Green building assessment is still voluntary, though the energy part is mandatory in the form of the energy performance certificate.
When I compare 20 years back, I see really progress. Of course when you are working you think, ‘everything is too slow,’ but I think we are on the right track.
I think the big chance is to use digitalisation to leverage that progress. This is what we’re doing with the TIMEPAC project, because this dynamic EPC also digitalises building information.
Looking back, what do you see as the main achievements of the TIMEPAC project?
With the TIMEPAC Academy, we have launched an initiative to offer EPBD-relevant training at EU level. This is a novelty, as currently qualification is regulated at national or even regional level. However, the recast of the EPBD aims for a more harmonised approach and this means that the training offered by TIMEPAC Academy comes at the right time.
You are having the final conference in Spain. What will you discuss there?
The concept of dynamic EPC still requires significant development efforts to achieve the ultimate goal of reducing complexity and simplifying application without compromising accuracy. The conference will not only provide a summary of the TIMEPAC project but will also be a stepping stone for the necessary follow-up actions.
Source: smartbuildingsmagazine.com