Climate-KIC proposes EU green property index

Climate-KIC and global real estate consultancy Knight Frank have launched a groundbreaking proposal to create a single index for benchmarking the energy efficiency of European building stock.

The new database, entitled ‘Energy Efficiency Performance of Properties Analysis’ (EEPPA), will enable estate managers to target inefficient properties and benchmark the energy efficiency of buildings, enabling better investment decisions to be made and more cost effective energy services to be provided by the commercial sector.

Zsolt Gemesi, Climate-KIC UK innovation lead, said: “I welcome the EEPPA report which outlines the creation of a pan-European database that will measure energy performance in buildings across Europe. It is a significant step in lowering the 40% of global anthropogenic greenhouse gases that the built environment produces. It addresses one of the key challenges of Climate-KIC in creating resilient cities and mitigating the global impact of climate change.”

This integrated approach will help EU member states to achieve Europe’s 20% energy efficiency target. Achieving this target prioritises the renovation of existing building stock as the single largest potential sector for energy savings.

Potential energy savings in the building sector – the largest energy-consuming sector in the EU – are estimated at 61% in residential buildings, and 38% in tertiary buildings such as offices, shops and hospitals.

Currently, EU member states operate separate building Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) schemes, leading to a lack of comparability given the differences in how EPCs have been derived. The creation of an integrated index of these EPCs across member states aims to increase transparency and the understanding of energy efficiency retrofits for commercial property, providing valuable market knowledge for investors and external stakeholders.

Etienne Cadestin, EEPPA project leader and associate, Knight Frank Energy, added: “This report shows that a holistic understanding and analysis of the energy performance of buildings across Europe is within our grasp. This is an important step towards the achievement of the 2020 targets setup by the European Union and towards pan-European co-operation to increase energy efficiency in the built environment. Amid all the noise around efficiency, sustainability and climate change mitigation, it is concrete actions like the EEPPA index that will change the face of European cities.”