Home, Energy-Efficient Home

Energy efficiency is the third pillar, along with reductions in climate-changing emissions and the development of renewables, of EU energy and climate policy. However, the 20% reduction of energy consumption with respect to existing trends by al 2020, which corresponds to the energy content of 368 million tons of oil per year, is a non-binding target for member states, although last year a European Plan for Energy Efficiency was approved and this should set binding targets by 2013. Buildings are among the big energy guzzlers (they account for around a quarter of energy consumption in Europe, and more than a third in Italy). In order to heat/cool spaces and water, power lighting and fuel cooking, and make homes, shops, offices function, buildings consume a lot of primary energy and electricity. The 2010/31/CE Directive on the energy performance of buildings (which is being implemented) forecasts that by 2020 (by 2018 for public buildings, in Europe only next-to-passive buildings will be able to be built. Passive buildings have close to zero energy needs (and there are experimentations with buildings generating more energy than they consume). It also says that certificates of energy efficiency will have to be released for all buildings, built, sold or leased and for buildings larger than 500 square meters used by a public agency and/or used by the public. The European Commission has also proposed a new, tougher directive on energy efficiency, which would impose a 3% annual rate of restructuring for public buildings starting in 2014. According to the proposed plan, the energy restructuring of European building would generate energy savings of 71% for the EU as a total and would foster the creation of 1.1 million new jobs. The energy performance certification of buildings, similarly to what is already compulsory for white goods, is a useful tool in orienting the real estate market toward more energy-efficient homes, enabling cuts in residential management costs. This should enhance the value of more energy-efficient buildings, and stimulate the construction of new buildings having a better energy performance, as well as the renovation of existing homes. International studies put at 3% the price premium for buildings that are highly ranked in terms of energy efficiency. Since the 1st of January 2012, in Italy it has been compulsory to indicated the energy class of buildings in all residential and commercial real estate ads (but only the Lombardy Region has put in place a system of controls and sanctions). Energy certification can be also voluntary, and there has been an international diffusion of various branded systems of evaluation of buildings' energy performance. In a recent symposium organized by IEFE, Bocconi's research center for the economics of energy and the environment, three voluntary standards (LEED, CasaClima and Ithaca) were compared. While the market will determine their respective diffusion, it's necessary that public agencies educate about the correct understanding and meaning of the energy labels being advertised.