THE EPBD’S BUILDING RENOVATION PASSPORT

Publication date:July 11, 2019

In June, EPF attended a stakeholder meeting with, as usual, two property people and 30+ companies and organisations with an economic interest in BRPs. But, interestingly, none of them managed to present a coherent case for BRPs.

In fact, there was a lot of confusion about what a BRP is or should be. In its simplest form, it came across as simply more than what is already required in an EPC:

2. The energy performance certificate shall include recommendations for the cost-optimal or cost-effective improvement of the energy performance of a building or building unit, unless there is no reasonable potential for such improvement compared to the energy performance requirements in force.

The recommendations included in the energy performance certificate shall cover:

(a)

measures carried out in connection with a major renovation of the building envelope or technical building system(s); and

(b)

measures for individual building elements independent of a major renovation of the building envelope or technical building system(s).

3. The recommendations included in the energy performance certificate shall be technically feasible for the specific building and may provide an estimate for the range of payback periods or cost-benefits over its economic lifecycle.

EPBD Art. 11 (already in the 2010 version, not last year's revision)

... the accent being on providing a step-by-step approach ("Do this now, do that in year X, etc."), but none of that seemed to correspond to the reality on the ground. Over the meeting, it emerged that there's actually very little out there and what really is working is quite different: free inspection and advice from public authorities (we highlighted some worthy examples in the draft Rev 5).

There were two in-depth presentations:

  • The Individueller Sanierungsfahrplan Baden-Württemberg: two visits over two days! Cost: thanks to public support: € 200; without public support: € 700 - 1.500! Just for the plan! Before you actually do anything!
  • The Flemish Woningpas and EPC+: Advice integrated into the EPC. Free of charge. If the owner had to pay, it would be € 200 to 400.

In the end there was a sort of passive, default consensus that BRPs are no magic bullet and that roadmaps without serious public funding aren't viable.

Full report under epf19-48 of 10.07.2019