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The countdown to transpose the revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) has started!

Report on suggested elements, content and layout of the iBRoad tools.

The Report “The iBRoad Concept in practice” aims to elaborate on the concept and benefits of the Individual Building Renovation Roadmap, giving an overview of the potential services to be provided by the relevant software itself, as well as of the potential links with other tools or services available on the market, and present the ones that are to be actually implemented and tested under the iBRoad project.

Artificial intelligence has found plenty of time and money saving applications within the solar industry, in the automated production of solar panels and the forecasting of their long-term performance, among other areas.

“It’s critical we have a big change over the next couple of years in how we do buildings and construction”, said Joyce Msuya, Deputy Executive Director of UNEP. “We only need to look at the current norms and quality of many buildings to see that we can do so much better,” she said, emphasizing that “we need to raise the bar in energy-efficient, green buildings and far better practice in construction.”

The recent IPCC report removes all doubt: the building and construction sector must decarbonise by 2050 to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. As nations all over the globe tackle operational emissions from buildings, we must challenge ourselves to address our sector’s total emissions impact if we are to deliver a truly net zero carbon building stock. COP24 must mark the beginning of a major global campaign to take on this challenge - one on which Europe must lead the world.

The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has issued a recent report stipulating that without drastic measures to cut carbon emissions, reduce energy use and remove carbon already in the atmosphere, we are “extremely unlikely” to meet the Paris Agreement goal of keeping global warming below 1.5C. With this new paradigm, it’s quite obvious what the to-do list should be for the production companies and large energy intensive ones.

URBAN GreenUp and other EU projects jointly signed a document in Mantua, Italy, to promote and boost the adoption of nature-based solutions in urban areas worldwide.

On the eve of November 21 in Brussels (Belgium), the European project STARDUST received the 2018 .eu Web Award for its website www.stardustproject.eu under the “Better World” Category.

Along with the rest of the Smart City Community, in late September 2018, the STARDUST project attended the 4th Nordic Edge Expo & Conference in Norway. The Nordic Edge is an annual event where the Smart City community presents their latest innovative solutions. This makes it an ideal place for the project partners of the Horizon 2020 Smart Cities and Communities programme to catch up.

We are living in a globalised world that is characterised by a continuing trend of urbanisation. First time in history, more than half of the world population is living in urbanized areas and almost three quarters of the European population lived in an urban area in 2015 (source).

Organized by the H2020 project DR-BOB (Demand Response in Block of Buildings) in collaboration with BUILD UP, the webinar addressed the demand response technology readiness levels for energy management in blocks of buildings.

The webinar was moderated by Giulia Pedrocchi, from BUILD UP, who presented the portal, the project and the speakers.

The Energy Efficient Mortgages (EEM) Initiative is unveiling its definition of an energy efficient mortgage which is the result of extensive cross-sectoral, market consultation of the lending institutions piloting the energy efficient mortgage framework and of the EEM Advisory Council.

The announcement coincides with the United Nations Climate Change Conference – COP24 –  taking place in Katowice, Poland until 14 December.

The 8th ECTP Conference took place at the Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels on November 13-14, 2018 (cf. the conference programme).

More than 170 stakeholders from the whole construction value-chain and representatives of the European Commission (see list here) shared their experience and discussed how the EU construction industry is shaping a high-tech Sustainable Built Environment. 

Implementation of energy efficiency measures in schools and kindergartens, besides leading to energy savings and reduction of environmental pollution, would also improve the conditions in which children spend much of their time. More so, it would also develop their awareness of the importance of energy efficiency and sustainable development, making them future leaders of the energy transition process, was the message conveyed at the 6th meeting of the Serbian Parliamentary Energy Policy Forum (PFEPS), held under the title Energy Transition for Serbia.

December 5 is UN World Soil Day. The building industry has thus been called to account for its role in the massive use of mineral raw materials and environmental pollution. One solution comes from the bio-construction sector which draws on unlimited sources of natural materials such as hemp, which is a recyclable carbon sequestrator. But how comfortable is it to live in a hemp house?

Involving citizens is the biggest challenge to finalise large-scale energy efficiency works in neighbourhoods. An emblematic story comes from Valladolid, Spain, where “no, we can’t” has become “yes, we can”

Thirty-one apartment buildings comprising 140,000 m2 of floor space: Europe’s most ambitious energy-saving renovation project is transforming Torrelago, a residential district of Valladolid in central Spain.

The UN climate summits, so called COP (Conference of the Parties) are global conferences, in the course of which action for climate policy is negotiated. Poland hosted them twice - in 2008, in Poznań and in 2013, in Warsaw. In December 2018, for the first time, the climate summit will take place in Katowice.

COP24 will be held in Katowice from 3 to 14 December 2018.

Following the invitation by the European Council in March 2018, the Commission's vision for a climate-neutral future covers nearly all EU policies and is in line with the Paris Agreement objective to keep temperature increase to well below 2°C, and pursue efforts to keep it to 1.5°C. For the EU to lead the world towards climate neutrality means achieving it by 2050.

The Energy Management Leadership Awards program for 2019 is now accepting entries. Any organization with an ISO 50001-certified energy management system is invited to enter this global competition, now in its fourth year. Sponsored by the Energy Management Working Group (EMWG) of the Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM), these annual awards highlight leadership and achievement in using energy management systems to accelerate progress toward organizational, national, and global climate goals.