Energy efficiency: Green economy's neglected stepchild?

Is efficiency becoming like the weather, in that everyone talks about it but nobody does anything about it?

Europe has ambitious 2020 climate and energy goals — a 20 percent reduction in primary energy use, a 20 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions and 20 percent of energy coming from renewable sources — but it isn’t improving as much as it should be in some areas. That’s particularly true when it comes to making buildings more energy efficient, which is all but a no-brainer for better sustainability.

“Buildings are responsible for 40 percent of Europe’s energy-related greenhouse gas emissions, so overhauling their energy efficiency represents the greatest opportunity for energy saving and greenhouse gas reduction,” says Bruce Tofield, an associate consultant at the University of East Anglia’s Adapt Low Carbon Group.

Radically improving the energy efficiency of buildings is vital for cutting global greenhouse gas emissions, write Tofield and colleague Martin Ingham in a new report published by the Build with CaRe consortium. And Europe could lead the way by aiming for a 40-percent cut in primary energy demand by 2050 and making building efficiency a key strategy for achieving that goal, they say.

“At present, across most of the EU, the political will to act on energy efficiency seems to be lacking,” they write in “Refurbishing Europe: An EU Strategy for Energy Efficiency and Climate Action Led by Building Refurbishment.”

“Energy efficiency has delivered far more greenhouse gas saving in recent decades than has been, or will be, achieved by transformation of energy supply,” they continue. “Yet energy efficiency is still relatively ignored by governments compared to energy supply.”

It’s not that we don’t know how to make buildings far more energy-efficient. Passivhaus innovations, which were first developed in Europe, could not only help to dramatically cut energy use but could improve the quality of life for many people who currently live in inefficient buildings, Tofield and Ingham say.

Brian Smithers, business development director at the electrical supply distributor Rexel UK, which has developed a sustainable home at the BRE Innovation Park, agrees. He adds that more needs to be done to educate people about the hows and whys of energy efficiency.

“Yes, the targets suggested by Build with CaRe are ambitious, but in terms of technology we have everything we need to radically improve the energy efficiency of new and existing buildings,” Smithers says. “It’s a lack of awareness that is really hampering greater energy efficiency as neither consumers nor even sometimes people in the industry have access to the information they need.”

Current policies, standards and incentives aren’t always effective, Tofield and Ingham say. For example, the UK’s standards for zero-carbon homes after 2016 aren’t strong enough to ensure that homes will actually be zero-carbon. Such weak standards not only contribute to ongoing greenhouse gas emissions but reduce the benefits expected from the development of renewable energy and could actually lead to poor ventilation and air-quality problems for homeowners.

In the case of the UK’s weakened zero-carbon standards, the changes were made in the mistaken notion that easing regulations will stimulate the struggling economy, Tofield and Ingham say.

“Such thinking is misguided,” they continue. “Weakening of standards disadvantages the innovators that are the only hope for a competitive, prosperous, green economy in favour of businesses that are reluctant to change or to innovate. The weakening of environmental standards ensures that the economy will be weaker in the future and less competitive than it could be.”

Instead, they say, governments need to set effective targets — and specified actions — for energy efficiency, invest in training and skills development on passivhaus standards, and start thinking in innovative ways about how to financially support “deep” refurbishment.

Of course, governments will actually have to listen to reports like this first. Here’s hoping …