CESBA Policy Paper: Towards a Common Sustainable Building Assessment in Europe

CESBA, Common European Sustainable Building Assessment, is a common initiative towards promoting the harmonisation of sustainable building assessments for public buildings throughout Europe. The inducement of CESBA is the perception of the variety of sustainable building certification systems in European regions and the need to find a common framework for building assessments.

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CESBA stands for Common European Sustainable Building Assessment and is a common initiative towards promoting the harmonisation of sustainable building assessments for public buildings throughout Europe. The inducement of CESBA is the perception of the variety of sustainable building certification systems in European regions and the need to find a common framework for building assessments.

The CESBA initiative started in 2011 when actors from different EU projects found that the high number of building assessment systems in Europe were leading to proliferation, confusion among the actors and a very fragmented sustainable construction market. The vision of CESBA is “A Europe where a high quality living in a sustainable built environment is the common standard practice.” CESBA has also a Mission statement.

CESBA follows principles:

  1. Collective, holistic approach towards European building assessment through harmonized indicators
  2. Support of initiatives for user friendly incentive systems, regulations and laws
  3. Dissemination of CESBA through approved processes (e.g. trainings)
  4. Certifications harmonized by CESBA reach a high number of constructions in Europe.