Sustainable construction: a package of services for success

Adequate architecture, using local materials – wood and stone – that comply with the passive house standard: these will be the characteristics of public buildings, in particular schools and municipal centres, of the future. But is it possible to achieve sustainable constructions in climatic zones as diverse as the Arctic Circle and the Mediterranean?

With 28 pilot buildings completed over the past three years, the MountEE project, which has just ended, has shown how to achieve this.

From 2018, according to EU regulations, all new and renovated public buildings will have to have near-zero energy consumption. The know-how and the technique are not lacking, but the municipalities need to be supported at the level of implementation.

Since 2012, with the help of experts, construction and renovation strategies have been improved in six European mountain regions participating in the MountEE project, resulting in better energy efficiency, more renewable energy and sustainability. 28 pilot buildings, among others the new town hall of Kiruna in Sweden, the new house of the Regional Natural Park of the Catalan Pyrenees in France and a school in Sagrado in Italy, have been built and renovated in this way.

The package of services for sustainable construction

The key to success lies in a holistic, professional and structured procedure accompanying the entire construction process, from programming to design and implementation. You can easily get lost there. The Austrian Land of Vorarlberg has many years of experience in the field of sustainable construction and renovation.
Based on this model, a package of services was therefore developed in all regions, thanks to which pilot buildings were renovated or built.

The “bouquet of services for sustainable construction in the municipalities” contains five modules: from a preliminary dialogue to the delivery and monitoring of the building, the municipalities and architects benefit from the assistance of a team of experts – in particular specialists in bioclimatic design or environmental advisers – from the energy sector, eco-construction, public procurement procedures or quality assurance. Thus, through well-designed planning, optimization of the building envelope and efficient and continuously controlled heating and ventilation techniques, energy and operating costs can be reduced by up to 80%.

In Rhône-Alpes, this package of services is supported in Savoie by ASDER and in Isère by AGEDEN.

Mutual Learning

The pilot regions participating in the MountEE project – Norbotten and Dalecarlia in Sweden, Friuli-Venezia Giulia in Italy, Rhône-Alpes and Pyrenees in France and Vorarlberg in Austria – have shown that municipalities with adequate support can acquire knowledge very quickly -do and the experience necessary for the realization of sustainable constructions and renovations.

Here is what Sabine Erber, project partner at the Vorarlberg Energy Institute, thinks: “Regions with a strong culture of sustainable construction building at a much lower cost than regions that have just started this process. Thanks to the exchanges of experience carried out within the framework of the project, the less experienced regions learned from certain mistakes made by the others, which enabled them to reach their goal more quickly.”

In addition, the creation of local cooperation networks in the pilot regions was decisive for the success of the project. During regular meetings bringing together the main stakeholders in the construction process – site managers, energy managers, elected officials, architects and donors – long-term strategies and measures were discussed and implemented in pressing on the pilot buildings.

The MountEE project has benefited from three-year funding (2012-2015) granted by the European Union under the “Intelligent Energy for Europe” (IEE) Programme. Since 2003, this Program has supported organizations wishing to improve the sustainable use of energy and is part of a long-term strategy aimed at defining the energy future. The EIA supports efforts to improve energy efficiency and renewable energy strategies. The EU’s energy objectives for 2020 are targeted: 20% reduction in greenhouse gases, 20% improvement in energy efficiency and 20% share of renewable energies in total consumption.

More information:

• Succeed in your sustainable building project – Service offer to local authorities – PDF, March 2015
• mountee.eu/de/infoservice/press

Contacts:
Etienne VIENOT, Rhônalpénergie-Environment, etienne.vienot@raee.org
Laurent CHANUSSOT, Rhônalpénergie-Environnement, laurent.chanussot@raee.org