Why is the EU updating its climate & energy policy?

Over the past two years, the European Commission revised its climate and emissions reductions strategy. Such a move follows the EU’s commitment to meet the Paris Agreement targets and firmly positions the EU as the global leader in climate change mitigation. To further ensure the fulfillment of the Paris Agreement, the European Green Deal was adopted by the European Commission in December 2019, to achieve carbon neutrality in the EU by 2050, with an intermediate target of 55 percent CO2 emissions reduction by 2030. To meet these objectives, the European Commission has committed to revising and updating several EU climate and energy policies.

As part of the European Green Deal, the Commission planned a revision of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD). The directive was originally adopted in 2010 and amended in 2018, to improve the energy performance and increasing rate of renovation of commercial and residential buildings in the EU.

Decarbonizing buildings in the eye of the Green Deal

Buildings are responsible for 40 percent of total energy consumption and 36 percent of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions in the EU. Therefore the European Commission identified buildings as a priority area within the Green Deal initiative and front-loaded the legislative actions on buildings within the 2020-2023 timeframe as part of the roll-out of the Green Deal action plan.

Legislation is one of the most critical tools to drive this decarbonization effort, and several ambitious policies are already in place. For instance, the EPBD is the most comprehensive piece of legislation as it contains energy efficiency requirements for new buildings and following the introduction of energy performance rules in national building codes. Buildings today consume only half as much as typical buildings from the 1980s. Yet, the current level of ambition is deemed not ambitious enough to ensure the EU meet its own milestones on the pathway towards carbon-neutrality and making buildings zero-energy or even positive-energy anytime soon.

The Commission is therefore proposing a set of measures to accelerate the decarbonization of the building stock through:

  • Doubling the renovation rate of existing buildings by 2030 and promoting deep renovations;

  • Improving energy efficiency performance standards to make buildings zero-energy and even energy-positive;

  • Introducing a life-cycle approach for buildings and their overall emissions;

  • Promoting building automation systems to accompany the renovations and making sure the renovated buildings are both sustainable and smart.

How FM can help buildings become smarter & more sustainable

Associations such as IFMA are consulting with EU decision-makers on how the Green Deal can be implemented on a day-to-day basis in the built environment. IFMA has developed and detailed its position on the following aspects:

Greening buildings with FM

IFMA believes that EU energy legislation in buildings should not only focus on the energy efficiency of the buildings and the materials used in the construction phase, but it should look at the building’s energy performance throughout the entire lifecycle. IFMA points to the fact that it is the ongoing operation of existing buildings that ensures not only protection of the initial investment but also helps achieve and sustain major energy savings. Although the EPBD revision appears to be mainly focused on the materials used in the construction phase and their end-of-life usage in demolition phases, IFMA underlines other important aspects of a building’s energy efficiency measurement. Optimized operational management of buildings plays a significant role in making the buildings more energy efficient and this is today already supported by FMs and the data that they collect, analyze and use. To that end, IFMA recommends the Commission to link minimum energy performance standards for renovation to the building’s energy performance over its lifecycle, based on the recommendations and data supplied by facility managers. Furthermore, IFMA recommends that the Commission issues clear guidance that FMs are formally consulted on the building’s energy performance in the preparatory phase of renovation works in existing buildings.

Make buildings smart & people smarter

IFMA supports the Commission’s ambition to increase the smartness rate of buildings. IFMA is convinced that including building automation technologies into the built environment will accelerate the existing building stock’s decarbonization. To enable this, IFMA strongly believes that the integration of digital technologies must be accompanied by fully trained facility managers to manage their integration, operation and repair. FMs are critical players for the management of smart building technologies, and IFMA therefore calls on the Commission to make the Smart Readiness Indicator scheme made mandatory at EU level before 2026.

Increasing visibility & role of FM with EU decision-makers

IFMA strives to promote FM’s crucial role in making buildings more energy efficient and sustainable with decision-makers across the globe. Specifically in Europe, this advocacy effort translates into an increasingly growing recognition by stakeholders of the FM profession, with results in EU pieces of legislation and calls for funding.

The Green Deal initiative has brought IFMA to position FM as Green Deal-makers and help the EU decision-makers to implement their ambitious objectives of making buildings zero- to even positive-energy. There are multiple pathways, such as a lifecycle approach to measure and control buildings emissions from cradle to grave, as well as consulting FM ahead of large renovation projects to identify where sustainability gaps persist.

Throughout 2021, the European Commission has launched a public consultation and organized multiple conferences to discuss the approach for the future EU energy efficiency rules in buildings. IFMA’s Chapters’ enthusiasts were invited to participate in 5 stakeholders’ conferences, on different topics related to EPBD such as: minimum energy performance standards for existing buildings, strengthening buildings information tools (with focus on energy performance certificates), digitalization and data management in buildings and financing and energy poverty. This participation has provided IFMA with great visibility among the EU policy makers and informed the participants on the importance of FM in the future renovations of existing buildings as well as planning of new buildings.

During the workshops, IFMA had a chance to express its position on these topics and exchange with other stakeholders. In relation to the EPBD, IFMA representatives called for

  • linking of minimum energy performance standards for renovation to the building’s energy performance over its lifecycle, based on the recommendations and data supplied by facility managers;

  • the Commission to issue clear guidance that facility managers are formally consulted on the building’s energy performance in the preparatory phase of renovation works in existing buildings;

  • the inclusion of building automation technologies into the built environment;

  • the Commission to make the Smart Readiness Indicator scheme mandatory at the EU level before 2026.

Next steps

All pieces of EU legislation, including the EPBD, become part of national law once the EU decision-making process has been concluded. However, due to the nature of EPBD (i.e. it being a directive), member states can go beyond what is prescribed by the EU. This is why the involvement of Chapter leaders and enthusiasts at national level and in the capitals is equally important to the efforts of IFMA at EU level.

While the Commission has now concluded the stakeholder consultation phase and is currently drafting the proposal for the revised EPBD which is expected for Q4 2021, IFMA is closely monitoring the process and will continue to work with EU decision-makers to ensure the role of FM in making buildings smarter and more sustainable is duly recognized. Only with sufficient FM-friendly provisions in place, national decision-makers will understand the importance the EU has granted to FM and IFMA’s EU efforts and results will be multiplied across all member states where IFMA’s Chapters are active.