Environmental and health related criteria for buildings - ANEC

IBO - Environmental and Health related Criteria for Buildings
home owners or tenants should at least be informed about the savings potential through
energy-efficient domestic appliances (e.g. via energylabel, user guides, web links etc.).
c) Primary energy demand (restricted to the operational phase)
Delivered energy is an appropriate informative parameter for consumers but not sufficient as
ecological key indicator for the whole energy consumption of the building sector. Important
relevant energy generation processes are excluded from consideration. Energy scarcity and
the upstream processes to generate energy delivered to the final consumer cannot be
neglected. Therefore, it is necessary to include primary energy into a comprehensive building
assessment method. Additionally, the authors recommend to rate renewable and nonrenewable
energy consumption separately, since availability and renewability of resources is
an important ecological aspect. This can be done by rating the primary energy demand of
non-renewable resources or by assessing both the total primary energy demand and the
share of renewable resources.
Primary energy factors for different energy carriers (especially electricity and district heating)
must be consistent and based on the same datasource when assessing buildings within one
rating system. Ranges of production mix (e.g. >70%, > 50%, >35% Combined Heat and
Power) have to be specified.
The highest level to achieve (zero energy/plus energy buildings) need clear distinction and a
stringent definition of the balance boundaries (whether zero energy level will be achieved
within a period of one year or at any time and renewable energy sources on-site/off-site are
taken into account).
d) CO 2 Emissions (restricted to the operational phase)
Apart from causing emissions of pollutants such as SOx, NOx and particulate matter, energy
generation and supply is one of the main sources of carbon-dioxide emissions thus
contributing to man-induced greenhouse effect. Apart from industry production processes
and transport, buildings are the main consumers of energy.
CO 2 based assessments of buildings will be inevitable in future taking into consideration the
European environmental policy.
Not all member states have already implemented a CO 2 calculation method.
In this case the primary energy demand is acceptable as key indicator in order not to cause
extra calculation expense. Where CO 2 indicators are already implemented it is recommended
to add a rating for the CO 2 emissions for assessing the efficiency of climate protection
measures in the building sector. 5
e) NO x emissions, Particulate Matter (restricted to the operational phase)
Minimum requirements for the NO x and Particulate Matter emissions of the heating systems
in regular operation shall be given in an EU-wide Eco-label for buildings.
5 Advantages and disadvantages of using CO 2 as key indicator for product rating (e.g. Product Carbon Footprint)
are broadly discussed in the study ”Quack, D.; Grießhammer, R.; Teufel, J.; Requirements on Consumer
Information about Product Carbon Footprint (ed. Öko-Institut e.V. commissioned by ANEC, Freiburg, 2010)”
Final Report 7 31 03 2011