Consumption and the environment (SOER2010) - European ...

Thematic assessment | Consumption and the environment
of 160–210 Mt/year CO 2
across the EU by 2020, 4–5 %
of EU total CO 2
emissions (EC, 2008). However,
substantial potential still remains for further reductions
in energy use in buildings in areas yet to be addressed
by policy. For example, if renovation and refurbishment
of windows, wall insulation and roof insulation were
always performed to the cost-optimal energy efficiency
level, GHG emissions could be reduced by a further
25–30 % with payback periods of 10–15 years (JRC/IPTS,
2009).
In addition, the EU's Lead Markets Initiative (EC, 2007),
especially the initiatives on sustainable construction and
renewable energies, can help to realise eco-innovation
potentials in housing. Actions include, for example,
establishing a network of public authorities in charge of
construction and the widening of European construction
design codes to include sustainability aspects.
Making dwellings more energy-efficient, generally
requires to make them tighter against cold or hot air
from the outside, a measure that might be in conflict
with providing fresh air for the dwellers and prevent
in-door air pollution or mould. However, good planning
and implementation of such measures combined with
information for dwellers about correct airing of highly
energy-efficient buildings can prevent health problems.
Driven by front-running stakeholders from business
and civil society, the technology and designs for
zero‐energy and very low energy housing already exist,
including super-insulated building envelopes, passive
solar heating, cooling and lighting, ventilation and
shower drain heat exchangers, solar water heaters and
photovoltaic panels on roofs. Several hundred houses
have already been built across Europe that meet the
passive house standard for heating demand that is factor
4–5 below normal new built houses (Harvey, 2009).
Other examples of implementation of these technologies
include the solar settlement in Freiburg (Heinze and
Voss, 2009) and the BedZed development in London
(Bioregional, 2009). More ambitious policy targets,
economic incentives, green public procurement and
regulation in Europe could ensure a more rapid
development and uptake of this kind of housing. The
United Kingdom, for example, has a target for all new
housing to be zero carbon by 2016 (ETC/SCP, 2010b)
backed by an exemption from stamp duty land tax
(HM Treasury, 2007).
Household water consumption can be effectively
influenced by water pricing and metering, and the
introduction of metering in households is reaching a
high level of implementation in EU Member States (EEA,
2009) as required by the Water Framework Directive
(EC, 2010c). Water metering and charging by volume has
been shown to influence household behaviour (OECD,
2010). In eastern Europe, water demand has declined
by 40 % since the early 1990s as a result of higher water
prices, and consumption has also decreased in western
Europe, albeit at a slower pace (EEA, 2010f; EEA, 2009).
Figure 5.5 illustrates that household water consumption
has decreased along with increasing water prices in
Spain and Estonia. In Spain, reduction of water use has
been supported by regulatory developments including
regulation on watering gardens and filling of private
swimming pools.
So overall there is substantial potential to improve the
picture for housing through uptake of existing policies
and coupling them with good urban design and spatial
planning. Doing so can deliver a wide range of benefits
through significantly reducing the environmental
impacts of housing on land-take, biodiversity, soil sealing,
materials, water and energy consumption and people's
overall well-being.
Box 5.1 Smart metering
Smart metering of electricity, space heating and gas consumption can help citizens to better control their energy
consumption in the home. A smart meter shows the energy use in the dwelling in a more accessible way, helping
citizens to identify the appliances which use the most energy, and also shows the consequences of energy behaviour,
raising people's awareness of the structure of their energy consumption. The EU's energy market liberalisation package
requires 80% of households to be equipped with smart meters by 2020. Finland, Italy and Sweden have already widely
introduced smart meters for electricity (ESMA, 2010).
Experience from pilot projects in the United States of America shows that smart metering can be made more effective
if combined with smart communication: telling households how efficient they are relative to their neighbours in similar
houses, accompanied by tailored recommendations on how to use less energy led to a reduction of 2–5 % of energy
use whereas smart meters alone had only a limited effect (von Renssen, 2009). An experiment where 'smileys'
were used to communicate above/below average energy consumption showed a much larger effect compared to
information-only communication (Schultz et al., 2007).
34
The European environment | State and outlook 2010