Moderated by Andrei Vladimir Litiu, Executive Director at EPB Center, the session involved relevant names in the field of building performance assessment that largely contributed to raise awareness of the need of a transparent, holistic and evidence-based approach for building certification, cost-optimality or financing purposes, as well as opening a constructive exchange that aims to be sustained after EUSEW 2022.

Quentin de Hults, Director Green & Healthy Buildings at ECI begun his presentation quoting Lord Kelvin: “If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it”.

De Hults stated that, in the context of EPBD, only what is modelled could improve its performance. He explained that it needs to be assured that the Building Performance Assessment method is “Sufficiently close to reality, is holistic, is transparent, is applied consistently and is based on published data”.

EPBD 2021 recast

On his intervention Pau Garcia Audi, Policy Officer at DG ENER, highlighted the importance of the topic and how it would grow during the next revision of the EPBD.

García Audi explains how, in the EPBD 2021 recast, a number of changes in the methodology have been proposed intending to give respond to different articles of the EPBD as the improvement of the Minimum Energy Performance requirements, the need to have the Cost Optimal methodology, the energy performance certificate and, overall, the need to demonstrate that “Whatever we invest in buildings actually results in an increasing energy performance”.

He ended the intervention emphasizing the importance of calculation methodology as it is in the centre of the EPBD.

“Whatever we invest in buildings actually results in an increasing energy performance” (Pau García Audi)

Dick van Dijk, EPB Expert at EPB Center, answered the question of why is important to have and use the set of EPB Standards, explaining that “The energy performance calculation methodology is not only de calculation method itself but common definitions and the assumed outdoor and indoor conditions”.

He also explained the importance of benchmark reference value to give a meaning to the resulting EP value.

In the final intervention, Hélène Sibileau, Senior Policy Advisor at BPIE gives answer, during her dissertation, to 4 key questions about cost-optimality:

• Why is cost-optimality important?
• What are current limitations?
• What key quality principles should we keep in mind?
• What are possible ways forward in the EPBD revision?

At the end of the 4 keynote speeches a Panel discussion, moderated by Rémi Collombet, Senior EU Affairs Officer at EuroACE, took place.

Bonnie Brook from eu.bac/EU-ASE, Quentin de Hults from ECI, Henk Kranenberg from EPEE and Alain Zarli from ECTP exchanged a relevant and fruitful conversation that we invite you to follow.