Introduction
Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) are often treated as labels: useful at the point of sale, rental or compliance, but sometimes disconnected from what happens next. The revised EPBD asks Member States to go further. Alongside stronger EPCs, it requires national renovation passport (RP) schemes that provide a tailored roadmap for the deep renovation of a specific building, carried out in a maximum number of steps and aligned with the long-term objective of a zero-emission building.
Portugal is well placed to make that transition because it does not need to build the new instrument from scratch. Since 2007, the Portuguese Energy Certification System (SCE) has created an operational ecosystem of qualified experts, calculation tools, quality-control processes, a representative national database and detailed renovation recommendations and identification of multiple benefits. EPC information is already used beyond certification, including understanding the building stock, supporting renovation programmes and connecting citizens with advisory services, amongst others.
The next logical step is being taken by integrating the EPC and RP: the EPC establishes the verified baseline; the RP, issued with the EPC, converts recommendations into a coherent, staged pathway; and digital services, financing the existing national network of one-stop shops help turn that pathway into investment. Portugal’s experience in EU-funded projects – particularly iBRoad2EPC – shows how this can work technically and institutionally, while also revealing the remaining challenges of affordability, interoperability, quality and market uptake.
From a certificate to implementation infrastructure
A credible EPC is more than a rating and should include a structured assessment of the building, its envelope and technical building systems, supported by an on-site visit and issued by a qualified expert. When aggregated in a national database, EPCs also become an implementation infrastructure: they help authorities characterise the building stock, identify common renovation needs, design and monitor support schemes, and follow progress towards national targets.
In Portugal, this infrastructure is already data-rich: the SCE has issued more than 2.5 million EPCs, mobilises over 2,500 qualified experts and holds around 600 million data points covering up to 300 variables per building, including geo-information, building identification, envelope characteristics, ventilation, technical building systems, energy balance and improvement measures.
Figure 1. Portuguese EPC ecosystem and multiple benefits, uses and purposes.
This foundation matters because the new EPBD instruments are interdependent. EPCs support minimum energy performance standards, residential renovation trajectories, national building renovation plans (NBRPs), financing, databases and policy monitoring. If the EPC, the RP, the smart readiness indicator (SRI) and the future digital building logbook are implemented as separate administrative layers, professionals may repeat site visits, collect the same data several times and transfer information manually. The result would be higher costs, inconsistent outputs and lower trust. Integration offers the opposite: collect reliable data once, reuse it for several purposes and present a coherent journey to the owner.
What the renovation passport adds
An EPC describes the present state and recommends improvements whilst an RP adds time, sequence and ambitious targets. It transforms a list of measures into a long-term roadmap showing what should be done, when it should be done, how each step should prepare for the next, and how the building can ultimately reach the national target. This sequencing is critical: insulating a roof, replacing a heating system or renovating a façade without considering later measures can create technical incompatibilities, oversizing or avoidable rework – the lock-in effects that staged renovation must prevent.
Given the current development of the Portuguese EPC ecosystem, the concept is therefore ‘one document, two purposes’. The EPC remains the baseline assessment and disclosure instrument. The RP becomes its forward-looking layer, organising measures into progressive steps and connecting them to future requirements, including the zero-emission building objective and, where relevant, minimum energy performance requirements. The same document can serve homeowners by clarifying choices and serve public policy by structuring comparable information on planned renovation pathways.
In practical terms, the Portuguese concept is to move from a single EPC with a list of recommended measures to one integrated EPC+RP, issued by the same expert through the same portal, using one data entry process to generate both the certificate and a graphical staged roadmap towards zero-emission building performance. Whenever an EPC is issued, an RP is embedded, not attached.
Figure 2. An integrated EPC+RP pathway.
The value proposition should also go beyond calculated energy savings. The Portuguese EPC already distinguishes energy benefits from non-energy benefits, including prevention of building pathologies, ease of implementation, thermal and acoustic comfort, indoor air quality, safety, renewable-energy use and visual quality. These factors often matter more to occupants than abstract performance indicators. Making them more visible can improve the relevance of advice within the EPC and RP, but they must be communicated consistently and without creating an excessively complex or expensive assessment.
Figure 3. Additional non-energy benefits as currently disclosed for each improvement measure in the EPC. The benefits associated with the selected improvement measure, in this case window replacement, are highlighted in black.
The full list of additional benefits and related codes is available in the next table:
Table 1. List of additional benefits already detailed in the current version of the Portuguese EPC that should support RP integration.
Why integration is well placed in Portugal
Portugal is well placed to pursue this approach for four practical reasons. First, the institutional backbone already exists. ADENE manages the SCE under national governance arrangements, supported by qualified experts, software and a significant national EPC database. An RP integrated with that ecosystem can build on existing roles and quality processes instead of creating a competing profession, registry and digital channel.
Second, the data overlap is substantial. The EPC already contains much of the information needed to establish the RP baseline and identify improvement measures. During the iBRoad2EPC project, an Extensible Markup Language (XML) interlink with the Portuguese EPC software was developed and tested. It allowed existing EPC information to feed the iBRoad2EPC Assistant automatically, including mapped improvement measures and related descriptions, costs and energy savings. This demonstrated a concrete route to reducing additional data entry and assessor effort.
Third, Portuguese EPC recommendations are already comparatively developed. The iBRoad2EPC national work positioned the Portuguese model close to the EPC end of the EPC-to-passport spectrum: the passport should add the staged roadmap and selected modules without imposing a disproportionate cost.
Fourth, the passport can connect to a wider delivery ecosystem. Portugal already has digital and hybrid support services, including the Portal casA+ platform and the Espaço Energia physical one-stop-shop network. Linking an RP to advisory services, funding opportunities and qualified professionals would help prevent it becoming a static report. The policy objective should be a continuous journey: assessment, planning, financing, implementation and update.
The final layout and methodology are nevertheless still subject to the national legislative and consultation processes and the ongoing development of detailed technical regulations for the transposition of the EPBD. Portugal has already limited support for fossil-fuel boilers and presented the draft NBRP, assessed by the European Commission in July 2026. In the Portuguese NBRP draft, the section on policies and measures identifies Passaportes de Renovação dos Edifícios (Buildings’ Renovation Passports) as one of the instruments to support renovation planning and implementation, linking the passport to staged renovation pathways and to the broader set of EPBD delivery tools. This means the draft NBRP already positions RPs as part of Portugal’s renovation-planning toolbox, while the final plan and national transposition process will define how this instrument is operationalised, governed and linked to financing and delivery services.
EU projects as an implementation laboratory
EU-funded projects have helped Portugal test choices before embedding them in regulation. Their main contribution is not a ready-made national scheme, but reusable evidence, tools and capacity.
iBRoad2EPC: proving the EPC-to-passport bridge
iBRoad2EPC integrated core RP features into existing EPC schemes and tested the approach in Bulgaria, Greece, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Spain. Its basic module creates an individual, long-term renovation strategy; additional modules can cover energy demand, costs, indoor environmental quality, smart readiness and measured performance. The semi-flexible design combines a common core with country-specific content, timings and target levels.
Figure 4. An example of a Portuguese integrated EPC+RP layout from the iBRoad2EPC project.
Note: this is not the foreseen layout of the RP currently under development in Portugal. It supported testing and data interoperability and provided inspiration for the new instrument.
The project’s field test trained 202 energy experts across six pilot countries. Of the participants, 86% saw potential in merging iBRoad2EPC and EPCs, and 91% said they would offer the service to clients. These are cross-country results rather than Portuguese market statistics, but they indicate professional acceptance of the integrated concept. In Portugal, testing also generated practical feedback on layouts, usability, national adaptation and interoperability. More than 30 SRI assessments were carried out through the Portuguese iBRoad2EPC work, and the XML connection showed how existing EPC data could be reused.
The project also highlighted constraints. Extra effort and price must remain proportionate; costs could not be fully imported automatically in the tested workflow; external SRI and indoor-environment tools needed further adaptation; and issuing a roadmap does not ensure that renovation works are financed or correctly delivered. These lessons are as valuable as the technical prototype because they identify the conditions for scale.
A wider EU project portfolio for coherent EPBD delivery
Other projects where ADENE participated reinforce different parts of the same architecture. X-tendo tested new EPC features, including indoor-environment information later used in iBRoad2EPC. SRI2MARKET supported tools, training and the Portuguese SRI test phase. EPBD.wise has focused on practical transposition and implementation, including the relationship between EPCs, RPs, databases, quality control and NBRPs.
Together, these projects have supplied data mappings, indicators, software concepts, training material, stakeholder forums, field-test evidence and policy recommendations. Portugal’s advantage is that this learning has involved organisations close to national implementation. The next step is to select and institutionalise the elements that fit the Portuguese framework.
Five priorities for a scalable Portuguese scheme
- One verified baseline. Reuse EPC data and the on-site assessment wherever technically valid, while defining which additional information the RP genuinely requires.
- A staged, target-aligned roadmap. Specify measures in the correct sequence, account for future steps and align the final destination with national building-stock objectives.
- Proportionate depth. Combine a robust common core with optional modules. The information provided should match the building’s complexity, the owner’s readiness and the decision being supported.
- Interoperable digital services. Use common identifiers, structured data and clear access rules so EPCs, RPs, future logbooks, SRI assessments, support schemes and monitoring systems can exchange information securely.
- A route from advice to action. Connect the RP to one-stop shops, qualified professionals, financing and follow-up. Monitor not only passports issued but renovation decisions, completed steps and outcomes.
Quality and trust underpin all five priorities as the roadmap must be technically credible, understandable to non-specialists and updatable when the building, regulation or owner’s circumstances change. Professional training will therefore be as important as software. Data protection, governance and independent control must also be designed into the scheme from the outset.
Lessons for other Member States
Portugal’s experience offers a transferable message: start from the strongest operational instrument already in place. Where the EPC scheme has reliable data, trained assessors and recognised processes, integrating the RP can reduce duplication and accelerate uptake. Where EPC quality is weaker, integration should be paired with reform of data collection, recommendations and control systems; attaching a roadmap to an unreliable baseline will not create trust.
Integration does not mean that every passport must have the same depth. A modular model can support broad access while reserving more detailed analysis for complex buildings or owners ready to invest. Still, one should bear in mind that integration alone will not trigger renovation. RPs become effective when the technical roadmap is connected to finance, advice and delivery capacity. In that sense, the real innovation is not a new document; it is a coordinated workflow built around the building and its user to deliver the personalised support the user needs.
Conclusions
Portugal has a credible route from certification to renovation action. Its mature EPC ecosystem, particularly its detailed improvement recommendations, can provide the baseline, data, professional capacity and market recognition needed for the RP. The RP can then add what the certificate lacks: a sequenced, forward-looking pathway that avoids lock-in, makes energy and non-energy benefits visible, and connects each building with long-term national objectives. EU projects, especially iBRoad2EPC, have already tested key elements of this integration and exposed the remaining gaps. If Portugal converts that evidence into a proportionate, interoperable and service-linked national scheme, one integrated document can serve two purposes: disclose today’s performance and guide tomorrow’s renovation.
