The commitment to promoting sustainable development is underpinned by every nation’s concerted efforts in implementing green building practices in the construction sector.
Globally, buildings and the construction sector account for the largest share of energy-related CO2 emissions at nearly 40%.
CO2 emissions, attributed to the construction sector, are speculated to be much higher due to the large demand for air-conditioning, with buildings accounting for up to 70% of the nation’s total electricity consumption.
This underlines the need to implement energy efficiency measures, which are today increasingly being adopted across the nation in newly constructed buildings.
In fact, as per the Green Building Market Brief 2020, the nation has around 64 million square metres of built-up areas that have deployed local green building regulations or certification programmes.
What is a deep building retrofit?
According to the International Energy Agency and the Rocky Mountain Institute, a deep retrofit is defined as project analysis and construction process by which energy use intensity on-site is reduced by at least 50%, using energy efficiency measures compared to the baseline site energy use intensity.
Instead of focusing on single stand-alone systems such as lighting, HVAC, and building operations, a deep building retrofit focuses on the project as one integrated system to maximise energy savings.
And, despite the apprehensions relating to making existing buildings more energy-efficient, deep retrofits are achievable.
In a survey on deep retrofits, 84% of the respondents, including consultants, suppliers, manufacturers and ESCO experts, agree that over 50% energy savings are possible through deep retrofit.
Sixty per cent of the respondents said they believe that the highest energy savings in building projects is now between 21% and 40%, and over one-third agreed that savings can reach 31%-40%.
However, based on our interactions with Energy Savings Companies (ESCOs), the highest achieved energy savings in their projects are between 45% and 50%, if only Energy Efficiency Measures (EEMs) and Energy Conservation Measures (ECMs) are considered.
Therefore, it is only logical to conclude that reaching up to 50% energy savings is possible even without the use of renewable energy.
This is a realistic target specifically for poor performing projects, a highlighted fact, where there is considerable difference between the best and worst performers, up to two to three times.
For instance, The best performers in hotels consume 58% less energy per area than worst performers. Similar results were reported for malls, schools, and other building typologies.
Should governments mandate retrofit programmes?
Retrofit programmes are voluntary in nature and many experts believe that they should be mandated to accelerate retrofitting market growth. Nearly 90% of ESCOs, consultants, suppliers and manufacturers involved in the survey called for building retrofits to be made mandatory.
Nearly half (45%) of the developers believe that the retrofit market can be accelerated by making energy and/or water performance certificates mandatory for existing buildings. Over one-third (35%) prefer that retrofits be kept voluntary, with more incentives provided.
How can we accelerate the retrofit market?
With the support of regulations and incentives, a decarbonisation roadmap can be realised.
Deep building retrofits can help to meet the global targets set by the World Green Building Council of net zero carbon by 2050.
Considerable effort is needed to achieve this with collaboration among the public and private sectors being crucial for the success of retrofitting initiatives.