Method for Energy Performance Integration in Corporate Public Real Estate Management

Building-performance assessment is receiving increased attention within the building industry because of the European Union's (EU's) targets to improve energy efficiency and to increase the use of renewable energy technologies. In this context, there is great emphasis placed on the existing building stock as having a huge environmental impact. The continuous assessment of the energy performance of existing buildings comes into focus to ensure the intended performance and operation during the building life cycle. This paper introduces the Energy Performance Integration in Public Corporate Real Estate Management (EPI-CREM) initiative that aims to improve the energy performance and rational use of energy across the public building stock in Europe by embedding energy-saving measures into the existing public corporate real estate management (REM) processes. To this end, EPI-CREM focuses on the integration of energy-improving actions into the long-term maintenance plans of existing buildings. In this paper, the EPI-CREM method and supporting tools are discussed from a functional point of view, followed by an evaluation of the method based on the results of its implementation on pilot buildings in three participating EU countries.