Lessons learned from establishing environmental benchmarks for buildings in Switzerland

The Swiss technical bulletin SIA 2040 'SIA-energy efficiency path' defines target values for non-renewable primary energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions for both new and retrofit schools, residential and office buildings. They cover the impacts caused by the construction, operation and dismantling of the building as well as the mobility induced by the building. The study, conducted by Wyss et al. (2014) suggests further target values that cover the overall environmental impacts of buildings by using the ecological scarcity method. The target values were derived from the level of environmental impacts of the current building stock and the need for reducing the actual environmental impacts in Switzerland to reach its policy-based target level. The underlying study tested the performance of over 30 buildings with respect to the target values for non-renewable primary energy demand, greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impacts. Both similarities and differences between the three indicators evaluated were highlighted. A complementary case study further assessed the total environmental impacts of high tech and low tech buildings to reveal the reduction potential in environmental impacts due to improved building design. Three additional office buildings were analysed along with a high tech residential building and compared to the office and residential buildings assessed in Wyss et al. (2014). The buildings vary widely in terms of materialization, technology level, energy standards and heating systems. From the comparison of the buildings insights were gained into the influence of a building's level of technology on its environmental impacts.