Besides the headaches of keeping the energy bill feasible in the short term, patrimony managers today are also awake to long-term questions such as, "How can we become CO2 neutral by 2050?" and "Is it still worth investing in our current buildings? Ingenium already offered answers to a government institution that had its extensive patrimony screened.
To have an objective consideration framework, we use the definition used by VEKA in the context of launching the mandatory EPC for non-residential buildings:
'A carbon-neutral building is a building whose CO2 emissions are reduced to zero by reducing its energy needs and ensuring that the remaining energy needs are met by renewable energy sources. It is a building whose measured total energy use in use phase is covered by renewable energy sources.'
Metering is done at the building or site level and takes into account both regulated consumption (hvac, lighting,...) and unregulated (elevators, data centers, electric mobility,...).
Buildings that no longer comply with the European E-label in the future will decrease in value. Patrimony managers would therefore do well to intervene in time. One question that should certainly be asked in this regard is whether it still makes sense to take energy measures, or not.
Ingenium, in collaboration with Freestone, made that analysis for a government agency with many dozens of buildings spread throughout Flanders. The starting point was the existing situation. A good location and accessibility of each building were a basic condition. Then the structural condition and the state of the techniques were charted. On the basis of this information, the decision was made in each case to either invest further in the building or to abandon it in due course (sale, rental, concession, long lease).
If it was decided to keep the building, a detailed study followed. We did an energy audit and then proposed energy-saving measures such as insulating the building envelope, making adjustments to the heat delivery system to use heat pumps and installing solar panels. For each building and for each measure, we calculated the CO2 reduction. This gives each building a score that makes comparison possible.
A multi-year investment plan was also linked to this. Plotted on a timeline (Figure A), it quickly became clear in which years the largest investments should be planned, and what effect they will have on CO2 reduction. All the buildings were also brought together in a 'heatmap' where the score each building received is set against the cost per m² of measures to achieve CO2 neutrality (Figure B - Cost Driven) or against the residual value based on the CO2. The redder the zone the building is in, the worse it scores, and therefore the greater the investments will have to be (Figure B) or the greater the residual value.
To map the risk of "economic obsolescence" of patrimony due to climate change, we at Ingenium use the CRREM (Carbon Risk Real Estate Monitor), developed by the EU. Based on various parameters, the CRREM determines how much a building - and, when added together, the entire patrimony - is worth today and in the future, as a function of ever-increasing sustainability expectations.
These data can also be represented in a very visual way. In each case, the 'stranding point' is crucial: the moment when your building performs as this type of building should perform if it complies with the increasingly stringent targets for CO2 reduction - the green line in Figure C. If no effort is made to modernize - 'retrofit' - the building, the market value will continue to decline after this stranding point.
Ingenium has years of knowledge and various tools to map out the energy sustainability (or lack thereof) of patrimony, to propose measures on the path to carbon neutrality and to pour these investments into a realistic multi-year plan. The fact that the Flemish government also wants to screen its own patrimony proves that this is a hot topic. Do not hesitate to contact us for more information.
Want to know more about how your patrimony can become carbon neutral by 2050? Contact Nico De Roeck at 050 40 45 30 or nico.deroeck@ingenium.be.
More background on the Road to Carbon Neutrality can also be found here.
