The GRO, the sustainability meter for buildings developed by the Flemish government, recently received an update. One of the novelties is that a section on smart buildings and technologies was added. For its elaboration, the government called on Ingenium.
'Smart buildings' is a very broad concept, which can be viewed from various angles, such as comfort, visualization of applications, BIM, but also energy. Since the GRO itself focuses mainly on the energy aspect, we were asked to find an appropriate indicator to measure the intelligence of building installations and help shape this criterion. We recommended using the Smart Readiness Indicator (SRI) for this purpose. This was developed within the framework of the EPBD, the 'manual' of the European Commission with which the member states write their energy guidelines and in which the EPB/EPC is also included.
As of 2021, the SRI was made available to the Member States to be tested on the basis of concrete cases and to collect feedback in function of possible adjustments. Although the implementation of the SRI in the legislation of the member states is currently not mandatory, we notice that Europe - in order to meet the agreed climate objectives - is starting to put some more pressure on. For example, large non-residential buildings (with thermal capacity greater than 290 kW) have been required to have a building management system for some time. By 2030, the threshold will even be lowered to 70 kW.
Regulations on the SRI will follow this line and from 2025 the use of the SRI will become mandatory in large non-residential buildings (with a thermal power greater than 290 kW). The member states have until May 2026 to integrate the regulations (i.e. the obligation SRI >290kW) into local regulations. One more reason to use just this tool in the story of the Flemish GRO sustainability meter.
The SRI consists of 'services' or services - such as how heating controls work - that are categorized into 'domains' such as heating, domestic hot water, ventilation, lighting and monitoring & control, among others. Each effort in these services is scored and generates a result in a list of 'impact criteria' that includes energy savings, convenience, comfort, wellbeing & health and maintenance & fault prediction.
To make the SRI even more accessible, the approach for the criterion in the GRO was shifted to impact criteria. While this may seem complicated, in practice the usage is simple and visually appealing. The user selects (at least 3) impact criteria that are targeted for their building. Efficient energy use is an important criterion for most stakeholders but, for example, the focus on wellbeing & health of the users in a modern office building is becoming increasingly important. The building must also be easy to use (convenient) to make the workplace attractive. From the choice of these impact criteria, the tool immediately shows which services in which areas have an impact on this criterion, and objectives can be formulated and choices made.
The GRO aims to be useful in all phases of a building's life. Therefore, the tool is divided into 4 versions: for the preliminary design phase (what are the needs in this project?), for the final design (what concepts are needed to realize those needs?), for tendering and delivery (what must the technology be able to do to achieve the objectives?). So the concept is to go from initial ideas to finished building ever further refining, filling things in and calculating. In this way, the GRO is a "facilitator of the thought process.
Score
Like the comparable sustainability metric BREEAM, the GRO assigns scores. In this case it is 'good', 'better' and 'excellent'. Good' is awarded to those who use the GRO criterion of 'smart technologies' to at least think about how their building can be made more sustainable. For 'better' a basic level is expected: achieving a sufficiently high level on at least 50 percent of the parameters. To achieve an "excellent" score, extra efforts are required. The expectation there is to achieve 70 percent on the basic services and 5 bonus points in the freely selectable criteria in the list of services. A building with the Excellent label has thus given much more thought to whether the technical installations in the building are not only sustainable, but also controlled and managed in a sustainable manner.
At Ingenium, we find the SRI not only an interesting tool to apply to a new building design and refine it as we go along. It is also a useful tool to quickly screen an existing building and see where there are opportunities for improvement. For example, users may find that their building lags in convenience and is not easy to use. The quick screening with the SRI in the GRO will immediately reveal which aspects are to blame. Then a course of action can be developed to make improvements.
Want to know more about the GRO and what its added value can be for your building(s)? Then contact our expert Nico Vandewiele: nico.vandewiele@ingenium.be - 050 40 45 30.
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