Delmastro Chiara, International Energy Agency                            HRSC0067

Supplementary written evidence – Delmastro Chiara, International Energy Agency

Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) – inquiry on Heat resilience and sustainable cooling

• Q44: support to building sector renovation, international examples of one-stop shops, and business models to create an economy of scale  

The Irish National Retrofitting Scheme emphasizes one-stop shops where homeowners can just use one counterpart to completely follow their renovation project, from the energy assessments to application for national grants, project management, etc. A database of registered one-stop-shop providers within Ireland can also be accessed. Such kind of measures can facilitate consumers to undertake renovations as often the bureaucracy to apply for the grant as well as managing the various stakeholders involved (acoustic, energy, structural..) is an additional burden for consumers (in addition to high capex, and invasiveness of some of the interventions). 

As a concept, it is a bit more than a local help desk as it refers to a more complete service – but the services can also be introduced progressively, starting from awareness and information campaigns that have proven to be effective under certain contexts. 

Another example, un-related to Ireland and one-stop-shops/local help desk, but worth exploring is the Energiesprong business model – made possible by this company working together with regulators to create market contexts suitable for large-scale renovation, creating an economy of scale for the applied measures. 

• Q50: integration of passive cooling or alternative to air conditioners within buildings energy standards, or urban planning strategies 

The prioritization (or at least inclusion) of passive technologies or alternatives to air conditioners within buildings' energy standards is prevalently occurring in voluntary standards, for instance:

-          LEED: to achieve such certification(s), certain pre-requisites need to be met and a certain amount of points need to be achieved via several categories including location and transportation, sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials, and resources, indoor environmental quality, innovation, and regional priority. 

-          Passive solutions are favored by some of the accreditation criteria, for instance, there are credits related to daylight and energy savings that require site-appropriate exterior shading solutions. Other criteria exist that also support passive solutions (while resiliency is still under exploration, some links between enhancing resilience and LEED accreditation are also emerging, e.g. related to the reduction of heat islands, and other extreme Heat-Specific design measures)

-          Similarly, ASHRAE 90.1 and 90.2 provide opportunities for designers to include passive cooling solutions (although less stringent compared to LEED)

-          [not related to cooling specifically, but some best practices across buildings energy codes expanding their scope are to be found in this report] 

An interesting example of integrating sustainable cooling measures within broader urban planning practices is represented by the Green Town program of Singapore’s Housing Development Board, a 10-year program to reduce annual energy consumption by public estates by 15 percent by 2030, including strategies to intensify green spaces and prioritize cool coatings.

October 2023