Making non-energy benefits a real asset and changing professionals’ habits: renew the partnership approach through the DECADIESE method

Panel: 1. Foundations of future energy policy

This is a peer-reviewed paper.

Authors:
Stanislas Nösperger, EDF - RD, Département TREE, France
Jean Luc Mazoyer, EDF R&D
Energy in building and territories department, France
Estelle Vitt, Mines Paristech – French Institute for Environmental Engineering and Management, France

Abstract

Meeting the European energy efficiency and carbon emissions targets requires ambitious building projects. Unfortunately a raw energy savings-based payback assessment approach is usually unable to underline the economic relevance of such projects. Benefits beyond energy aspects must therefore be taken into account in an assessment method which estimates a monetized value for each benefit within a larger scope which includes additional stakeholders. Although many extended building assessment methodologies have been developed, they failed to address the following challenges: being considered legitimate by the professionals involved in such projects as well as designing compliant business models which convert the non-energy benefits into original co-financing schemes.

The DECADIESE method was developed over a two-year period starting in 2012 within the framework of a project in part financed by the French research agency. DECADIESE integrates the functional performance of buildings together with environmental and social externalities. This method also helps identify stakeholders likely to become relevant potential partners within a business model giving a financial value to these externalities. It explicitly deals with the challenge of endorsement by professionals in construction and other related sectors, leading to a major change in work routines and modes of cooperation.

This paper briefly presents the method and its supporting concepts and then describes how and when it could be used by professionals. It eventually identifies the main barriers to overcome in order to establish this method as a widely used tool within the construction sector. Beyond raw economic figures and the direct outputs resulting from its application, one of the key added values of DECADIESE, based on feedback from first experience, is the dialogue and mutual understanding it triggers among professionals. The promoted partnership approach could support a tremendous change in cooperation habits within the construction sector and with the clients, which is a key to get energy efficient buildings.