Introducing (energy) design processes into Austria’s largest public real estate company

Panel: 5A. Cutting the energy use of buildings: Projects and technologies

This is a peer-reviewed paper.

Authors:
Gerhard Hofer, e7 Energie Markt Analyse GmbH, Austria
Gerhard Hofer, e7 Energie Markt Analyse GmbH, Austria
Dirk Jäger, Bundesimmobiliengesellschaft m. b. H.
Klemens Leutgöb, e7 Energie Markt Analyse GmbH

Abstract

The BIG holding is one of Austria’s largest public real estate companies. It owns roughly 2.800 public buildings (schools, universities, administration buildings). Given the high amount of real estate assets a considerable number of major renovation projects need to be implemented each year. Refurbishment projects with an energy performance going beyond the building code requirements, however, are difficult to accomplish due to conventional planning processes and strict investment budgets.

Given the fact that EPBD requires public building owners to take a front-runner position in energy efficient refurbishment of building stock BIG has started the BIGMODERN initiative, which aims at introducing integrated (energy) design processes in daily practice in order to achieve high levels of energy performance and sustainability in building refurbishment. BIGMODERN consists of the following core elements:

1) Establishment of two large demonstration projects as basis for developing and training major elements of integrated (energy) design “on the job”;

2) Transferring the experiences gathered from the demonstration projects to key actors in the organization;

3) Introducing a standard of energy monitoring for quality assurance during building operation (target-performance comparison).

The BIGMODERN programme started in the 2009. In the meantime the construction process of the first demonstration project has been completed, whereas the second demonstration project is in the phase of detailed design. In addition, also the transfer process to key actors in planning processes is already well advanced. The paper gives a comprehensive insight into the results achieved and the lessons learned so far. Furthermore, the paper shows that a successful integrated design process must go beyond energy performance including also life-cycle cost assessment and sustainability certification issues in a well-structured way covering the whole design process.