Energy-efficient asset management for professional landlords/profesionaliems nuomotojams: turto valdymas efektyviai vartojant en

ABSTRACT. C[O.sub.2] reduction by means of energy conservation is an important topic in many governmental environmental policies. As new construction accounts for a fraction of the total building stock, the energy performance of existing dwellings is of great importance. Professional landlords can play a major role in energy conservation, but there are indications that the large energy conservation potential in their housing existing stock is only exploited to a minor extent. This paper presents a method to implement the topic energy conservation in the asset management of professional landlords, in order to establish an integration of energy conservation in their maintenance and renovation practice. This method is described in relation to the asset management of Dutch social housing landlords, but may also be useful for other professional landlords. The method takes advantage of the European EPBD (Energy Performance of Buildings Directive).

KEYWORDS: Rented sector; Strategic asset management; EPBD; Label; Energy performance

PROFESIONALIEMS NUOMOTOJAMS: TURTO VALDYMAS EFEKTYVIAI VARTOJANT ENERGIJA

SANTRAUKA

C[O.sub.2] mazinimas taupant energija--svarbi tema daznoje valstybineje aplinkos apsaugos politikoje. Kadangi naujos statybos sudaro tik maza visu pastatu istekliu dalj, jau pastatytu bustu energinis naudingumas labai svarbus. Profesionaliu nuomotoju vaidmuo taupant energija gali buti svarbus, taciau yra zenklu, kad didziulis ju turimu jau pastatytu bustu energijos taupymo potencialas isnaudojamas nedaug. Siame darbe pristatomas metodas, kaip energijos taupymo tema jtraukti j profesionaliu nuomotoju turto valdyma, kad energijos taupymas taptu ju prieziuros ir renovacijos praktikos dalis. Metodo aprasymas remiasi Olandijos socialinio busto savininku turto valdymo praktika, bet jis gali buti naudingas ir kitiems profesionaliems nuomotojams. Metodas pagrjstas Europos EPBD (Direktyva del pastatu energetinio naudingumo).

1. INTRODUCTION

In 1997, the developed nations agreed in the Kyoto Protocol to limit their greenhouse gas emissions. The residential sector accounts for a significant part of the final energy consumption in the European Community and, therefore, the built environment is an important target of the governmental environmental policies resulting from the Kyoto Protocol.

In the Netherlands, much progress has been made in reducing C[O.sub.2] emissions in new construction. However, annual new construction accounts with less than 1% for just a minor part of the total Dutch building stock. The percentage of annual new construction is equally low in other European countries. The existing building stock has a low energy performance caused by poor insulation and inefficient heating systems. The energy consumption in existing dwellings exceeds that of new dwellings by far and, therefore, a large potential in energy conservation is available in the existing building stock.

Professional landlords in the EU own a considerable share of the total housing stock. They could play an important role in fulfilling the commitments concerning the reduction of C[O.sub.2] emissions following the Kyoto protocol, if they improve the energy performance of their housing stock.

Providing affordable housing for lower income groups, by keeping the energy bill for their tenants as low as possible, is in line with the main goals of professional landlords with a social objective. Additionally, improvement of the energy performance of the rented housing stock is an effective means to reduce fuel poverty (Healy and Clinch, 2004).

In spite of the financial barrier that professional landlords face when considering improvement of the energy performance of the stock, a growing number of Dutch social landlords invests in energy conservation. Anticipating on rising energy prices and tightening energy policies, these professional landlords have shifted their focus towards an increase of the market value of an energy efficient housing stock and towards the objective to decrease living costs of the lowest income groups.

Another incentive for professional landlords to invest in energy conservation is related to the enhanced comfort of living that usually results from insulation measures, such as reduced noise, decrease in condense or humidity and reduced cold air flows (Milne and Boardman, 2000; Egenhofer et al., 2006). Furthermore, energy-efficiency improvements in dwellings result in an increase of the overall health level of the dwelling (Milne and Boardman, 2000; Howden-Chapman et al., 2004).

In order to improve the energy performance of their asset efficiently and cost-effectively, professional landlords could incorporate the topic energy conservation in their asset management, thus ensuring an integration of considerations regarding energy conservation in the decision-making process from strategy development down to the operational level. This paper presents a method for professional landlords to integrate energy conservation in their asset management strategies. The method is described in relation to the asset management of Dutch housing associations, which provide the vast majority of the social-rented homes in the Netherlands. However, the method may also be useful for other professional landlords.

The next section will elaborate on the potential for energy conservation in the social rented housing stock. After that, section 3 will go into the EC directive on the energy performance of buildings, which will have a major impact on the activities and strategies of housing associations. In section 4, we describe the outline of strategic asset management and how it can be developed using 'labels' in the decision-making process. Section 5 presents the integration of energy-efficiency and EPBD energy labelling in strategic asset management. Section 6 presents three case studies of housing associations that have adopted energy-efficiency in their asset management and maintenance activities. This paper ends with a discussion and conclusions in section 7.

2. ENERGY CONSERVATION POTENTIAL IN THE RENTED HOUSING STOCK

Commercial and social rented housing accounts for a significant segment of the housing sector in many European countries (Table 1). Depending on their main objective (social or commercial) and the housing system in each country, professional landlords are, to a certain extent, able to develop their housing stock according to their own goals and, therefore, could play a role in the success or failure of the governmental environmental policies.

In the EU-25 countries, the final energy consumption of households accounts for 26% of the total energy use, most of which is used for space heating (Wiesenthal et al., 2006). Consequently, the two main options to reduce energy consumption and C[O.sub.2] emissions in dwellings are insulation of wall, glazing, roof and floor and efficient heating systems (Egenhofer et al., 2006). In particular insulation could be a very cost effective means for energy conservation in housing (Ecofys, 2005; Verbeeck and Hens, 2005). It shows that a significant cost effective energy conservation potential is present in the existing housing stock in the European countries (Petersdorff et al., 2005).

The energy conservation potential can even be high in housing segments that, generally speaking, have a good technical quality. A large part of the Dutch social housing stock, for example, has been built between the Second World War and the 1970s. In general, these homes are well maintained, but the energy performance of these dwellings is relatively low compared to today's standards (Ministry of VROM, 2002). For example, the insulation facilities in the social housing stock have significantly increased in the dwellings built after 1970. Still, from Table 2 we learn that a large energy conservation potential resulting from insulation is available in the Dutch social housing stock. Moreover, the potential is even larger when renewable energy concepts will be implemented in the existing stock on a large scale.

3. THE EC DIRECTIVE ON THE ENERGY PERFORMANCE OF BUILDINGS

A significant development for the energy policy of professional landlords is initiated by the EC in its Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (European Commission, 2003). The EPBD is a crucial part of the EC strategy to comply with the obligations regarding the Kyoto Protocol. Based on the C[O.sub.2] reduction policy of the EC, targets have been set for the building sector. Aiming at building owners, an important objective of the EPBD is to promote the improvement of the energy performance of buildings within the European Community, taking into account outdoor climatic and local conditions, as well as indoor climate requirements and cost-effectiveness.

The member states of the EU have been obliged to implement the directive in their national legislation as from January 2006. Details of the implementation of the EPBD are left to the member states, allowing each member state to choose the regime that best addresses its specific national situation. The EPBD sets no mandatory measures; consequently the baseline for energy performance is current practice according to national policy.

The EPBD prescribes the use of an energy certificate, which gives insight in the current energy performance of a building and presents proposals for improvement of its energy performance. This energy certificate must be supplied at each transaction moment when a dwelling is build, sold or at turnover. Both new and existing buildings must be certificated.

In the Netherlands, the energy certificate prescribed by the EPBD is accompanied by an energy label for dwellings. Following the labelling used in household appliances, the energy label for dwellings has a classification 'A' to 'G', where a dwelling with energy label 'A' has the best energy performance.

Print Get the Mag Weekly Updates