Promoting Healthy and Energy Efficient buildings in the EU

Ireland and other EU member states and their indigenous construction industries have, for some time now, been developing and implementing measures to make every aspect of the building’s energy use as efficient as possible. This is, in part, due to the need to adhere to EU directive Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) 2010/31/EU and this is being approached, with the comfort, safety and productivity of the end users.

At Varming Consulting Engineers, we understand the need to embrace new technologies in the field of sustainable design and whilst we realise that there is a legal requirement to implement the type of measures required, especially with upcoming changes to the Building Regulation Part L for “Nearly Zero Energy Building (NZEB) requirements.

The process of change needed across the whole of the EU faces a number of challenges along the way, not least of which is the different stages of progress at which each member state currently sits. For instance, some member states have adopted a minimum standard of ventilation, whereas others have yet to. Some focus on the safety and comfort of its employees, whereas others do less so and some member states have no minimum ventilation requirement. Some states are most certainly on track to hit the EU’s targets, whilst others are some way behind.

The ultimate EPBD 2010/31/EU directive energy target requirements, carbon performance requirements and consequent renewables energy input requirement is a challenging target for design teams on all building developments going forward.  With ever advancing renewable and energy efficient technologies coming available on the market, such legislative targets will ultimately drive collaborative innovation and cooperation between building designers in a single unified direction.