Website: www.suden.org/english/actions_projects/factor4.php

Case Study (76 Kb PDF)

Summary

The Factor 4 project (2006-2008) is supported by the Executive Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation ("EACI") in the SAVE programme. It follows the Sustainable Development World Strategy worked out in Johannesburg in 2002 and its results are:

1. An operational innovative tool (the Factor 4 models) for a life cycle energy cost approach (LCEC) for optimising social housing retrofitting programmes towards:
   • a sustainable strategic management of the building stock of any social owner,
   • a sustainable policy for social housing at the territorial scale (neighbourhood, city, region, country),
2. Recommendations for all the actors concerned (social owners but also local authorities, public administration and banks), illustrated by the identification of (technical and non technical) problems and by demonstration actions.

First a typology (deliverable 3) was set up, then also a demolition scenario has been set out in order to identify the social housing buildings which will still be there in 2030-2050. Using renewable energy, their energy efficiency will be improved by a minimum of 30 % in a short term and even more in a long term in order to participate to the reduction of greenhouse effect gas (GEG) emission by a factor 4 before 2050 (deliverable 4).

After a survey of existing tools available (deliverable 5), LCEC models were worked out according to the social owners wishes (deliverable 5 in English and 8 in national languages) and each of them was tested and validated through a lot of case studies (deliverable 9 in national languages). A synthesis of the case studies in each country and a factor 4 optimisation has been set up for some of these case studies in order to identify the energy and GEG saving potential (deliverable 7).

A first draft of an Energy Efficient Technologies data base including economic data has been set up (deliverable 6), an analysis of barriers is ongoing (deliverable 11), elements for a national strategy have been suggested (deliverable 10, both in English and in national languages) and demonstration actions (best practices and best policies or strategies) are also ongoing (deliverable 14).

At last, a final synthesis (Factor 4 Brochure) will be available at the end of the project (July 2008).

Results

The approach and its philosophy are usable everywhere in Europe but the Factor 4 model cannot be the same for all the European countries. At the end of the project, Factor 4 models for a life cycle energy cost analysis (integrating greenhouse gas effect emissions as an externality) are available for 3 countries:

• the ASCOT model (Assessment of Sustainable Construction and Technology cost) worked out by Cenergia for Denmark,
• the BREA model (Building Retrofitting Energy efficiency Assessment) worked out by Ricerca & Progetto for Italy
• the SEC model (Sustainable Energy Cost) worked out by La Calade for France. This model has specific regional versions for taking into account the various prices and technologies. French social owners want now to get an official label for the model and to add the mention of the year on each model in order to improve the official version to be used every year.

The Factor 4 project was only the first step of an innovative approach which should be improved and used at various scales and in each European country. And the Factor 4 partners have already written new proposals for the European Commission calls for tenders.

All the deliverables are available on the web site.