PAS-E. Building Renovation Passport

Proposal

The project is a response to the sector’s demand for the need to develop a new high quality, technical and reliable instrument, capable of integrating the different existing tools and seals, and that enables to accelerate the energy renovation of buildings in accordance with Directive (EU) 2018/844.

Objectives

The main objective of the Building Passport is to increase the quality of renovated buildings with a holistic vision, to improve living conditions and reduce environmental impact throughout its life cycle. It is, therefore, an individualised plan for each building that holistically considers the three areas related to the improvement of habitability: the technical quality of the construction systems and installations, the functional quality of the dwellings and the efficiency in the use of resources, especially energy and water.

In this sense, the intention of the document is not so much to provide a perfectly defined model, but to open a debate at national level on the opportunity to take advantage of the European impulse to accelerate urban regeneration in Spain.

Approach

The approach proposed by CICLICA and GBCe is to establish a first definition of the Building Passport as a basis for discussion among all the actors involved in Spain.

The PAS-E – Building Passport Spain is an instrument that accompanies the community throughout the process of deep staged renovation. Its purpose is to diagnose the current state, set objectives over time, plan coordinated transformation actions and evaluate the results obtained for each building, in line with long-term public objectives, especially Spain’s commitment to the European challenge of decarbonisation of the building sector by 2050.

Given the singularities of the Spanish residential stock, characterised by the predominance of multi-family buildings, it is particularly imperative to put people at the centre as they are the real agents of the regeneration process.

The PAS-E takes the form of 3 services aimed at the community, the agents of the sector and the administration:

1 | Digital building logbook. This is a constantly updated public data platform that integrates and centralises all the information and documents related to the building and the community; it facilitates communication between the different agents and acts as a means of monitoring the evolution of the stock.

2 | Community support plan. This is a technical support in face-to-face and digital format that aims to involve people as real renovation agents. It serves as a tool for community management, participation and learning.

3 | Building renovation plan.. This is a roadmap agreed between the technical team and the community that sets out a sequence of interventions to be carried out over time to bring the existing building to certain conditions of technical, functional and efficiency quality before the year 2050, in compliance with the public objectives for the residential stock.

Recommendations

The Building Passport is an opportunity to place Spain at the forefront in Europe, and a key element to overcome the barriers that slow down the pace of renovation. But it requires the development of an implementation process that should be approached in a structured way with all housing policies and legislation, and agreed with all stakeholders.

Firstly, it is necessary to define a strategy for the building sector at national level, coordinated with territorialised action plans, to specify in time public objectives, measures, resources, evaluation and recognition systems.

Secondly, it is necessary to set in motion a process to define the passport with the participation of all the agents involved, which will make it possible to determine its role in the framework of housing and urban habitat policies.

Authors

Cíclica [space·community·ecology] Green Building Council España (GBCe)

Client

Cíclica | GBCe

Project year

2020

Date

4 de February de 2021

Category

Digital logbook and building renovation, Highlights, Resources