Making our School Buildings Energy Efficient

The University of Patras – Department of Civil Engineering from Greece, partner of the Efficient Buildings Community, will organize a webinar to discuss methodologies and tools that can be used to support school owners in developing, implementing and monitoring energy renovation plans for their school building stock.

Existing buildings’ renovation is a key priority within the new EU Green Deal, which calls for a “Renovation Wave” so as to accelerate the achievement of strategic EU targets, also supporting towards the recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. Public buildings are considered a key focus area, serving as a role model for the public and wider industry. The Renovation Wave builds on existing EU Directives provisions, e.g. the recast EPBD requirement for setting of national plans and targets in order to stimulate the refurbishment of existing buildings into nearly zero-energy buildings; the EED provisions calling for Member states to i) encourage public bodies, including those at regional and local level to adopt an energy efficiency plan for their public building stock, containing specific objectives and actions, with a view to following the exemplary role of central government buildings (annual renovation target of 3% of total floor area of buildings over 250m2), ii) put in place an energy management system, including energy audits, as part of the implementation of their plan.

In the above context, the webinar focuses on the school buildings and brings together experts from Mediterranean countries to present their knowledge and experiences in energy renovation and management of school buildings through the implementation of several Interreg MED projects under Efficient Buildings Community and beyond.