Director of RoGBC Transilvania, Mr. Dorin Beu appointed as member within Ecodesign group

October 12, 2011 at 5:00 pm | Posted in Legislative Outreach, News from Members | Leave a comment
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Dr. Dorin Beu, Director of RoGBC Transilvania and Founder of „b lighting” was appointed as member within the Energy Labelling and Ecodesign Technical Subgroup – Advisory Forum Ministry of Economy and Commerce and Business Environment- Department of Industrial Policy.

This technical subgroup establishes a framework under which manufacturers of energy-using products are obliged to reduce the energy consumption and other negative environmental impacts occurring throughout the product lifecycle. During the ecodesign group meetings a number of proposals were discussed regarding the ecological design and eco-labeling of directional lightning lamps, light emitting diode lamps (LED) and halogen lighting converters. These proposals are part of the so-called domestic lighting ecodesign requirements.

Simply speaking, the proposed requirements will cover everything that is related to the efficacy of directional lighting: luminaries, reflector lamps and LEDs.

Congratulations and best wishes for this project!

 

 

Property tax extemption for rehabilitated residential buildings in Romania

October 5, 2011 at 7:06 pm | Posted in Legislative Outreach | 2 Comments
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Starting with July 2011, a new law  that approves the famous 18/2009 GO regarding the thermal rehabilitation of blocks of flats, introduces the property tax exemption for owners who rehabilitate their buildings. The exemption period is of minimum 7 years and is applicable only if the owner covered the expenses of rehabilitation (her)/himself and only if he/she obtained an energy audit before the rehabilitation and can prove that the auditor’s recomendations were implemented.

The measure is  very welcomed, but RoGBC hopes that this is just the beginning of further similar measures that address also the commercial/office sector of the market as well . It is well known that the property taxes for residential houses/apartments are very low and can’t motivate alone a decision for rehabilitation. So if the national/local government’s strategy with this measure is to motivate building owners to improve the quality of their buildings and reduce energy consumption, the big building owners should be targeted as well.

In a research made by RoGBC on Local Measures to Attract Investments in Green Buildings we identified the most effective local measures that could motivate developers to build green and/or renovate existing buildings at green standards. When it comes for financial measures, the property tax reduction and a discount of the building permit fee were on top of the list.

Local public authorities have the possibility to create such tools since according to the Fiscal Code they can establish the level of property tax  somewhere between 0.5 -1.5% per year from the value of the building.   Asking for tax reductions and exemptions in a challenged economic period might look too courageous,  some may say…..not also if you consider the increased value of the building if it obtains a voluntary environmental certification or at least an A in the Energy Performance Certificate ( EPC’s are mandatory anyway). Building green does not mean only energy efficiency, but for now this is the best regulated area by mandatory laws.

There are also the other benefits that come with building green such as higher level of productivity of the employees, reduced sickness days, higher retention rate, better comfort etc…not to leave aside the potential for creating new jobs and stimulating the local economy since a lot of services and solutions have to be sourced locally.

What do you think?

Anca Bieru

How to solve the integration of RES in buildings in Romania? ..and some other issues

June 29, 2011 at 8:33 pm | Posted in Legislative Outreach | Leave a comment
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One big step forward would be ….  applying the existing EU Directives and improving the national regulations. The Ministry of Economy, Commerce and Business Environment published for  public debate the draft “Elements of Energy Strategy for 2011-2035″. More information on the measures that are currently included can be found here.

Unfortunately there are no big news for the building sector if you are to look over the draft…and considering that  the EPBD Directive (Directive 2010/31/EC) and the RES Directive (2009/28/EC)  are setting clear timelines and directions for increasing level of energy efficiency and the uptake of RES in buildings – one would expect to find more in a Strategy that is supposed to cover the next 25 years. Luckly it is just a working document.

RoGBC put together a list with basic recommendations that should be included in the Energy Strategy 2011-2035. They relate mostly to facilitating the uptake of RES in buildings and encouraging the new developments/deep refurbishments that achieve a high level of energy performance (class A). The letter was sent to the Ministry of Economy and our points of view will be discussed in the event from the 30th of June organised by the Ministry of Economy. Special thanks to Luiza Manolea, lawyer and RoGBC member of the Legislative Task Force for her involvement in this initiative!

 

Anca Bieru

Real estate legislation update

March 29, 2011 at 12:08 pm | Posted in Legislative Outreach, News from Members | Leave a comment
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The first two months of 2011 brought some noticeable changes in the Romanian legal environment. We share a brief here from the newsletter that our members Lina & Guia SCA issued.

We will focus on the real estate updates: the modifications to the legal framework on territorial management and urbanism.

The Law no. 350/2001 on territorial management and urbanism was amended and supplemented by the Government`s Emergency Decision no. 7/2011 (published in the Official Gazette no. 111 of 11 February 2011).

As mentioned in the newsletter, the most relevant provisions refer to:

1. The responsibilities and attributes of central and local public authorities: new articles and completions were introduced regarding the role of the president of the County Council, of the mayor, as well as activity of the chief-architect in territorial planning and urbanism.

2. The possibility of communes to associate for organizing in common the specialised structure on the territorial management and urbanism:  intercommunity development associations for assuring in common the public services on urban and territorial planning, issuance of urban certificates and building permits, or delegate the respective attributions to the specialised structure on county level, based on an agreement.

3. The changes in the framework for modifying the urban planning documentations’ method (detailed urbanism plan – PUD – or a zonal urbanism plan – PUZ. Realisation of a new zonal urbanism plan can be initiated by a private investor, for same specific construction functions. It can be initiated only after a notice of opportunity is issued by the chief architect and approved by the authorities in charge.

4. Extension of the general urbanism plan – PUG – validity term: no longer than 2 years, until the enforcement of the new urbanism plan. For the communes or cities with a population under 10,000 citizens, if an update is not necessary, the validity period can be directly extended with maximum 3 years, based on the advice of the county chief-architect.

5. New list of areas for which issuance of a zonal urbanism plan (PUZ) is compulsory: central areas of localities, built protected areas, industrial activities and technological parks, areas de-signed for hypermarkets and/or com-mercial parks, production areas, cultural parks, transport infrastructure, new areas of residential development, areas subject to restructuring or urban regeneration, coastal area or the shore protection area, for a minimum depth of 200 m; other areas established by the public authorities for homogeneous areas or for areas larger than 10.000 sq.m.

6. Interdiction to obtain legality status for constructions erected illegally: Starting with 1 January 2012, it is forbidden to initiate and approve urban planning documentations whose purpose is to obtain compliance for constructions built without permit or without observing the building permit.

7. Annulment of decisions approving urban planning documentation issued without observance of the law is to be required by the prefect.

Another important change is the introduction of the Methodology considering the information and consultation of the public on the matter of elaboration or reviewing the plans of territory management and urbanism, approved by the Ministry of Regional Development and Tourism as Order no. 2701/2010 (published in the Official Gazette no. 47 of 19 January 2011).

The documentation is particularly useful to the civil society as a tool to monitor and interfere in the process of developement of their community. It determines the mandatory components and steps of the information and consultance of the public for the urban planning documentations in course of elaboration or approval. The urban planning documentations approved without respecting the new methodology are null and void.

Georgiana B.

Big debates in Brussels over energy efficiency; buildings are on top of the list

November 5, 2010 at 6:16 pm | Posted in Legislative Outreach | Leave a comment
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If 2009 was the year for lobbying for Energy Performance in Buildings Directive in the context of discussions and debates around its recast,  2011, 2012 will be dedicated for lobbying activities around energy efficiency. Buildings are still very high on the agenda. 

In spring 2011, the European Commission is expected to issue the next Energy Effciency Action Plan. In the draft  of the plan that was published earlier this year there were several measures that are supposed to have a high impact on the building industry. The most relevant measures:

  • Buildings are a priority sector in the  draft of the revised EEAP ; measures range from building renovation to policies meant to speed up the up-take of energy smart -meters
  • Proposes a European Buildings Initiative to stimulate the renovation of 15 million buildings by 2020
  • Set up of a mandatory National Energy Efficiency Fund (by all Member States) to support preferential loans or risk-sharing facilities
  • Mandatory set up of a white certificate scheme at member states level  to encourage energy efficiency in the power sector
  • Formation of a network of smart cities that would pioneer new technologies
  • European-training Strategy for energy-efficiency workforce

The draft is expected to be changed since the new Energy Commisioner that started the mandate this spring  – Mr. Gunter Oetingger, has a more moderate approach. However, even if there will be changes, buildings will still be high on the agenda.

 Next year, the European Commision will work also on the proposed recast of the Energy  End-use Efficiency and Energy Service Directive. The idea is to broaden it’s scope and provide an enhanced framework for energy efficiency and savings policies of Member States, including targets, role of National Energy Efficiency Action Plans, exemplary role of public sector, financing, consumer information. It will also define instruments to develop the energy services market and the roles of energy companies in promoting energy savings throughout the energy supply chain, including supply to end-users. It will set framework conditions for increased generation, transmission and distribution efficiency, including strengthened measures for the promotion of cogeneration and district heating & cooling.

What is the message for the building industry? The high levels of energy efficiency in buildings will cease to be just optional in the near future,  and just the  sophisticated choice of some forward looking developers. If the white certificate schemes will start to be mandatory for each Member State, the stakeholders of the energy market will be mobilised an co-interested in contributing to higher levels of energy efficiency at the end user. 

The sceptics  may say that the discussions are just at the beginning and by the time we see some effective results at the national level some years will have to pass and a lot of buildings will be built or renovated  as usual, in the meantime. However if we think that buildings are build for  the next 50 to 100 years the few years of political debates appear to be peanuts compared to that….what we build and renovate now will have to compete with the buildings build and renovated 5 or 10 years from now.

Anca

Waste Directive – in the public debate

November 5, 2010 at 1:50 pm | Posted in Legislative Outreach, News from Members | Leave a comment
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The 2008/98/CE Waste Framework Directive has to be transposed into the national legislation by the end of the year. This directive is important for the construction industry because it aims at recovering 70% of the construction waste by 2020.

More information about this directive and a brief analysis of the law project proposed by the Ministry of Environment  are available here. This analysis was carried out by Luiza Manolea, lawyer member of RoGBC in the Legislative Outreach Group.

Anca

“Greening our Hotels – Green Hotels in Romania too” – September 28th, 2010, Bucharest

October 12, 2010 at 10:49 am | Posted in Events | Leave a comment
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On  September 28th, Romania Green Building Council held, at the Athenee Palace Hilton, a one day course on “Greening our Hotels – Green Hotels in Romania too”, in order to engage the hospitality industry and its related products and services in a discussion regarding the opportunity and importance of a more environmentally responsible approach of architectural design, rehabilitation and dealing with properties.

The workshop provided practice information about integrating available technologies in the design of more energy efficient and with low environmental impact buildings. In addition, the course was structured so that the participants had the time to interact with the speakers, during the “question& answer” sessions.

 

First part. Competitive advantages for building/ refurbishing green hotels.

In his welcoming speech, Steven Borncamp, president of RoGBC, gave a short introduction to the importance of the “green approach” in designing and operating new buildings, increasing international and local regulations for building materials and energy consumption, as well as the need for more action for generalized sustainable principles for all types of buildings. Stressing that “green” stands for quality, present and future, Mr. Borncamp also mentioned that for a slight increase of the costs for a green building (with 2-4%), the cumulative savings are about 40% per year, while the investment amortization is being done in the first 2 or 3 years.

Next, Linda Griffin, the new general manager of Hilton Athenee Palace, presented some recent actions that aim at reducing electricity consumption, promoting ecological means of transportation (bicycles for customers) and creating a Green Team, which would be involve in implementing sustainable initiatives in the hotel network as well as initiating a “customer awareness” program on environmental behaviors during accommodation.

David Nicholl- general manager of Schneider Electric- had a comprehensive overview on the benefits of generalized automation systems in all types of buildings, including hotels. Through the Active Energy Management systems, significant, controllable and predictable reductions are being made, throughout the building, while ensuring optimum comfort for residents. The integrated Schneider Electric solutions can lead to constant electricity and heat consumption reductions up to 30% in the long run.

 

Second part. Financial incentives, legislation and certification

Ms. Maria Daniela Toma – manager in Ministry of Environment- tackled issues of the environmental labeling of hotels. Introduced after 2005, eco-labels represent green building certification, based on 20 criteria which include, among others, indicators of ecological materials use, presence and quality of the vegetation in the site area, energy and water consumption, waste storage and recycling, cleaning systems’ efficiency, information about preventive ecological behavior etc. Specific matters regarding general aspects and regulations of green label certification are available on www.eur-lex.europa.eu. The fee for obtaining this certification is presently 200-300 euro/year.

Furthermore, two case studies were presented. Linica Stan, manager Saturn Hotel, presented the case of Saturn Hotel, Mangalia, while for Crowne Plaza Hotel, Bucharest, the presentation was held by Melania Secuianu, Administrative Manager Crowne Plaza Hotel.

Mark Velody – BERD consultant – held a methodological overview of financial procedures, with favorable interest or grants for energy efficient building projects.

 

Third part. Innovative solutions.

Rafael Mărculescu – Schneider Electric – completed David Nicholl’s presentation through an application of energetic management integrated systems. He showed that the implementation of this kind of systems is very useful for all types of hotel equipments (heating/ HVAC/ water management, lighting etc.) and that the investment amortization for Schneider systems is up to 3 years, meanwhile noticing reductions of 35% for heat, 60% for electricity, as well as the number of employees.

David Clark – Cundall Engineering – presented a hotel case study, underlining the three aspects – energetic benchmarking, clarifying the CO2 footprint criteria (design, passive/ active system, energy efficiency and the recovery of energies) and users’ information/ education, in this case the tourists.

 

Specific solutions

In the last part the presentations were about a) particular solutions (products and systems) for a successfully implementation of significantly reduction of electricity consumption, lighting through efficient LED and mercury light bulbs (Cuneșteanu – Philips România), b) packaging waste management (Lorita Constantinescu – Eco-Rom Ambalaje) and c) sustainable solutions for green spaces design, through water management and special effects for the aesthetic part and for air quality improvement (Katja Perrey – Katja Perrey Landscapes).

 

Organizer:

Romania Green Building Council (www.RoGBC.org)  is a non-profit and non-political association which encourages the development of market, educational and legal conditions necessary in the transformation of the building industry, in order to create and refurbish intelligent buildings, both sustainable and profitable. RoGBC is an “Established Council” within the World Green Building Council (www.WorldGBC.org) .

 

Cristina Şiu

Romania Green Building Council

Manager Marketing & Events

021-222 5135 / 021-260 0051 / 021 – 222 0011

Cristina.Siu@RoGBC.org

www.RoGBC.org

Changes in the “Normative for thermo-technical computation of the houses elements, indicative C 107/2005″

July 30, 2010 at 2:44 pm | Posted in General | Leave a comment
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The Ministry of Regional Development and Tourism has issued an Order for modifying the technical Regulation “Normative for thermo-technical computation of the houses elements, indicative                     C 107/2005” approved by  order of the Ministry of transportation, construction and tourism no. 2055/205.

The following changes appear in C107:

-          In the first part, for the computation of the necessary heat for heating, the 7.3 chart is replaced and some modifications appear at 7.8.2 point. This is a rectification.

-          An actualization is done also for the minimum values of the Normalized Insulation Coefficients GN  and of the Thermal  Resistances Rmin, for buildings  designed after 1.10.2010. This way the stakes are raised for construction specialists.

-          For a more precise computation of the Global Reference  Coefficient  G1, the values of the control coefficients  a, b, c, d, e   were recomputed are the old values are replaced  (C107/2).

Through these changes in C 105 normative, the Ministry of Regional Development and Tourism is raising the standards for the construction field, and make it clear that correct thermo-technical computations are needed.

The changes can be viewed here.

Catalin Gauloiu

The Ministry of Regional Development and Tourism has made acreditation for energy auditors more accesible

July 30, 2010 at 2:40 pm | Posted in Certification | Leave a comment
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The Ministry of Regional Development and Tourism lunched a draft for modifying the Annex of the Law from MLRTP no 550/2003 for approval the technical regulations “Guide for certifying energy auditors for buildings and installations“. The old document in which was presented how  to certify the energy auditors  has been modified. The new guide comes with more details about the process.  We will try to present a summary on chapters in which we will try to clarify the accreditation process regarding the old guide and the changes that were made.

The first chapter “General provision” refers to the specialists who can receive the certificate. They can be both from Romania and also from the European Union.

In the second chapter “The certification of energy auditors for buildings” are presented the levels of certification: AEC I and AEC II, and the activities each one can perform.  This new Law draft makes clear the attributions of each category. AEC II can make audits only for apartments and             one-family buildings.

The third chapter refers to the mandatory documents and conditions for beginning the accreditation.  The submitted files are analyzed by a commission of 3 members. Then is presented a detailed list of all the specialists who can submit for accreditation.  An important detail is that the file should be submitted at most 1 year after finishing the specialized studies. Another important change is the minimum period after you can apply to become an energy auditor. For AEC II is 3 years, from a 6 year period,  and for AEC I is 5 years, from a 10 years period.

In the forth chapter are presented the technical and professional regulations for the certification. The review committees are formed by 7 members, high skill specialists in the construction field.  More details about the examination process and the way the committee evaluates the candidates are presented in the fifth chapter.  Some of the important changes presented in the last chapter are:

-          The applicants that were rejected can ask for a reevaluation after a 6 month period, in the past document the period was 1 year.

-          The rules by which the permit to do the energy audit is cancelled are more severe.

-          The persons which are already accredited as energy auditors can ask for examination for AEC I or AEC II , in a 6 month period after this Law draft is issued.

As a general conclusion. the accreditation process became more facile. Conditions as the necessary seniority or the number of recommendations for submitting the file have changed, for more easy terms, making easier the whole process.  The exam can be held in the big universities around Romania. For the construction and real estate market, the modifications are of support. The investments and transactions in this field won’t be burdened once the energy certificates are approved.

The Order can be viewed here.

Catalin Gauloiu

Final version of the EPBD approved

July 26, 2010 at 5:38 pm | Posted in Legislative Outreach | Leave a comment
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Last Wednesday, the representatives of the European Parliament, European Commission and Council of Ministers came to an agreement on the final text of the new version of Energy Performance in Buildings Directive. The next step is for the Council to formally adopt the version, but in fact the major decisions were already taken. Our next 10 years are pretty much “shaped” when it comes to energy efficiency in buildings.

The final version is weaker than the version that was successfully voted by the European Parliament in April. We were expecting that the text to be modified in the negotiation process and some compromises to be made, but the final result is more a collection of recommendations than a powerful tool  that could significantly contribute to saving energy in the European buildings in the years to come. For the most advanced countries – were the national legislation and standards are very powerful (eg.  UK – all new buildings – carbon neutral starting from 2016) is not a big loss but for Eastern and Central Europe it is. In this region the national legislations are shaped mostly on the European Directives – if we have a strong Directive we have strong national legislation, if we have a Directive full of recommendations ….sometimes we listen and if we are lucky we look at the other Members States for best practices, we admire and start making a huge list of reasons for why not we cannot implement that measure or that mechanism or why we cannot allocate funds from the public budget …….and the list is long.

I presented briefly below the major changes (pro and cons) brought in by the final text of the EPBD:

Strengths:

  1. Abolition of 1000sqm threshold – all buildings undergoing major renovation, irrespectively of their size will need to comply with the Directive (improve their energy performance)
  2. Minimum energy performance requirements for minor renovations (practically when a building element that is part of the building envelope – windows, door, roofs – is replaced or retrofitted )
  3. All new buildings must be “nearly zero energy buildings” by December 2020; new public buildings have to comply with the standard  by December 2018

Weaknesses:

  1. No obligation for member states to amend the minimum energy performance requirements in their building codes to achieve the result of the Commission methodology. This practically means that there will still be differences between same energy levels (A,B,C..etc) on the energy performance certificates in different countries. The objective of assuring convergence towards higher standards will not be achieved (at least not through this version of the EPBD)
  2. No concrete requirements for Member States to introduce targets to renovate existing buildings according to nearly zero energy buildings. They were not supposed to renovate the whole existing building stocks to this standard, but at least to consider this aspect to a minimum percentage of buildings that are renovated.
  3. No obligation for certifying and displaying the energy performance certificate in case of public buildings, unless they are bigger than 500sqm (the threshold will be lowered to 250 sqm in five years) and visited by the public. However an important number of public buildings will not be included in this category.
  4. Fiscal and financial incentives were introduced only as recommendations and not as obligations. Practically it will be up to each Member State to allocate or not funds from the state budget for putting in place measures to support the implementation of EPBD.
  5. The terms for applying the provisions of the new EPBD were delayed with two years after it comes into force. Practically – if the law will be adopted in 2010 (expected to happen) the Member States are supposed to publish the transposing measures in 2 years after the entry into force.

Next stage already started –  we (RoGBC together with WWF Romania and other representatives of the non-governmental sector) will have to continue our initiatives at the national level and lobby for proper implementation of EPBD and adoption of real measures that will contribute to encouraging the energy efficiency in buildings and promotion of renewable energy production. The new version of EPBD offers some good arguments in the discussions, but it is a weaker tool than what it could have been.

The final text of the directive is available here.

Anca Bieru

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