Category Energy efficiency

Come and meet us at Smart Energy Expo

MR Energy Systems will take part in the Smart Energy Expo, 2014 edition (Verona fair – Italy)

On October 8th, Marco Zanetto will present an Industrial case study from Small Medium Enterprises on energy efficiency in Italy.

The EURAC workshop ‘Voluntary tools in the implementation of the European low carbon strategy in Italy: the Covenant of Mayors and other instruments for public – private partnerships at local level‘, will be held next Wednesday in the ‘Smart City & Communities’, from 10:00 to 15:00.


EED transposed into Italian Regulation

Directive 2012/27/EU was transposed into Italian Decree 102/2014.

Here follow a short review of the main news.

Renovation of public bodies’ buildings will be applied to minimum 3% of the whole area (about 400.000 m2 / year). With a public investment of 355 million euros in the period 2014-2020. The local authorities contribute to achieving the objective.

Purchasing by public bodies will follow the National Green Public Procurement Plan and other National regulations on high energy-efficiency performance of products, services and buildings.

Energy efficiency obligation schemes was set up, confirming the White Certificates as the main system to achieve  cumulative end-use energy savings target by 31 December 2020.

Large Enterprises and energy-intensive enterprises shall carry out energy audits or implement an energy management system. Public funding will be available for SME to voluntary carry out energy audits or implement an EMS.

Energy Performance Contracts are promoted and minimum items to be included are provided.

New buildings and renovation of existing buildings satisfying high energy efficiency standards can benefit from volume bonuses and derogations to urban standards.

The National Fund for Energy Efficiency was established for: a) energy efficiency in public buildings; b) the development of district heating and cooling; c) energy efficiency services and public infrastructure; d) energy efficiency of residential buildings and social housing; e) energy efficiency in the industrial sector.

With this Decree Italy finally gets in line with EED, and provides an allocation of 800 million euros from 2014 to 2020 for energy efficiency.


Energy Response at Construction21Expo!

The 14th and 15th of May 2014, do come and visit our Energy Response booth at the virtual fair ‘Construction Expo 21’, at the ‘North Sea’ pavillon.

The Energy Response team is waiting for you… or your avatar, for a virtual coffee and a real chat!

The first virtual expo for the green
building industry across Europe
WWW.CONSTRUCTION21EXPO.EU
DO BUSINESS MATCHING with real estate investors,
designers, consultants, project developers, technology,
materials and many other important stakeholders in
sustainable building.
ATTEND GREEN BUILDING DEBATES on the latest trends
and political issues of the international green building
community.
Attend livestream presentations, browse
exhibitors’ booths, swap business cards, make
Skype calls or chat with other participants, all
from your own computer with your own
avatar!


Innovation in construction sector

Given the importance of this subject, we report here entirely an article published by World Green Building Council as a report of the meeting chaired by WGBC at the European Commission in November 2013. Hope you find it interesting.

What does ‘Innovation’ mean for the construction sector?

Nov 07, 2013

The title of this article was the question posed in the opening plenary of the European Commission’s recent ‘Innovation in Construction’ conference, chaired by the Europe Regional Network.

Opening Plenary of Innovation in Construction Conference

However, this conference wasn’t about dream projects and fanciful concept stage products as the name might suggest to some. It was very much about the hard reality that has stared the sector in the face for a number of years: we need to innovate to ensure the heart of our industry can come off life support and start beating strongly once again.

Antti Peltomäki, Deputy Director-General of DG Enterprise and Industry noted at the outset of the conference that “there is significant pressure for the construction sector to adapt and evolve in the face of high energy prices, environmental concerns and increased competition from non-EU operators”. Indeed, this year’s ‘World Green Building Trends’ report demonstrated that European enterprises are very much in a global green building race, with green building activity on the rise around the world.

Antti Peltomäki, Deputy Director-General of DG Enterprise and Industry speaking at Innovation in Construction

The buzzword of the day was ‘competitiveness’. Pleasingly, the concept of long-term economic competitiveness is becoming increasingly synonymous with that of sustainability in EU construction dialogue. This mainstreaming of sustainability in the wider dialogue about competitiveness was consolidated last year by the Commission’s ‘Strategy for the sustainable competitiveness of the construction sector and it’s enterprises’.

The Strategy is a long-term policy vision for the sector released by DG Enterprise and Industry in summer 2012 that is currently being taken forward by a high level strategic forum and a number of thematic groups. This work sits alongside work by DG Environment on EU sustainable building policy, which the Network has recently responded to in its Sustainable Buildings Paper, setting out a vision for market transformation.

What is clearly agreed across the Commission is that innovating to lead on sustainability will be key to our sector’s long-term competitiveness, at home as well as in an increasingly global market. How we create an EU policy framework that will help transform the market towards sustainability is the big question now.

Another common theme from the day that emerged strongly alongside ‘competitiveness’ was ‘collaboration’, which reflects the key message in our recent report ‘A New Era in Building Partnerships’. The central importance of cross-sector collaboration in achieving more innovative, sustainable and valuable outcomes is a core principle at the heart of Green Building Councils and their whole value-chain member communities. Interestingly, one of the proposals put forwards at the conference was that supply chain collaboration ought to be more explicitly promoted by EU policy.

In conclusion, the conference evidenced a growing belief that innovative short-term thinking is not really true innovation at all, and that partnership is the new leadership when doing business.

The author James Drinkwater is Senior Policy Advisor to WorldGBC’s Europe Regional Network

James Drinkwater speaking at Innovation in Construction

Stefan van Uffelen, Dutch GBC speaking at Innovation in Construction

Antonio Paparella, European Commission speaking at Innovation in Construction

Audience at Innovation in Construction

– See more at: http://www.worldgbc.org/regions/europe/ern-blogs/general/what-does-innovation-mean-construction-sector/#sthash.woLspsmf.dpuf


MR Energy Systems @ Greenbuild Expo 2013 – Philadelphia

MR Energy Systems is exibiting at GreenBuild Expo 2013, the most important Expo on Green Building worldwide, gathering venue for the international LEED community.

MR Energy Systems brings @ Greenbuild its experience in consulting engineering for sustainbale buildings including:

  • LEED – GBC Italia – consulting services
  • Energy Dynamic Symulations
  • Energy monitoring systems, Building Automation Systems, Energy Response Platform
  • Sustainbale materials consulting: LCA, Carbon Footprinting, EPD
  • Strategic consulting, policy analisys & development

Come and meet us together with the other Italian companies at the ICE-Italian Trade Promotion Agency booth # 1011 .
For more information, do not hesitate to contact us: info@mrenergy.it


Our Article on Qualenergia

Quale_Energia1Published on n.2/2013 of Magazine Qualenergia an article by Mauro Roglieri and Iris Visentin about LEED, GBC and more in general aboput the benefetis of adopting sustainability rating systems of buildings to reach CO2 reduction targets.

Full article in Italian: http://www.qualenergia.it/articoli/20130520-green-building-council-il-rating-edificio


Heritage as sustainability

MR Energy Systems, as a member of GBC Italia, is particularly glad to announce this event which will take place in Venice this coming Friday 22nd of June 2012. The important international event with the participation of international institutions as UNESCO and World GBC, and an exceptional speaker as Rick Fedrizzi, president of U.S. GBC and  chair of World GBC.

The event intends to present the ambitious development of a protocol for the sustainability of Historic Building, where Italy (GBC Italia) will play a leadership role in the international context. The protocol has the aim of merging two very important concepts: the LEED® sustainability criteria on one side, and the enormous Italian knowledge of restoration and conservation of historic heritage. An innovative standard, with the aim of facilitating the culture of sustainability in the built environment, and the conservation and protection of values and culture. A tool which will make the dialogue between operators and public authorities easier and more measurable.

The registration to the event is free of charge until the end of available places.

Click here to register to the event


Commissioner Günther Oettinger welcomes political agreement on the Energy Efficiency Directive

“This is a big step ahead: for the very first time we have legally binding energy efficiency measures. Europe is now much better placed to achieve its 20% energy efficiency target for 2020”, Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger stated.

“The measures will reduce our energy bill while generating further growth and jobs. They stimulate investments and make our energy using products more efficient.”

“The European Parliament and the Council have played a constructive role in finding a compromise. It also shows Europe’s ability to act in difficult economic times.”

Yesterday evening, the European Parliament, the Council and the EU Commission reached a political agreement on the Energy Efficiency Directive. Today, Coreper endorsed the agreement. European Parliament and the Council still need to give their approval.

To read the complete memo from the EC, click here.


Propose surrender – ETS Compliance and market trends

Last days for EU-ETS plants to surrender 2011 emissions to their national registries. Final deadline is April 30th 2012.

The Carbon market situation remains very uncertain, with EUA 08-12 Spot trading at around 7,19 €/t (EUA-08-12, Bluenext, 18/04/2012), as economic crisis has reduced significantly the emissions of EU plants (together with an increase of production of renewable energy). The attached graph shows verified emissions of the last four years: total EU-27 ETS emissions have decreased in 2011 by 12,5% compared to 2008 levels (14,4% for Italy), clearly showing an average reduction in the need to cover short positions, and therefore reducing the demand on the trading platforms.

The news introduced by EC from 2013, like the absence of free allocations for power production plants for instance, have not yet sorted the effects of maintaining a reasonable price level which can justify and really enforce investments in energy efficiency.

Is the pricing really reflecting already the new 2013 regime? Will the third period bring an improvement to the mechanism? Please send us your comments, or do contact us for more information.

EU ETS verified_emissions_2011_en