Low-energy buildings on mainstream market terms

A study of a municipal translation process

Maj-Britt Quitzau

Assistant Professor

DTU Management Engineering

Bygningstorvet, Building 115

Kgs. Lyngby

Denmark

Birgitte Hoffmann

Associate Professor

DTU Management Engineering

Morten Elle

Associate Professor

DTU Management Engineering

Jens Stissing Jensen

PhD Student

DTU Management Engineering

Keywords: COST 23, low-energy housing, building regulation


Abstract

This paper looks into the challenge of actually implementing energy efficient technologies and concepts in mainstream new build. The aim of the paper is to point out some of the provisos of promoting low-energy buildings on mainstream market terms, emphasising the need to understand forces working against implementation of low-energy buildings. The study is based on actor-network theory, emphasising the relations and struggles that form the basis for pushing for low-energy buildings. The paper is based on a case study of the proactive attempt of a Danish municipality to force through an actual implementation of strict energy performance requirements in mainstream building. The paper describes how the municipality of Egedal experienced a collapse in regulation for low-energy buildings and what struggles it had to take on in order to convince the mainstream building industry and their customers to implement energy efficient technologies and concepts in the municipal urban development project. In conclusion, the paper underlines that even incremental steps towards more energy efficient buildings require setting up of the appropriate frames, establishing the necessary network, mediating actors to enrol and support innovative thinking.

1.  Introduction

Improving the energy performance of buildings represents a cornerstone for assuring substantial carbon reductions, since the European building sector accounts for 40% of the total primary energy consumption. Both the potential and need for carbon reductions in the building sector is great, and for this reason, it is disturbing to see that energy efficient technologies and concepts have had such a little impact on main stream building.

So far, new energy efficient technologies and concepts in the building sector have mainly been promoted through specific demonstration projects. These projects have the function of testing, displaying and documenting new technologies and concepts, and hence, mature these for wider distribution. However, experiences from such demonstration projects show that these do not influence mainstream building profoundly. One reason is that that these projects do not involve a strategy for transferring new technologies and concepts to the market, and hence, remain demonstration projects [1]. This suggests that implementation of new energy efficient technologies and concepts require more than simply testing, displaying and documenting.

In this paper, we study an alternative Danish attempt to actually implement new energy efficient technologies and concepts in mainstream building, where a high degree of inertia exists to take leaps that go beyond the energy performance requirements set in the Danish Building Code [2]. This attempt is based upon the efforts of the municipality of Egedal to promote low-energy buildings through local regulation means. This municipal project aims at inducing incremental changes in the building process (like tightening building envelopes and integrating energy efficient and renewable energy technologies) to assure improvements in the energy performance of buildings, rather than promoting ground-breaking technologies.

The structure of the paper is as follows. First, we present our approach more thoroughly, describing the inspiration from actor-network theory, the case study and methodology. Then, we present our main findings, describing the collapse and subsequent municipal struggle for a new stability of the actor-network in order to push for implementation of energy efficient technologies and concepts in mainstream building. Finally, we present our conclusions, underlining the need to acknowledge that changes in practices in mainstream building projects require certain battles.

2.  Approach

This paper studies the prevailing resistance and lock-in in mainstream building, which needs to be overcome, if low-energy buildings are to be more broadly distributed. One way to conceptualise the challenge of changing such persisting practices is to consider how actor-networks develop. In this paper, a proactive attempt to change practices is studied by looking into the development of the greatest settlement of low-energy residential buildings in Denmark with a total of 750 dwellings developed on mainstream market terms.

2.1  Actor-networks

The theoretical approach in this paper is inspired by the actor-network theory, conceptualising social contexts as heterogeneous network of human and non-human constituents [3], [4]. Compared to other sociotechnical perspectives, this theory equals human and non-human constituents of the network. This theoretical perspective is especially strong in bringing out the ‘infrastructure’ which supports accounts of scientific and technological achievements. The point is to show that technological revolutions are not solely the results of genius scientists, but the outcome of a much more complex process, involving a number of changes in the heterogeneous network.

Looking into actor-networks provides a good starting point for getting a deeper understanding of how existing practices are pulled together and develop. This provides an analytical awareness regarding the relations and struggles between human and non-human actors in the network, recognising that even social agents are never located in bodies and bodies alone, but take part in a heterogeneous network [5]. In the paper, we are especially interested in the relations that form part of ordering the prevailing energy standards of new build, and we identify building requirements as an important empirical centre of ordering in this regard, since these requirements have organisational powers with respect to the prevailing inertia in the building sector.

In our study we look into the translation that occurs as the municipality of Egedal takes steps to alter the existing actor-network, as the municipality begins to set up local building requirements that challenge the order of the existing actor-network. This process of translation implies that the municipality acts out as a spokesman of the entities of the heterogeneous network, similar to the EDF in the case of the electric vehicle [6]. The municipality becomes an active player in re-ordering the actor-network in order to provide a breeding ground to change building practices.

2.2  An empirical case study approach

The paper is based on an empirical case study of the efforts of the municipality of Egedal to adjust the actor-network according to their own visions. The case concerns Stenløse South, an urban extension south of the city of Stenløse, which is a north-western suburb to Copenhagen. In this urban development project, the municipality has purposively challenged existing practices in new build by setting up local energy performance requirements that are stricter than those formulated in the Building Code. This initiative is especially innovative, since the municipality has insisted on forcing their low-energy objectives on to the mainstream building industry and their customers, whereas commonly municipalities settle for formulation of political objectives, seldom implemented in practice. As such, this initiative represents a revolt against the current lack of implementing low-energy objectives in practice in Denmark.

The empirical case is studied through a qualitative study of the course of this urban development project, emphasising the struggles that the municipality of Egedal have had in order to act out their low-energy objectives in practice. More specifically, we have followed the actors involved in this struggle, inspired by [4]. Our starting point has been the building project of the family Andersen, who is building a typical and contemporary Danish standard house with brick walls and tiled roof by one of the major standard house firms in Denmark, called Lind and Risør. By following the project of this family, we have mapped relations in the heterogeneous network and identified important struggles.

The qualitative study is based on both qualitative interviews and observations of key documents. A broad range of interviewees have been involved, including officials and politicians in the Municipality of Egedal, standard house firms building in the area and some of their suppliers, the buyers of building lots and experts involved in the project. The main documents involved in the building process have been analyses, including sketches of the building project, municipal information materials and technical information brochures.

In continuance of the actor-network perspective, our empirical exposition is based on a description of the translation process, showing how the municipality experiences a collapse of the existing actor-network and fights to re-establish a new order that supports their visions. Through the empirical description of these struggles, we aim at pointing out some of the provisos of promoting low-energy buildings on mainstream market terms.

3.  Re-ordering low-energy building requirements

Implementing new energy efficient technologies and concepts on the main stream building market imply changing existing practices. In the case of Stenløse South such changes were not straightforward, since the existing actor-network proved to be inefficient for promoting low-energy buildings. This necessitated a process of re-ordering the actor-network in order to ensure changes in prevailing practices. In the following, we describe the collapse of the original strategy of the municipality and the subsequent process of reconstructing order in the actor-network.

3.1  Collapse of the original strategy

Danish municipalities have the authority to regulate local building projects through the Planning Act [7]. The municipality of Egedal has become one of the most proactive municipalities, showing agency for promoting low-energy buildings in urban development projects. The municipality succeeded in building up a strong political will to develop low-energy buildings, based on their Local Agenda 21 work and an internal political process of translation, which represents an achievement in itself.

The intention of the municipality is to promote low-energy buildings on mainstream market terms. This represents a tremendous challenge, since current experiences from practice indicates that the political objectives formulated by municipalities tend to come to nothing in practice. A critical point is to get commitment from the mainstream building industry and its customers, since the activities of these actors are mainly derived from the traditional top-down regulation [2]. This suggests that the prevailing energy performance targets set in the Danish Building Code represent a centre of gravity of the practices within the building sector, withholding stability and order in the existing actor-network. In this actor-network, municipalities merely represent an intermediary actor that underpins existing building practices, having the task to control compliance to current regulation.

The municipality of Egedal had believed that local energy performance requirements set up in the local plans for the area was a strategy to ensure legally binding requirements for the building industry and their customers to compel to. Such local plans are viewed as the foundation of the Danish spatial planning system, as they provide the more specific guidelines for design of a district and its buildings [7]. However, these local plans proved to be inefficient in this regard, according to the National Department of Planning [8]. This inefficiency is due to the fact that the Danish Planning Act provides very few means for municipalities to set up sustainable requirements locally that are legally binding [9]. This threatened to remove an important pillar of the strategy, and hence, to collapse the entire initiative.

Rather than giving in, which most municipalities would probably have done, the municipality of Egedal searched for alternative strategies to support their objective. This illustrates the stubbornness and determination of the municipality, which imbue the entire process. As a result of this collapse of the initial strategy, the municipality took on the role as spokesperson in a translation of the existing actor-network. Through this initiative, the municipality changed from being a simple intermediary to take an active role as a mediator, who forms actively part of re-ordering the prevailing actor-network.

3.2  Re-ordering the actor-network

The municipality of Egedal wished to assure that the building industry and their customers were committed to the political objectives set up in Stenløse South. For this reason, the municipality initiated a struggle to set up an applicable strategy to promote low-energy buildings in the urban development area. This initiative represents a process of translation with the purpose of enrolling the necessary actor in the project. In the following, we describe some of the struggles to re-order the actor-network and to assure stability for a local set of low-energy requirements.

3.2.1  Easements: a new regulation model

The municipality insisted on implementing legally binding energy performance requirements in the area. In order to do this, the municipality had to take somewhat of a detour, compared to common planning practices, formulating the requirements as easements. Such easements are defined by private law, and hence legally binding, and become effective when imposed in connection of sale of building lots [10]. However, the use of easements required the municipality to acquire the land in the area of the urban development, which represents some investments risks for the municipality. Luckily, this strategy was possible, since the prices on lots and properties were rising at the time. Recording of easements made it possible to prosecute those that did not build according to the requirements.

Easements were enrolled in the translation process and stabilised by acquiring land and formulating specific easements in the information material regarding sale of the building lots. The easements in Stenloese South consist of specific phrases formulated on a legal document associated to and recorded during the sale of the individual building lots. The easements state specifically that the housings in Stenløse South must comply with an energy performance of 35 kWh/m2 per year, among others [11].

These easements were not welcomed by the building industry, which were reluctant to engage in the building project in Stenløse South due to these legally binding requirements. For example, Lind and Risør were sceptical about the idea, as the sales managers expresses they thought it to be an ‘own goal’. Lind and Risør could not imagine that anybody would be interested in buying the lots under such conditions, and their experiences were that their customers did not demand low-energy solutions and would be reluctant to pay for the added cost of these solutions [12]. Although the easements were enrolled, there was still the risk that the building industry and their customers would deselect to build in the area.

3.2.2  Formulating viable requirements

The municipality was aware of the risk that the area would be deselected. For this reason it worked actively on finding a balance between coercion and attraction of the building industry and their customers. This involved a breakdown with the myth that sustainable buildings are for the few, who were willing to freeze in the dark, and showing that such buildings are price competitive in a longer time perspective[1]. For this reason, the technical administration worked purposively at documenting and pointing out that incremental changes towards low-energy housing are plausible for the building industry and of benefit for their customers.