Addressing the current awareness of Energy Performance Directive (recast) in England that requires all new buildings to be nearly zero-energy by 2020

Abstract

Global warming and climate change poses as a serious threat to the world’s longevity. For a number of years, it has been affecting places, species and people, which has resulted in receiving substantial media coverage. This coverage has increased awareness and countries have collectively put in place measures that will attempt to reverse the effects of global warming by reducing carbon emissions and increasing the use of renewable energy. Due to the fact that buildings are responsible for 40% of energy consumption and 36% of CO2 emissions in the European Union, the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (recast) was announced on 19th May 2010 to comply with the Kyoto Protocol. The directive states that all new buildings will be nearly zero-energy buildings by 31st December 2020. The aim of this report is to determine if the construction sector has been made aware of the directive before it is in effect as this will indicate if the 2020 target can be achieved. The methodology that was used to carry out the research was a quantitative questionnaire survey. The questionnaire was completed online (using Survey Monkey) and was sent to construction professionals in England via email. This enabled the researcher to collect primary data that has been analysed using illustrative graphs, standard deviation, inferential statistics and cross examination between some questions. The main findings to this research is that the construction professionals are aware of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (recast) and the nearly zeroenergy building target by 2020. However, they have not been made aware of the technical details. Therefore, more steps need to be carried out to ensure that all construction professionals are fully acquainted with the target to ensure its success.