FRANCE – L’Observatoire de l’Immobilier Durable (OID) presented on December 4, 2014 the main results and interpretations revealed in the report of its OID Barometer 2014 sponsored by Claude LENGLET, project manager of the Third Industrial revolution.

From 2012 to 2014, the figures showed a drop in consumption for offices and shops. Could these be the first visible results on a grand scale of the energy performance actions taken since the passing into statute of the Grenelle law?
Every year for the last 3 years, the OID team collected technical and environmental data with a sample comprising 5000 buildings, representing a surface area of more than 15 million square metres, to offer the real estate market recent and quantifiable indicators on the evolution of the energy and environmental performance of the French service sector.

Although the exercise may seem fastidious, managing energy consumption is designated as one of the main tools in successfully reducing energy consumption as set out under the Grenelle law.

The level of energy consumption in commercial buildings has been declining for the last three years. In 2014, the primary energy indicators for office buildings and shopping centers decreased on average by 2% despite a harsher climate over the same period. This analysis must be qualified in the light of developments in the sample since 2012.

Therefore, the indicator of actual energy consumption of offices in primary energy amounted to 441kWh / m² per year in 2014 compared to 470 kWh/m² per year in 2012. Despite this trend, 58% of office buildings are still located in the E, F and G classes on the Energy Performance Diagnostic scale.

It should also be noted that an increasing number of buildings in the sample were the subject of voluntary or regulatory interventions such as obtaining certificates of conformity (in construction and / or renovation) or setting up environmental annexes.
Previous OID publications have helped us to better understand the conditions pertaining to their implementation while future research will enable us to measure the effects.

“Consequently, we are fortunate enough to live through a period which will presage profound change for the real estate sector in the coming decades. That is why in the 2014 edition of the barometer, we wanted to analyze the initiatives which will impact on the real estate of tomorrow” specified Lois Moulas, President of the OID.
The 2014 Barometer covers many different topics, including chapters on the Third Industrial Revolution, the RBR2020 2050 regulation or even the Energy Transition Act and the applications and examples generated by this law.

Caught somewhere between reality and potential, Guy Marty, General Director of IEIF Barometer 2014, concludes by emphasizing “Energy performance is located at the crossroads of constraints, imperatives and dreams.” Will this delicate balance be maintained in the coming years? Will the dream of today become the imperative of tomorrow?