Chance for Buildings is an alliance by leading trade associations that supports energy efficient and environmentally sustainable construction and renovation of buildings. It brings together Czech Green Building Council, Passive House Centre, Mineral Insulation Manufacturers Association and Energy Service Providers Association. It represents approximately 250 companies across the entire value chain of building construction and renovation.

Chance for Buildings aspires to reap the crucial societal benefits of energy efficient and quality buildings. Currently, we are a team of six people covering all political, legislative, economic and technical perspectives of energy efficient construction.

Chance for Buildings advocates for a proper implementation of relevant EU strategies and directives in Czechia. We follow and comment on EU and Czech climate-energy policies and laws. We help to set proper minimal standards on construction in terms of energy efficiency, adaptation to climate change, quality indoor environment and sustainable materials. Currently we are assisting the government with a transposition and implementation of the revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD3).

Chance for Buildings is an author of the Czech Building Renovation Strategy which is part of the National Energy Efficiency Action Plan prepared by the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic. We model and provide in-depth analysis of the energy efficiency construction sector into the building renovation scenarios. We are in the process of updating the strategy accordingly to Article 2a of the EPBD3 provisions.

Chance for Buildings also advocates for favourable policies and economic incentives supporting quality construction and renovation that goes beyond minimal required standards. Czechia is a leading example of utilizing carbon trading revenues for renovation programmes. The New Green Savings scheme focuses mainly of the residential buildings whereas energy efficient renovation of public and commercial buildings is financed from the European Structural and Investment Funds. As the rules for the new trading period of EU-ETS and for the new programming period of ESIF are being decided in 2019 and 2020, it is one of the main priority areas of our work these days.

Energy efficient construction brings multiple benefits. For the building owner or its user, it means lower energy bill, healthier indoor environment and higher value of his or her property. For the society, the lower energy consumption and healthy indoor environment means less pollution, less emissions, lower spending on health-care and higher energy security as buildings consume less and are becoming more and more independent. The economy benefits as well. Most of the energy efficient construction sector – jobs, materials and technologies – is domestic. Activity in this sector thus brings employment, higher tax revenues and national GDP. To support these claims with a quantitative analysis, Chance for Buildings has such a study conducted with renowned Czech economists. The main result is that after an investment activity of 1 bn CZK, one may expect an increase in total output of the same magnitude (over 90 %) in terms of Gross Domestic Product, and more than a one third (over 34 %) in governmental revenues. Thus a governmental support on investment at level of around 30 % is profitable investment for the state. And when it comes to current topic of heatwaves and overheated city centres, the study found, that by 2060 the Gross Value Added loss caused by overheating and thus lower productivity of employees in unadapted buildings could reach up to 765 bn CZK. That is roughly a one sixth of the annual value of current Czech GDP.