In Brazil, buildings are responsible for 50% of energy consumption and for the emission of 1/3 of a city's greenhouse gases. Despite this impressive number, little is being done. The vast majority of buildings waste important opportunities to save energy and incur costs by not effectively considering the energy efficiency in all phases of construction, from the architectural design, through construction to final use. In this way, it does not use important advances in new concepts, materials, equipment and construction technologies, linked to energy efficiency.This topic has been under discussion for at least three decades, when the formulation of the concepts of sustainability. In Brazil, there are relatively old initiatives to stimulate energy efficiency, such as the National Electric Energy Conservation Program (Procel), created in the 1980s, and the State Energy Conservation Program in Buildings in Rio Grande do Sul, in the early 1990s. A little later, quality labels emerged energy efficiency, first for commercial and public service buildings, and then for residential buildings. This is the case of the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) seal, which proves the degree of sustainability in several aspects, including energy efficiency.

In the private sector, in addition to reducing investment risk, the adoption of measures energy efficiency can bring significant results in the short term. According to the report of the Program of Energy Efficiency of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), sustainable buildings are 5% more expensive to build, but provide savings of around 30% of resources. This data can be illustrated with the case of Lafarge, which, after creating the My Low – Office Energy Project, established an average energy use of 85% in its offices. With simple actions, such as adjusting the air conditioning, taking advantage of natural light and changing light bulbs, it was possible to save 12% in less than a year. The return on investment was three months.

Despite all these initiatives, there is still much to be done to make energy consumption more efficient in existing buildings and there is no justification for not including it in new ones, in a context of crisis that makes clear the value of natural resources. With the aim of helping projects like these gain scale, Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development (Cebds) will hold in April this year, in Rio de Janeiro, the Laboratory of Energy Efficiency in Buildings (EEB, in the English acronym).

In partnership with WBCSD, led by Lafarge and with significant participation from Siemens and Schneider, the laboratory will bring together around 40 experts to diagnose the barriers that block the practice of energy efficiency in buildings. The discussions will focus on five strategic areas: investment and financing, policies and regulation, workforce training, return on investment and knowledge sharing/dissemination. The objective of this work is to have an action plan with the different stakeholders involved to be adopted in the city of Rio de Janeiro, chosen because it is at a time of great visibility and new constructions due to the Olympics.

This initiative has been successful in other cities around the world, such as San Francisco, Shanghai, Warsaw and Houston, and has already presented results that show that 40 % of improvements in energy efficiency can be achieved with a five-year payback period, and an additional 12%, with a 10-year payback period. This experience in the world and the one that will happen here can be replicated and adapted to any Brazilian city. As in other areas of economic activity, the sustainable civil construction model needs to be competitive to combine the cost and quality of our buildings, reducing the consumption of energy, water and other natural resources to acceptable levels.

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With the aim of contributing to projects like these (sustainable) gaining scale, the Cebds will hold the Laboratory of Energy Efficiency in Buildings