Minergie-Label
Region: Switzerland/Liechtenstein, exported in other countries
Implemented on: (inter)national level
Target group: Building owners (public, commercial/industrial and private buildings)
Summary:
MINERGIE® is a sustainable quality label for new and refurbished buildings established by the Minergie Association. Building owners using Minergie-Label can get public subsidies or better credit conditions and can even use it as energy certificate which is obligatory for any commercial/industrial building in Switzerland. The applied standards don’t exceed official instructions in many cases, but they make them obligatory. Additional investment is needed for ventilation. The label is mutually supported by the Swiss Confederation, the Principality of Liechtenstein, the Swiss Cantons along with trade and industries.
Objectives:
- Comfortable buildings which are also beneficial to health;
- High energy-efficiency and drastic reduction of the use of fossil fuels;
- Inexpensive systems providing high long-term value of buildings.
Funding/Costs:
- Costs are 3 to 10% maximum higher than normal construction. According to Minergie, returns on investments after 7 years;
- In Switzerland, financial subsidies are delivered by each canton;
- The “Building Program” can finance renovation if following Minergie but also renewable energies and is financed from the Swiss CO2 Tax (budget: 280 to 300 Million of CHF each year);
- Some banks deliver attractive credits for Minergie constructions or refurbishment.
Results:
Quantity: Today around 30.000 buildings have Minergie standard.
Quality: Certification is done on the basis of planning values and thus offers no guarantee that these values are actually met. However, research shows that refurbishment projects and single family homes are better than the standard while larger residential buildings sometimes do not meet the standards.
Lessons learnt:
- Minergie is a powerful driving force in sustainable renovation and construction promoting regional markets for sustainable buildings and creating business opportunities for innovative builders, investors, enterprises and authorities;
- Minergie is meeting the objectives mentioned above to additional costs of only 10%;
- Strengths can also be criticized: Minergie took the monopole of quality labels in Switzerland; anyhow, in other countries, it is difficult to use this label which is not always comparable to the national standards;
- Minergie takes not into account e.g. external site and mobility;
- Doubtful, whether overhead costs and return on investment really can be measured.