An assessment study undertaken by Ongreening for UNESCO & HiRef SpA on new Ground Source Heat Pumps

Cheap-GSHPs green assessment A. Senatore R. Sannia Ongreening

Published by UNESCO Palazzo Zorzi | Sede UNESCO Castello, 4930 | 30122 Venezia - Italy

© 2019 Ongreening The moral right of the authors have been asserted.

All rights reserved, No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the copyright owner.

Why this publication This work is part of the dissemination and exploitation tasks set by the Bureau for the EU-funded H2020 Cheap-GHSPs project.

The aim of this publication is to illustrate the outcome of the initial assessment carried out by Ongreening® and focused on evaluating how the Cheap-GSHPs technology can potentially contribute to most-accepted international green building rating systems (i.e.

LEED®, BREEAM®, WELLTM, etc.).

The publication also provides a brief overview of the global green building industry and its trends, as well as a brief introduction of the major rating systems for cultural and civil buildings.

The above will certainly be instrumental to enhance the future uptake of Cheap-GSHPs derived solutions in the context of the green building.

Limits of this publication Due to the prototype nature of the Cheap-GSHPs derived technologies, the assessment had to be undertaken on the basis of a limited set of information available at this stage. Future in-depth investigations may help highlight the potential actions to maximize the compatibility of the Cheap-GSHPs derived technology with green rating schemes, and assist market penetration, both nationally and internationally.

This publication was created by Ongreening in close collaboration with UNESCO | May 2019

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CONTENTS Green building: a fast-growing sector

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Cheap-GSHPs Project

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Exploiting market opportunities

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LEED® Rating system

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BREEAM® Rating system

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GBC Historic Building® Rating system

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CAM Edilizia (Criteri Ambientali Minimi)

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Cheap-GSHPs Assessment

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Outcomes

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“ We know that the world has the

tools, the technologies and the wealth to address climate change, but we must show more determination in moving towards a green, clean, sustainable energy future.

[Secretary-General’s remarks at a press encounter at the UN Headquarters, in New York, 05 Oct 2017]

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Green building: a fast-growing sector Global green building market continues soaking up large market share, doubling every three years. A trend that, in very few decades, has become a trillion-dollar industry. The demand for sustainable buildings, which is significantly increasing, is likely to continue to do so in the future, according to recent studies [1]. While green building accounts today for 40% of the global construction market, in Europe, the sustainable building industry is set to play a crucial role in reaching the EU’s target greenhouse gas emissions reduction of 80-95% by 2050.

The achievement of a competitive low carbon economy by 2050 can be achieved through innovation, cost effectiveness and resource efficiency [2]. Meeting the 80% reduction target by 2050 will require 80% of the existing building stock to be refurbished; that is the equivalent of one building every minute for the next 40 years.

Green Public Procurement policies (GPP) and the rapidly dissemination of voluntary certification programs for green buildings are among the key drivers that have been underpinning this growth, along with the increasingly stringent carbon regulatory requirements, the rising awareness about the benefits of green technologies, the higher resale value of green buildings, and the greater societal demand for greener and healthier space to live, work and relax in.

In this context, technological advancements, such those pursuit by the Cheap-GSHPs Project, could enable existing energy inefficient buildings to be converted into green assets.

[1] WGBC Annual Report 2017-18; Dodge Data & Analytics, 2016; https://USGBC.org; https://ongreening.com [2] European Commission. (2011). A Roadmap for moving to a competitive low carbon economy in 2050

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Cheap-GSHPs Project The H2020 project Cheap-GHSPs aims at reducing the total cost of low enthalpy geothermal systems by improving current drilling/ installation technologies and designs of Ground Source Heat Exchangers. In particular, the Cheap-GHSPs is a very important testing ground to acquire further evidence of the fact that innovative geothermal solutions, such as novel heat pumps for higher temperatures developed within the project, are capable to reduce the costs in the market for retrofitting buildings, including historical ones.

The outcomes are of relevance to further expand the inherent potentiality of shallow geothermal power systems for both heating and cooling purposes.

The project comprises the design and the implementation of a wide array of demonstrative sites located in diversified urban and climatic environments which have performed as laboratories for the development of good practices to test and uptake innovative solutions and ideas, inspiring shifts in policies, planning and technology being inspirational beyond case-based boundaries to a worldwide scale. The project has brought plenty of evidence of the compatibility of such innovative systems with the requirements of preservation and conservation along with the need for a comfortable environment and a more decarbonised economy that have to find their way to market [3].

An outstanding scientific consortium has been working on the Cheap-GHSPs, including CNR-ISAC (Project coordinator), UNESCO, CNR-ITC, Universita’ degli Studi di Padova (Dep. of Geosciences and Dip. of Industrial Engineering), Tecnalia, Universitat Politècnica de València, RED Srl, Galletti, Geoexchange, Aner, Rehau, Friedrich-Alexander Universitat Erlangen Nurnberg, Cres, Supsi, SRL Environmental Consulting, Hydra, Geo Green and Pietre Edil. The initiative also includes the participation and support of the Green Building Council Italia (GBC Italia), the United States Green Building Council (US GBC), World Green Building Council (World GBC) and Ongreening.

[3] https://cheap-gshp.eu; http://www.unesco.org/new/en/venice/special-themes/cheap-gshps-project/

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Exploiting market opportunities Over the last decade, green building standards and standard-setting organizations have made significant strides towards the market transformation of the building industry, resulting in a rapid expansion of green buildings and environmentally conscious building practices throughout the world. Thus, in the last few decades the total number of assessed buildings under the major rating systems has increased enormously worldwide reaching an astonishing 2.65 billion square meters of certified floor space around the world [4].

There now exist hundreds of rating schemes worldwide to assess the sustainability performance of a building [5], operating at national and/or international level. Some of them, such as LEEDÂŽ, BREEAMÂŽ, WELLTM and Green Star, have earned internationally recognition being a mark of excellence in high-performance and sustainability.

Third-party green building rating systems provide an independent assessment of the energy, environmental and sustainability performance of building schemes, from design stages throughout construction and operation.

Novel rating schemes, such as the GBC Historic BuildingÂŽ developed by the Italian Green Building Council, have recently provided the opportunity to measure the environmental and sustainability performance of restoration and refurbishment works in buildings with historic and heritage significance.

There is no doubt that green building rating systems, along with the Green Public Procurement policies, are radically transforming global market landscape including the demand for green building products and sustainable technologies.

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[4] WGBC Annual Report 2017-18 [5] Ebert, T., Green Building certification systems, Detail, 2011

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LEED Certified projects by countries between 9 - 49 between 50 - 199 >200

LEED® Rating Systems LEED® – Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design – is the world’s most widely used green building certification program.

Developed by the US Green Building Council, LEED®, it is a third-party voluntary system that provides building owners and operators with a framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable healthy building design, green construction, operations and maintenance solutions.

Since its inception in 1998, LEED® has grown to become an industry-recognised mark of excellence in high-performance sustainable building and property industry.

LEED® is available for all building types, including commercial, residential and entire neighbourhood communities. The building’s environmental impact and performance is evaluated by using a whole-building approach to sustainability.

LEED® certification is awarded when a building project has satisfied all the prerequisites and earned a minimum number of credit points through the adoption of sustainability strategies in relation to energy efficiency, water conservation, building materials and finishes, indoor environmental quality, location and transportation, site development, innovative approaches and regionally focused priorities. Certification level depends on the achieved final score: Certified Silver, Gold and Platinum. With Platinum being the healthiest and most sustainable building [6]..

LEED v4.1 is the newest version of the LEED green building rating systems, which was released in early 2019.

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[6] https://USGBC.org;

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World’s most widely used green building certification program. adopted in more than 150 countries worldwide6 75,000 LEED® certified buildings equivalent to 700+ million sqm of floor area6

LEED®, it is a voluntary ystem, developed by the US Green Building Council 65,260 buildings currently pursuing LEED® certification6

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Certified projects by countries BREEAM between 5 - 20 between 21 - 200 >201

BREEAM® Rating Systems

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The world’s first comprehensive rating system for new and existing buildings

Used in 80+ countries and 568,000 buildings certified worldwide7

BREEAM® is a voluntary system, even if all most of local authorities in UK incorporated the standard as a mandatory requirement for the new buildings

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BREEAM® (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) is the world's longest established method used for measuring the environmental and sustainability performance of new and existing buildings.

Developed by BRE Global, a subsidiary of the BRE Group, in 1990, BREEAM® has reached a strong market recognition and is recognised by construction and property industry as the benchmark for best practice in environmental building design and management.

BREEAM® is a highly flexible rating system that is used to assess any building type, from new developments to refurbishments, from fit-out projects to building operations and maintenance.[7] In order to encourage even greater international acceptance, a BREEAM® International scheme and country-specific BREEAM® schemes were developed along the UK BREEAM® rating systems.

BREEAM® assessment uses recognised sustainability metrics and indices to evaluate the building performance across a range of environmental issues, including energy and water use, health and wellbeing, pollution, transport, materials, waste, ecology and management processes. Building are rated and certified on a scale of 'Pass', 'Good', 'Very Good', 'Excellent' and 'Outstanding', with the latter representing the highest level of sustainability in building. Assessments are carried out by independent, licenced, assessors.

[7] https://www.breeam.com/

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GBC Historic Building operating territory

GBC Historic Building® GBC Historic Building® , new green building rating system developed by GBC Italia in order to evaluate the sustainability level of restoration work, refurbishment, and integration in historic and pre-industrial buildings. The GBC Historic Building® offers the opportunity to combine framework and criteria of the International LEED® standards and the specific knowledge of the restoration and preservation theory and practice. The system measures the environmental and sustainability performance of the overall refurbishment activities starting from the design phase to the construction phase along with the operation and maintenance of the building [8,9].

The novel rating system is organized into environmental categories: Historic Value, Sustainable sites, Water Efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials and Resources, Indoor Environmental Quality, Innovation, Regional Priority.

The sustainability aspects of the restoration process are measured through categories of analysis that translate into requirements applicable to the existing building. In particular, the Historic Value category comprise preliminary and advanced investigative analysis (energy performance, diagnostic on materials and forms of degradation, etc.), project reversibility, building end-use compatibility, assessment of materials chemistry and their implementation, architectural heritage and landscape.

The GBC Italia has teamed up with leading international partners to drive the internationalization process of the GBC Historic Building® rating system and to identify International Pilot Projects [9].

Several historic buildings in Italy have recently been awarded GBC Historic Building certification.

[8] Boarin, P., et al. F. - Sustainability assessment of historic buildings, in Energy Procedia 61, 2014 [9] http://www.gbcitalia.org/historic-building

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The world’s first tool to rank the sustainability level of restoration works in historic buildings A 10th century Benedictine monastery awarded GBC Historic Building® Gold rating9 GBC Italia has started internationalization process of the GBC Historic Building®

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CAM Edilizia operating territory

CAM edilizia

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Mandatory environmental criteria for the Green Public Procurement in Italy

Since 2016, CAM to be included into the construction public tenders Public authorities can significantly drive circular economy and sustainability in building

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Following the EU policies on Green Public Procurement (GPP), in April 2016 the Italian Ministry of Environment introduced a set of environmental criteria for the building industry (Criteri Ambientali Minimi Edilizia – CAM Edilizia) aimed to facilitate the inclusion of green requirements in public tender documents. [10] Since then, it is mandatory for Italian public authorities to include CAM technical specifications and contractual clauses into building construction tender documentation, in order to drive the procurement of more environmentally friendly products and services. Through the above procurement policy, public authorities can significantly contribute to the circular economy and sustainability.

The aim is to stimulate purchases that minimise the use of natural resources and energy consumption, help the uptake of renewable sources, reduce the production of waste, pollutant emissions into the air, water and soil, and eliminate hazardous substances in favour of greener goods with a longer life span that promote recycling chain while triggering a voluntary mechanism for continuous and global improvement of the environmental performance of processes and products.

[10] https://www.minambiente.it/pagina/i-criteri-ambientali-minimi

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The collaborative web portal devoted to green building and sustainable building products

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Cheap-GSHPs assessment In order to evaluate the compatibility of Cheap-GSHPs derived solutions with internationally recognised green building rating systems and Italian GPP policies, Ongreening® applied its proprietary technology ProductMAP® to run a preliminary multi-criterion environmental and compliance assessment. It is reckoned that this work is instrumental to enhance the future uptake of Cheap-GSHPs technologies in the context of the Green Building.

ProductMAP® At the core of Ongreening ProductMAP® is a disruptive data-driven technology that helps manufacturers increase the value of materials by automatically evaluating building product compliance with 33+ green building rating schemes and Green Public Procurement criteria including LEED®, BREEAM®, WELL™, Estidama®, BRE HQM®, HK Beam Plus® and CAM. The powerful algorithm uses more than 11,000 sustainability criteria to calculate product contribution to green building certification schemes and to provide manufacturers with guidance aimed at advancing product sustainability and making greener and healthier building materials. The novel tool is applicable to a wide range of construction materials, building products, technologies and components.

ProductMAP® underpins an online cloud-based advanced material database that enables design and construction team making product selection decisions based on material performance and sustainability criteria. With ProductMAP®, Ongreening aims to drive greater accessibility and transparency on building material data across the entire supply chain.

For its uniqueness and innovative approach, ProductMAP® was recently endorsed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and the New York based International WELL Building Institute, two of the world’s leading authorities of the Green Building Industry.

‘ProductMAP® revolutionizes the way project architects, specifiers and builders find and select their sustainable materials, by putting the best resources at their fingertips’ said Mahesh Ramanujam, president and CEO of the USGBC. 12

ProductSEARCH

ProductMAP

GLOBAL VISIBILITY

MARKETING

GREEN BUILDING

Assessment Methodology The assessment was carried out considering the Cheap-GSHPs derived technologies as a whole system, including the Ground Source Heat Pump, the new drilling technique and the coaxial ground source heat exchanger. Technical and functional data, related to the Cheap-GSHPs derived solutions, were supplied by the research team.

In particular, the information regarding the ground source heat pump was gathered from HiRef S.p.A. The above data was then entered into the ProductMAP® algorithm, in order to run a multi-criterion analysis and verify potential matching, and synergies, between product technical characteristics and green rating protocols, individual credits and associated requisites of each individual green rating system. The objectives of the assessment were as follows: - Verify product compliance with major green building standards; - Identify product potential contributions to 33+ international green building rating systems and Green Public Procurement criteria, including LEED®, BREEAM®, WELL™, Estidama®, BRE HQM®, HK Beam Plus® and CAM Edilizia; - Provide a set of valuable information to assist the future uptake of Cheap-GSHPs derived solutions in the context of the green building; - Display product on Ongreening, the innovative online material database, in order to help communicate transparently and effectively the sustainability performance of the Cheap-GSHPs derived solutions across the supply chain.

Limitations of the assessment Due to the prototype nature of the Cheap-GSHPs system, the assessment was limited to a small set of information available at this stage. It is reckoned that the above limitation of data, may have impacted on the overall compliance to green rating credit requirements.

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Pitcure above: A screenshot of the product page available at Ongreening.com

LEED

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CAM

BREEAM

HQM

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WELL

GREEN STAR

Outcomes Energy performance and environmental impact of the building services solutions is one of the key focus of all major green rating systems, such as LEED® and BREEAM®, and green public procurement policies (CAM Edilizia).

As a result, HVAC&R (heating, ventilating, air-conditioning and refrigerant) systems, such as ground source heat pumps (GSHP), play unquestionably a crucial role in the design of sustainable buildings. In particular, the following are recognized among the most important criteria to consider when selecting a ground source heat pump system in relation with the green building certification schemes: Refrigerant type All green rating systems aim at minimizing or eliminating the emission of compounds that contribute to anthropogenic ozone depletion and climate change.

In line with the Montreal Protocol and the recent European regulation on fluorinated greenhouse gases, green building rating systems reward with valuable credits points GSHP technologies that employ refrigerants with low, or zero, ozone depletion potential (ODP) and low global warming potential (GWP). On this aspect, the Cheap-GSHPs derived technologies adopts a strong environmental solution which is totally complaint with both mandatory and credit requirements of LEED®, BREEAM®, Estidama®, and other schems: the refrigerant R744, used for the primary circuit, has a zero OPD and a GWP of 1.

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Results have shown that, due to the innovative and outstanding performance, the Cheap-GSHPs derived technologies can potentially contribute, both direct and indirect, to major green rating systems.

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Energy performance The outstanding energy performance of assessed system coupled with a low operating cost makes the Cheap-GSHPs derived technologies an environmentally-friendly and a cost-effective alternative to traditional heating and cooling equipment. The above aspects are rewarded in the context of the international building sustainability rating schemes.

Further rewarding aspects A number of additional direct and indirect contributions to most widespread energy-environmental protocols were identified throughout the ProductMAP® multi-criteria assessment. A complete set of information on product potential contributions to major green rating systems and Italian Green Public Procurement policy (CAM Edilizia) is freely available online at Ongreening.com As confirmed by the research team, the novel drilling technique developed throughout the research project helps to significantly reduce the environmental impact and site disturbances due to the drilling operation. The above is certainly a rewarded aspect in the context of green rating system. In fact, reducing pollution from construction activities is a key aspect considered by the majority of the green rating systems, worldwide. Additionally, the assessment has included an initial screening of the potential strategies that may help maximize the compatibility of the Cheap-GSHPs derived technology with green rating schemes, and assist market penetration, both nationally and internationally. Among the additional aspects that may be considered in order to further enhance the current GSHP prototype may include: refrigerant leak detection system, third-party environmental certification and EU ecolabeling, recycled content, etc. Further in-depth analyses are strongly recommended in order to effectively raise the market value of the Cheap-GSHPs derived technologies and help their uptake in the green building context, both nationally and internationally.

Full results of the current assessment, including the complete set of information on product potential contributions to major green rating systems, are made freely available online at Ongreening.com 15

About Ongreening® Ongreening® is an independent data-driven digital platform dedicated to sustainability-focused practices and material data. Ongreening’s mission is to make green building easier and more assessible to all while driving true data transparency of material data across the supply chain .

The Ongreening® platform combines invaluable resources on green building with an innovative material database, called ProductMAP®, that makes it easier for architects, developers, and contractors to choose healthy and sustainable building materials complying with world’s major green building ratings systems and labelling schemes, such as LEED®, WELL, etc. Since Ongreening® started in 2014, the initiative has been joined by a global community of 35,000+ green building professionals including the world’s most renowned architecture and engineering firms.

About the Authors Alfonso Senatore Founder of Ongreening, Alfonso is a lifelong sustainability advocate and green building consultant, with 19+ years of international experience delivering high-profile building developments and green products consultancy services. He has taken executive and management roles working globally with Arup, Meinhardt and others. Prior to launch Ongreening in 2014, Alfonso served as a Sustainability Team Leader at Arup and a member of the Arup Italia Board Leadership.

Thanks to his exceptional solid expertise across all major green building rating schemes, Alfonso has been helping a significant number of small, medium and large building product manufacturers unlock new business opportunities in the fast-growing green building market, both locally and internationally. Alfonso is Senior Lecturer in Sustainable Built Environment at the University of East London.

Rosa Sannia Director of Ongreening, Rosa is a highly skilled architect with over 19-year international experience in project management and building design consultancy. She has taken lead roles in several complex healthcare design projects. Over the last 4 years, she has been actively involved in the development of the Ongreening’s innovative data-driven algorithm, ProductMAP, and management of several research projects on building and material sustainability-focused subjects.

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