TY - BOOK
T1 - Business from Sustainability
T2 - Drivers for Energy Efficient Housing
AU - Halme, Minna
AU - Nieminen, Jyri
AU - Nykänen, Esa
AU - Sarvaranta, Leena
AU - Savonen, Antti
N1 - Project code: R5SU01301
PY - 2005
Y1 - 2005
N2 - Why is the market interest in energy efficient houses
still low? Is it because consumers do not want to pay a
higher initial investment cost? Are consumers interested
or aware of energy related issues? Are the constructors
unwilling to push these products to the market in a
situation where price seems to be the only source of
competitive advantage?
In the last 15-20 years, a number of projects have been
carried out aiming at energy-efficient and
environmentally friendly housing. There is a wide range
of technologies and concepts that have been tested in
monitoring projects. Technological possibilities to
reduce a building's energy consumption have been
available for a long time. Also, the costs of energy
efficiency have been proved to be almost negligible.
Despite the existing vast amount of information, no clear
market change has happened.
The scope of a low-energy building is to achieve
comfortable, healthy and safe indoor climate. The
construction is based on simple and well performing
materials, structures and building services systems that
fulfil the requirements set for the building. Energy
efficient housing would offer many individual level
benefits, and in order to assess them one should have a
long-term perspective. As heating accounts for a majority
of the life cycle costs of a house, energy efficiency
means substantial cost savings. However, up to now most
homebuilders are not focused on energy efficiency. There
is not a single barrier that keeps energy-efficient
housing from taking off. A whole range of issues has to
be considered. Commercialisation of energy efficient
single-family houses comes close to the problems of
commercialising any environmentally sustainable product.
They come in conflict with the current industry
structures, organisations and institutions and with the
general behaviour of different, related actors. In this
situation, special measures are needed to promote
commercialisation. The transition to sustainability needs
to be managed.
Earlier research findings on energy efficient building,
conducted by VTT, are now complemented by this study. We
have identified major trends paving the way towards
business from sustainability. Our focus was on three
strategic issues:1. Demand and supply of niche products,
i.e. energy efficient single-family houses; 2. Drivers
for business potential and opportunities; 3. Management
of transition to environmentally sustainable business.
AB - Why is the market interest in energy efficient houses
still low? Is it because consumers do not want to pay a
higher initial investment cost? Are consumers interested
or aware of energy related issues? Are the constructors
unwilling to push these products to the market in a
situation where price seems to be the only source of
competitive advantage?
In the last 15-20 years, a number of projects have been
carried out aiming at energy-efficient and
environmentally friendly housing. There is a wide range
of technologies and concepts that have been tested in
monitoring projects. Technological possibilities to
reduce a building's energy consumption have been
available for a long time. Also, the costs of energy
efficiency have been proved to be almost negligible.
Despite the existing vast amount of information, no clear
market change has happened.
The scope of a low-energy building is to achieve
comfortable, healthy and safe indoor climate. The
construction is based on simple and well performing
materials, structures and building services systems that
fulfil the requirements set for the building. Energy
efficient housing would offer many individual level
benefits, and in order to assess them one should have a
long-term perspective. As heating accounts for a majority
of the life cycle costs of a house, energy efficiency
means substantial cost savings. However, up to now most
homebuilders are not focused on energy efficiency. There
is not a single barrier that keeps energy-efficient
housing from taking off. A whole range of issues has to
be considered. Commercialisation of energy efficient
single-family houses comes close to the problems of
commercialising any environmentally sustainable product.
They come in conflict with the current industry
structures, organisations and institutions and with the
general behaviour of different, related actors. In this
situation, special measures are needed to promote
commercialisation. The transition to sustainability needs
to be managed.
Earlier research findings on energy efficient building,
conducted by VTT, are now complemented by this study. We
have identified major trends paving the way towards
business from sustainability. Our focus was on three
strategic issues:1. Demand and supply of niche products,
i.e. energy efficient single-family houses; 2. Drivers
for business potential and opportunities; 3. Management
of transition to environmentally sustainable business.
KW - single family houses
KW - energy efficiency
KW - energy consumption
KW - energy conservation
KW - environmentally sustainable business
KW - eco-efficient construction
KW - regional construction
KW - strategic niche management
KW - life-cycle costs
KW - business opportunities
M3 - Report
SN - 951-38-6741-2
T3 - VTT Tiedotteita - Meddelanden - Research Notes
BT - Business from Sustainability
PB - VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
CY - Espoo
ER -