On February 3rd 2002 a virtual meeting was held among Rebus partners to discuss about the impact of COVID-19 on the energy consumption of buildings.
Partners focused on the adaptation to specific health emergencies using hybrid working buildings and on the impact of shortages of construction workers/materials, limited availability, and increases in energy costs for renovation processes.
Each partner presented the state of the art in their country pointing out how they overcame some barriers and faced the above mentioned problems.
In particular, Rich Hurst, Rebus manager from Durham County Council showed the other partners how energy consumption and CO2 emissions have changed since March 2020 when the Covid19 emergency started and caused massive use of remote working in both public and private sectors. Working from home not necessarily means a decrease in energy consumption because sometimes offices must be kept warm for the few people working in there and at the same time people working from home consume their own energy. It was interesting to notice how similar the situation is in the different countries where remote working was implemented. A decrease in CO2 emissions was on the contrary reached thanks to the mobility of people driving less to reach the working place.
All these experiences will be shared with the local stakeholders to analyse which could be the most effective working model to implement.
Another issue faced during this meeting was the increase of price and difficulty in supplying construction workers and material. This is aggravated by the increase of prices of construction goods and of energy cost, which tend to delay renovation works.
Rebus partners will keep working on these topics with the aim of finding policy solutions that can benefit European regions.