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It is well known that from the 160 million buildings in the EU the majority of them (estimated 85%) are thermally inefficient. Therefore, it is of serious matter that existing buildings become energy renovated. However, experiences gathered during the last decade showed that this process is not straightforward. This project will focus on early phases of a building project when the building owner still hasn’t decided what to do and there is a possibility to influence the thoughts about renovation in order to plan for renovation measures that will make the building operate in a more sustainable way. The main purpose of this study is to present the main aspects of initiatives in the field of energy upgrading of buildings in Europe today. Through a comprehensive literature review, light will be shed on issues related to both national policies and the main financial instruments that are currently pressing the energy renovation of buildings. Both the obstacles and the contribution of national regulations will be discussed, towards promotion of sustainable renovation in Europe today. This study is also expected to report on research initiatives currently being undertaken in Europe on the energy upgrade buildings, as well as on related research programs.

Global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions reached an all-time high in 2010, rising 45% in the past 20 years. The rise of peoples’ concerns regarding environmental problems such as global warming and waste management problem has led to a movement to convert the current mass-production, mass-consumption, and mass-disposal type economic society into a sustainable society. The Rio Conference on Environment and Development in 1992, and other similar environmental milestone activities and happenings, documented the need for better and more detailed knowledge and information about environmental conditions, trends, and impacts. New thinking and research with regard to indicator frameworks, methodologies, and actual indicators are also needed. The value of the overall indicators depends on the production procedure of each material, and indicates their environmental impact. The use of “exergy indicators” based on the exergy content of materials and the use of the second law of thermodynamics in this work presents the relationship between exergy content and environmental impact.