CommONEnergy: re‐conceptualizing shopping malls from consumerism to energy conservation

Wholesales & Retail buildings represent 28% of the total non-residential building stock, accounting for approximately 157 Mtoe in 2005.Considering typical shopping malls high impact on modern society, the project addresses their transformation as lighthouses of energy efficient architectures and systems as well as assessment transparency. CommONEnergy is a project funded by the European Community, Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013). It has the objective to re-conceptualize shopping malls through deep retrofitting, develop a systemic approach made of technologies and solution sets as well as methods and tools to support their implementation and to assess their impact in a life cycle approach. The main concept to advance the state-ofthe- art is the shift from single-action refurbishment to deep retrofitting, with a systemic performance-driven approach including among others: integrated design process guidelines, solution-sets made of passive and active components and systems, integrative modelling environment, energy-economic evaluation tools, lean construction and management procedures, continuous commissioning approach, environmental and sociocultural impact assessment. The Systemic Retrofitting Approach (SRA) allows to achieve the foreseen targets: up to factor 4 reduction of energy demand, power peaks shaving and 50% increased share of renewable energy source favoured by the intelligent energy management and effective storage. 10 to 20 systemic solution-sets will be developed, demonstrating the widest replication of the cases investigated during the project. These outstanding energy performances will be achieved with short pay-back times (below 7 years) and high indoor environmental quality, with industrial conceptualization of the solutions and implementation tools. Organisation of technical workshops for relevant stakeholders contributes to create a generation of skilled practitioners and promote a domino effect to exploit benefits.