OPEN HOUSE, EC-funded Project, ENV-2009-244130, financed by the 7th Framework Programme of the European Commission and started in February 2010.
OPEN HOUSE - Benchmarking and mainstreaming building sustainability in the EU based on transparency and openness (open source and availability) from model to implementation.
OPEN HOUSE partners are:
(Nr, Partner name, Short name, Country)
OPEN HOUSE objective is to develop and to implement a common European transparent building assessment methodology, complementing the existing ones, for planning and constructing sustainable buildings by means of an open approach and technical platform.
OPEN HOUSE Platform will be built up facilitating a pan EU effort towards a common view on building sustainability. OPEN HOUSE baseline concept will be widely disseminated among stakeholders through its Platform.
OPEN HOUSE basis is transparency, which has not yet been properly achieved in the building sustainability assessment tools existing at European level. There are many methodologies in the US and in the EU, as mentioned before. However, there is little chance for stakeholders to look behind the scenes of these methodologies, to see the key assumptions and the calculation processes that they have been based upon and to interact with them. The calculation processes are not clear to the user. In this regard, it is not a problem of understanding, but one of lack of clarity--the methods are "black boxes"--they give answers, but the method is not clear enough.
How can we describe the current situation as regards efforts to assess building sustainability in the EU? Some scattered initiatives exist and are sometimes approaching maturity. DGNB (partner in the OPEN HOUSE consortium) carries out such assessments across Germany, ITB in Poland. Other similar activities are ongoing in other parts of the EU. However we are far from having a common EU wide approach. Fragmentation is unfortunately the dominant paradigm. And fragmentation allows competitive poles, such as the US, to gradually promote their approaches in EU. In short, the real issue in the EU is not the concept development itself. There are a few already around. Of course, adaptations will always be required as the technology and political landscape moves. However, the real issue is how to converge to establish a common view, how to mainstream building assessment methodologies.
The core assumption of our approach is that there is little chance for any assessment methodology to become the mainstream and to reach the “label” level, unless it is something that has been developed in a transparent, collective way.
Only EU wide discussion towards a common approach will produce an EU wide assessment methodology for sustainable buildings contributing to current activities on standardization of assessment methodologies at European level and also to a European potential related standard. Transparency is the key word; just as the ISO recommendations wisely highlight.
The key reflection that OPEN HOUSE seeks to address is how to merge existing methodologies towards a common view, widely adopted, till it becomes the mainstream.
Consequently, OPEN HOUSE should be an “open model” available for all stakeholders. Both transparency and openness may lead to radical progress; business interests can be safeguarded without the need to control or own the core model of building’s sustainability. The most solid advantage for stakeholders and OPEN HOUSE partners will be the follow up services of the implementation of this model.
Against this strategic background, the two key challenges of the OPEN HOUSE approach are these:
Information on OPEN HOUSE available at http://www.openhouse-fp7.eu
