Criteria for Climate-Compatible Building Financing in Switzerland

In order for Switzerland to achieve its Paris climate goals, the building stock must become significantly more climate compatible. To achieve this, investments are needed. TEP Energy, together with Raiffeisen Schweiz, is defining clear criteria for identifying environmentally sustainable buildings so that investments can increasingly flow in their direction.

With reference to the work of the EU Technical Expert Group on Sustainable Finance and the international Climate Bond Initiative, a "best in class" approach is used. In order to determine the values relating to climate compatibility of the best buildings (top 15%), TEP Energy's building stock model is used. Clear and practical criteria are defined that distinguish climate compatible buildings. The criteria are based on two dimensions: requirements in building regulations (MuKEn, Minergie, GEAK) and the energy sources used to produce space heating and hot water. For the financing of energetic renovations, criteria are defined for improvements of GEAK classes.

  • Project durationDecember 2019 – April 2021

  • Contact at TEP EnergyMartin Jakob

  • Contracting partyRaiffeisen Schweiz Genossenschaft

  • Final reportPDF, in german

  • Research paper (Jakob et al., 2022)PDF, in english

  • Poster from the Swiss Real Estate Research Congress 2022PDF

  • Presentation at the Brenet Status Seminar 2022PDF

  • Presentation at the ECEEE summer study in June 2021PDF

  • Presentation at the ECEEE summer study in June 2021Video

Reference projects

Energy renovation rates in the building sector

Various federal and cantonal energy and climate policy measures are aimed at significantly increasing the energy renovation rate. Based on this comprehensive survey, the report shows how the energy renovation rate has developed in recent years and how high it currently is.

Net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in the building sector | TEP Energy

Together with partners, TEP Energy is developing methodological principles (F0) based on the WLCNN method, examining the achievability of net-zero targets (F1) using technical and economic scenarios and developing implementation strategies (F2, F3) with technical and political concepts. In addition, existing standards are analysed in order to harmonize regulations and ensure comparability (F4).

Low-temperature district heating networks. The basis for modernizing the heat sector.

Renewable energies and waste heat sources are to replace the coal and natural gas sources that have dominated Polish district heating networks up to now. 

First and foremost, this requires a reduction of the system temperature. The study shows the technical, regulatory and organisational measures required to achieve this
and determines the overall potential for decarbonising district heating in Poland.

Energy Policy Simulator

TEP Energy is supporting the San Francisco based think tank Energy Innovation in the expansion of its Energy Policy Simulator (EPS).

Future of Gas Study

TEP analysed the energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions of buildings of residential and service sector in EU27 countries to model different pathways of fossil fuel substitution.

MEDIUS

MEDIUS bridges the gap between green finance and green projects to decarbonize buildings at scale.

Country-specific Market Reports for Buildings

Building Market Briefs (BMB) is a Climate KIC initiative within the flagship Building Technologies Accelerator (BTA) that aims to gather and promote knowledge about the buildings' and construction sector to promote low carbon investment and scaling.

Heating Initiative Switzerland

On behalf of the Swiss Heating Initiative (WIS), the decarbonization of the heating sector will be examined by 2050. Spatial potential analyzes and the Swiss building stock model (GPM) are used.

CoolCity

Assessment of the potential for lake water use for heating and cooling in the city of Zurich

Energy-Saving Contracting

Increasing energy efficiency is one of the central pillars of Swiss energy policy and energy-saving contracting contributes to this goal.