Integrated Renovation Process: Overcoming barriers to sustainable renovation

The improvement of the building stocks represents an enormous potential for the reduction of energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, it is crucial to convince and support building owners to invest in sustainable renovation. The main objective of this paper is to develop a more structured and holistic method of decision making toward nearly zero-energy building renovation. The methodology is evolutive, implementable on a large scale, and allows an optimal integration of nonexpert decision makers. In practice, such a scheme allowed most behavioral barriers to sustainable home renovation to be overcome. The homeowners were better integrated and their preferences and immaterial values were better taken into account. To keep the decision-making process economically viable and timely, the process as known today still needs to be improved, and new tools need to be developed. This paper presents a new scheme: the integrated renovation process. One successful case study is introduced, and recommendations for future developments needed in the field are provided.