Energy targets and economic aspects in retrofitting an Italian existing office building

Nowadays, most of the energy efficiency investments are in new buildings rather than retrofits, even though existing constructions constitute the real wastefulness element in the world’s buildings. Given the huge challenge of cutting the greenhouse gas emissions of the global building stock, an extraordinary opportunity exists to scale up retrofit efficiency measures. Many companies remain ill-informed about the true costs of their energy consumption and often underestimate its financial significance for their businesses, and usually they overestimate the cost of constructing energy-efficient buildings. However, some surveys highlighted that, since in 2012, many companies in the world have been replacing inefficient lighting, HVAC systems and building insulation with more efficient technologies in their offices; they have been going beyond equipment upgrades and rethinking the design and indoor layout to maximize use of natural light; they have recognized that operations and organizational change are as important as technology in reducing consumption. Moreover, they have found that energy-efficient buildings could give them a marketing advantage. To investigate this topic the present paper describes the results of a cost optimal analysis applied to one of the existing office buildings of a great Italian company. In particular, the main aim of this research is to identify the most economically viable retrofit measures in a tenant perspective (because the company has not the building property), and how the economic assumptions used in the evaluation influenced the final outcomes and represents a critical aspect of this kind of complex methodology.