A PROPOSAL OF GUIDELINES FOR ENERGY CERTIFICATION OF THE MEDITERRANEAN BUILDING TYPOLOGIES: THE LIFE PROJECT “SUN&WIND”

This paper describes part of the work carried out in the framework of the UE Life “Sun & Wind” Project (ENV/IT/ 000594). The main aim of the project is to propose planning strategies and political actions to be shared by the local authorities in order to promote the use of local building materials and construction techniques of the Mediterranean area. Technical and methodological tools have been defined to address design and construction processes to energy saving, energy efficiency and environmental design. Moreover, new guidelines for energy and environmental certification of buildings are proposed. These guidelines, obviously compliant with the EU directive 2002/91/CE and the Italian energy-saving laws, introduce a suitable set of environmental criteria. These criteria will allow to assess the sustainability of the building in a more comprehensive way , dealing with resources consumption, environmental loads and indoor comfort, use of local materials, energy self-generation from renewable sources, CO2 emission from HVAC, solar radiation control, thermal inertia of the building envelope, daylighting, and acoustic insulation. The most innovative content is the one related to a subset of criteria assessing the energy content of materials by means of a simplified LCA approach, as embodied energy and use of ecological materials. A specific local database will be created soon. Ranges of values and their respective ranks are outlined to establish the overall quality buildings.