Strengthening Capacities for Energy Efficiency in buildings in Latin America (CEELA)

Despite the past decades of economic growth in the region, five main problems have impeded the implementation of efficient construction principles in Latin America: (i) Low demand: so far, there are only few eco-efficient building projects with verifiable thermal comfort criteria; (ii) Limited academic and professional knowledge: only few universities offer sustainable construction programmes; (iii) Local market actors perceive efficient buildings as expensive: there are few attractive business models for sustainable construction; (iv) Norms and regulations are implemented slowly: there are only few instruments for regulating efficient construction at the local level which leads to a low adoption of efficient building codes; and (v) Locked financial resources: there are few financial incentives to promote efficient construction.

CEELA will improve the conditions for solving these problems, based on the lessons learned in Switzerland over the past 40 years as well as on SDC’s successful projects in Latin America and the Building Energy Efficiency Project (BEEP) in India.

Direct beneficiaries: (i) Architecture and engineering lecturers/professors, and students (ii) architectural and engineering professionals, (iii) construction workers and operational personnel, (iv) government officials in ministries and municipalities, (v) construction and real estate companies, (vi) industries that supply the materials and technology that promote energy efficiency.

Final beneficiaries: building users will able to live/work study in buildings with improved thermal comfort.

Outcome 1 – Showcases: Latin American building sector professionals adopt Energy-Efficient and Thermally Comfortable (EETC) building design through  replicable showcase buildings: Four pilot buildings are designed and implemented with an integrated design approach to achieve higher energy efficiency and thermal comfort, adapting international knowledge to local needs.

Outcome 2 – Capacities and knowledge of building sector professionals and technicians created and strengthened: Professionals and technicians in the construction sector in Latin America have improved skills in energy efficient and thermally comfortable buildings, and have greater access to relevant information. Special attention will be given to promoting gender equality.

Outcome 3 – Regulatory framework: Latin American decision makers have jointly elaborated recommendations to improve national and municipal regulatory frameworks and plans for implementing them: National authorities and actors committed to regulatory changes are sensitized and trained, and through participatory processes implementation plans to execute regulatory changes which promote efficient construction and thermal comfort are elaborated.

Risultati principali attesi:  

·      Four successful and available models of
       energy-efficient buildings implemented which
      are less polluting and offer improved thermal
      comfort compared with business as usua
      buildings with no EETC strategies. (Outcome 1)

·     Recommendations and criteria to incorporate
      energy efficiency and thermal comfort in new
      buildings published in an EETC criteria and
      recommendations manual. (Outcome 1)

·     Education system and capacity building in
      EETC strengthened for building professionals
     (women and men)who work on efficient design
     and construction and thermal comfort
     (e.g., architecture, engineering, masonry, teaching
     and political decision-making). (Outcome 2)

·     Communication tool created to disseminate
      information across the regions to the various
      target groups of EETC construction. (Outcome 2)

-    Four implementation plans leading towards
     regulatory changes created and implemented.
     (Outcome 3)

Risultati fasi precedenti:  

During the Inception Phase, the main problems related to the general application of the principles of efficient construction in Latin America have been identified, it has also been validated that the intervention of the CEELA project will contribute to Ecuador’s, Colombia’s, Mexico’s and Peru's progress in fulfilling national commitments under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, by  strengthening local regulations that are currently dysfunctional, increasing access to energy and thermally efficient construction financing and contributing to the change in socio-cultural paradigms in the construction sector (which only associate comfort to the upper classes). To this end, expressions of interest from public, private and academic actors have been collected.

It has also been shown that actors in the region highly value the Swiss experience in energy-efficient construction, as well as SDC's long thematic experience in Latin America with its approach of combining multi-sector, multi-level and multi-actor knowledge management, as well as its regional and global strategic impact capacity. Synergies of work with SECO in Colombia were also identified.

Fase 1 15.03.2019 - 31.10.2023   (Completed)