Including future climate induced cost when assessing building refurbishment performance

Improving energy efficiency in the existing buildings stock is essential to limit climate change and the economic assessment of measures are traditionally only based on the reduction of energy costs. However, future financial benefits of limiting climate change are rarely included in the evaluation of refurbishment investments. Although, the costs associated with global warming are expected to be extensive. This study introduces a method for the financial evaluation of energy efficiency investments that merge the reduction of life cycle energy costs with the reduction of future climate induced costs. A case study is used to exemplify the method. The case study shows that when reduced future costs due to mitigated life cycle greenhouse gas emissions are included in the analysis, the ranking between different measures can change and traditionally non-profitable measures may become financially sound investments. The introduced Economy+ indicator is shown to be an accessible performance measure to assess building refurbishment and may also be used in the design stage of new construction.