Learning from the experience of bringing Level(s) to real Life

Introduction

More LIFE to LEVELs proposes to gain a rigorous, harmonised and thorough understanding of how the Level(s) Framework is applied in different building typologies across Europe. In development since 2014, with a major update in 2020 and a number of dedicated tenders and projects since 2019, Level(s) is being demanded by the building sector in line with other regulatory and strategic tools.

Objectives

These tools are integrated at the European level to convey a common language, benchmarks, and approach to:

• Circular economy
• Climate mitigation and adaptation
• Health and value of buildings in Europe

The need to reduce the 40% energy use, 36% GHG emissions, and other impacts of buildings justifies the urgency of these tools. Hence, these must be adopted and reported by building developers and owners at mass scale and at a fast pace.

Existing Tools

There is another set of tools already doing this for the market of sustainable buildings: the certification schemes. More LIFE to LEVELs follows the outstanding pioneering work of the DGNB-system, which is already Level(s) compliant, to research how Level(s) is applied. This project aims to:

1. Answer the sector’s demand for unifying processes and targets
2. Reduce buildings’ impacts
3. Accelerate the transition to sustainability

Partnerships

Four Green Building Councils (GBCs), already using the DGNB-System and other sustainability certification schemes, partner up to cover different regional and cultural approaches to building sustainably. They grant a pool of cases larger than the 10 requested, with the support of an existing community linked both to the scheme and to the GBCs - national sectorial associations - that run the scheme.

Implementation and Results

As building certifications are already proceeding, results can be obtained on the go, and feedback can be integrated into the process to implement learnings and insights to produce the case studies. Moreover, the dissemination capacity of the certifiers’ networks can make the case for the sector that Level(s) is LIFE, ready to be adopted and ready to benefit processes and results.