For several years now, it has been well established that the building sector – which accounts for 44% of France’s final energy consumption and 27% of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions – is a strategic field of action for the ecological transition. National policies in this area set targets:

• energy, with a 20% reduction in final energy consumption in 2030 compared to 2012 for this sector;
• and climate change, with the sector set to be almost completely decarbonized by 2050, in particular by upgrading the entire building stock to Bâtiment Basse Consommation (BBC) standard.

 Roadmaps exist, but results are slow in coming. For example, the European Commission has just unveiled its “Renovation wave” 
plan, in which it calls for a doubling of the renovation rate by 2030.
 There are many obstacles to energy renovation, particularly in the case of renovation work in condominiums, where the complexity of the decision-making and implementation process is multiplied tenfold.
 Through this project, the Energy for Society Chair is carrying out a detailed analysis of the various market failures encountered in the specific case of renovation work on private condominiums. The aim is to identify the key characteristics that could help to change or facilitate the decision-making process for co-owners to undertake such work.

Promoting the co-benefits of energy renovation

At a time when many people are questioning the relevance of accelerating the energy transition through energy renovation, it’s important to highlight and promote the co-benefits of such actions. Attitudes are changing, and people are becoming increasingly aware of global warming, and more inclined to make efforts – both in terms of behavior change and economic investment – to protect the planet. The difficulties encountered today must not be perceived as counter-productive, or make the perception of impacts ambiguous, and kill off the real potential of energy renovation to save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Taking new aspirations into account

The researchers assume that the main argument put forward to date – that of energy savings, by which they mean the economic profitability of energy renovation work – is not sufficient to motivate co-owners to undertake this work. Other motivations or obstacles are also at play, and the renovation offer must be able to adapt to these new aspirations.

 Thanks to the results of the study, the researchers hope to define the main features of a new service (a new offer) that would help accelerate energy renovation work in the case of condominium buildings, and ideally inspire public policies.

 First, a series of semi-directive (qualitative) interviews with key players in the sector will be used to identify the main characteristics (hereinafter referred to as attributes) of the decision-making process.
 Then, the results will be based on the analysis of quantitative data from discrete choice experiments conducted with co-owners who have not recently carried out any energy renovation work.
 Thanks to this method, it will be possible to test the sensitivity of co-owners to different energy renovation services or offers that could correct one or more market failures, and possibly define new public policies.

The discrete choice method

 This method (known as the Discrete Choice Experiment or DCE) involves presenting survey participants with two or more options, each characterized by different levels of attributes (e.g. amount or duration of investment, impact on comfort, expected energy savings, environmental impact, repayment method – either a loan or repayment via condominium charges, type of company in charge of managing such a service…), and asking them to indicate which option they prefer.
 The DCE thus enables us to observe the trade-offs that individuals make, in a choice situation, between the different attributes presented to them. This method makes it possible to estimate the propensity to pay (price elasticity) for each attribute.
 The attribute levels chosen for each scenario are determined by a computer algorithm that maximizes the amount of information gathered. This experimental method for revealing consumer sensitivity is frequently used for households, and is perfectly suited to our case study.

 The results of this research will be published on our website. Initial findings should be available in the second half of 2021.
 

Researchers associated with this project 

• Marie-Charlotte Guetlein, Assistant Professor
• Joachim Schleich, Senior Professor
• Carine Sebi, Associate Professor

NB: the introduction to this article draws heavily on the article published by Carine Sebi and Patrick Criqui in The Conversation France, “Rénovation énergétique, des obstacles à tous les étages“.