Sometimes seen as very energy-consuming buildings, shopping centres have though a high potential for energy savings and offer regular opportunities to improve their technical systems, building envelope or monitoring systems.

This report focuses on the main drivers associated with deep energy retrofitting of shopping centres, highlighting which ones have a greater impact.

Retrofitting takes place within a context, which includes retail, technical, social, functional and aesthetic aspects. Drivers for deep energy retrofits are defined as factors enabling this particular type of retrofitting. Their role in energy use and decision-making processes is described in the report.

The drivers provide the basis for developing practical and viable energy retrofitting concepts, for understanding typical patterns and socio-cultural aspects and for highlighting potential benefits of the interaction with local energy grids. The main purpose is to identify aspects significant for the main stakeholders expected to influence deep retrofitting and design processes in shopping centres: customers, tenants, owners/managers and the community. 

Three types of drivers are identified:

• Direct drivers are factors directly influencing the deep energy retrofitting of a shopping centre. For instance, the need to reduce energy in shopping centres is a driver based on the need to reduce costs.

• Indirect drivers provide support or background for direct drivers. For example, customer behaviour can indirectly influence energy use by having an impact on the services provided by the shopping centre.

• Potential drivers do not actually cause an effect but with the correct set of circumstances, they have the potential to become direct drivers. For example, knowledge among tenants about the benefits of energy reduction can become a direct driver if they were more encouraged to engage into it.

The report covers ten different areas where drivers for deep energy retrofitting are established: 

1. User behaviour

2. Legal issues

3. Economic factors

4. Building codes

5. Retrofitting and trends

6. Interaction with the local energy grid

7. Lighting

8. HVAC measures

9. Plug-loads and refrigeration

10. Architecture and design (including ergonomics and safety)

While comparing different types of drivers, the report also identifies barriers against deep energy retrofitting. Barriers cannot always be solved through new technical solutions. For instance, retrofitting costs may be barriers: if the costs for implementing energy efficient measures outweigh those achieved by energy savings, the owners/managers and tenants will not invest in deep energy retrofitting. 

A potential driver that may become an obstacle is the lack of knowledge about energy use among stakeholders. Customers are not demanding energy savings and as long as there is no direct demand and no change in profits, owners/managers and tenants will not take any direct actions. This lack of knowledge could be arranged through energy awareness programs. The more knowledge, the greater the effort to reduce energy use will be.

The report concludes with a number of recommendations for further work, as for instance, an in-depth analysis of the investment costs for improving technical aspects. More advanced solutions can be developed based on the first evaluation of energy drivers presented in this report, which need to be adjusted to each specific building. Further awareness-raising among shopping centre stakeholders is also strongly encouraged.

Download the report

NB: This report is still subject to the European Commission’s approval, it is thus not printable.