Energy Efficiency in School Buildings: The Need for a Tailor-Made Business Model

Energy efficiency (EE) for buildings can be an essential aid to the climate objectives regarding the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). More and more, the potential of maintenance and energy performance contract (EPC) is being recognized for this implementation, with the help of an energy service company (ESCO) whether accompanied by a facilitator. Clustering buildings can be an additional asset: since in this way the risks for the ESCO can be spread, the projects with a quick and high return on investment are a catalyst for long-term projects and finally, because of the higher absolute amount of investment these projects become more interested for/in the financial partners, which can be realized through adapted business models. In this article, we discuss two cases related to the pooling of buildings for higher and secondary education institutions. The university of applied sciences PXL with 12 buildings, all under own management and the association of schools in Sint-Niklaas (54 different location in the city), belongs to four different school communities. For both cases, the limits of the “classical” maintenance EPC are discussed and an adjusted approach with the corresponding business model is reported. As the educational value for both institutions is also of great importance, the link between energy efficiency and the didactic component, as well as the interaction with other stakeholders in the buildings (in- and extern) is explained.