CROSQ pushing ahead with Energy Efficiency Building Code

TO ensure that there is quality infrastructure in place to support the regional energy agenda, the CARICOM Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality (CROSQ) has developed the CARICOM Regional Energy Efficiency Building Code, which establishes minimum energy performance standards for buildings.

According to Fulgence St. Prix, Technical Officer for Standards and Technical Regulations with the CROSQ, this work was complemented by the start of the creation of minimum energy performance standards for appliances, as well as labelling standards, through a project called the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (the R3E).

Mr. St. Prix spoke to the development of the CARICOM Regional Energy Efficiency Building Code (CREEBC), as CROSQ hosted a webinar entitled  “Quality Infrastructure in Energy: Why The Regional Energy Sector Needs Quality Parameters” recently.

The Regional Energy Efficiency Code, which was passed by the region’s ministers at the CARICOM Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) in 2018, has since picked up momentum, sparking talks of implementation by the CARICOM Energy Unit and the Caribbean Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (CCREEE).

The CARICOM Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality, as the agency which was charged with developing the Code and taking it through the process of acceptance at the Ministerial level, and now adoption at the Member States’ level, has been also attempting to sensitise policymakers, professionals and stakeholders in the building and construction sector about the basics of the CREEBC.

At its very core, the Code’s primary purpose is to reduce member states’ dependence on fossil fuels for energy, which ultimately impacts competitiveness, increases debt and exacerbates environmental issues in the region. It aims to do this by promoting energy efficiency in the building sector, particularly in buildings classified as residential and commercial.

Mr. Prix however stated, “There were certain activities that were conducted prior to actually developing the Energy Efficiency Building Code, such as we would have come up with the approach to determine minimum energy performance standards of buildings in the region, an exercise that proved kind of difficult, because of the various classification of buildings in the various member states. However, we had a basis to start off with our Energy Efficiency Building Code, so it wasn’t a situation where we decided right away that we would adapt a particular building code. We did a consultancy to identify all the building codes that were available to us, to see which one was best suited for adaptation by the region and we decided to adapt the international Energy Conservation Code.”

As such, the CREEBC, which combined the International Code Council’s 2018 Energy Efficiency Code, as well as the 2016 American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) 90.1 Code, was customized to regional conditions and specifications. Its’ intent is to conserve energy over the “useful life” of each building; provide enough flexibility to encourage innovation, but also to work alongside national safety and health requirements, laws and regulations, while not superseding them. (RSM)