Buildings and infrastructure are central to the socio-economic transition towards achieving a sustainable and climate-neutral economy. People spend most of their lives in buildings, which are responsible for about 50% of energy consumption over their whole life cycle, 50% of all materials extracted, 30% of water consumption and 36% of CO2 emissions in use. Currently, around 35% of buildings in the EU are more than 50 years old and almost 75% are energy inefficient. In addition, it is also essential to ensure people's health by guaranteeing indoor air quality.
One of the consequences of the new European and national regulations to achieve greater energy efficiency is the need to develop new building materials with better thermal performance. Not only from the point of view of thermal insulation, but also from the point of view of thermal inertia or circular economy. At CTCON we have the most advanced equipment (thermal conductivity equipment, surface temperature probes, flowmeter probes, etc.) with which to collaborate with manufacturers in the development of these new materials.
The development of increasingly efficient materials must be accompanied by new solutions and systems that are energy efficient, more sustainable than traditional practices and that guarantee a better quality of life. This includes the redesign of construction elements (façades, thermal envelopes, roofs, etc.), the integration of renewable energies embedded in buildings, the development of new energy use systems and the bioclimatic optimisation of buildings. To achieve these objectives, Life Cycle Analyses, simulations and energy monitoring are carried out.
Achieving a low-carbon built environment is a key strategic challenge in the European Union to achieve a prosperous, modern, competitive and climate-neutral economy in the long term by 2050, in line with the Paris Agreement. Therefore, we must not only focus on materials and buildings in isolation, but on the whole built environment that make up neighbourhoods, towns and cities, developing innovative solutions for a sustainable, digitised, people-centred environment (Built4People), also ensuring compliance with the principles of the circular economy.
