The tertiary sector decree has just been published.
It is now known as Decree no. 2019-771 of 23 July 2019 on obligations to take action to reduce final energy consumption in tertiary buildings.
In this article, you can find out more about the spirit, history and expectations of the decree… as well as some advice on how to be ready for 1 January 2020.
The spirit of the tertiary sector decree since its inclusion in the Grenelle Act
The tertiary sector accounts for 25% of built area in France. But it is responsible for more than a third of greenhouse gas emissions.
That’s why, in 2010, the Grenelle environmental laws established the need to improve the energy performance of tertiary buildings. Article 3 of the law of 2 July 2010 already stipulated that :
“Work to improve the energy performance of existing commercial buildings or buildings used for public services must be carried out within 8 years of 1 January 2012. A decree in the Conseil d’Etat will determine the nature and terms of this obligation to carry out work, in particular the thermal characteristics or energy performance to be met (…)”.
The drafting of the decree has undergone various twists and turns.Until today.
At the end of 2010, a consultation was launched under the leadership of the Sustainable Building Plan. The working group, composed of major representatives of the private and public tertiary sector, issued a number of recommendations, methods and objectives that were a consensus. Despite the group’s involvement and the establishment of a voluntary charter at the end of 2013, the decree was slow to come out.
In 2015, the Energy Transition Law for Green Growth (LTECV) supplemented the Grenelle law. It then set a target of reducing energy consumption by 60% by 2050 (compared to 2010). With intermediate stages in 2020, 2030 and 2040.
On May 9, 2017, the decree was published urgently, just before the end of François Hollande’s term. But it was suspended the following month in summary proceedings, and was definitively cancelled in June 2018. Reason for the cancellation?
The obligations set by the decree presuppose the prior conduct of an energy audit and then an action plan, to carry out work that cannot be completed before the deadline of January 1, 2020.
In November 2018, the ELAN law proposed a new legal basis for the tertiary decree. The government then gave itself 1 year to publish it.
The consultation on the technical content of the decree ended in March 2019.
The draft text was sent to the Council of State in April and the decree was finally published on July 23.
What does the tertiary decree actually say?
The decree determines the conditions for the application of Article 175 of Law No. 2018-1021 of 23 November 2018 of the ELAN law. Said Article 175 provides for a target of reducing the final energy consumption of all tertiary buildings subject to the obligation by 40% in 2030, 50% in 2040 and 60% in 2050 compared to 2010.
Fields of application
The following are subject to the obligation to reduce energy consumption:
- Owners
- Where appropriate, the tenants,
tertiary premises with a floor area of more than 1000 sqm.
Determination of final energy consumption reduction targets
A Ministerial Decree must define the method for determining:
- The reference energy consumption
- And the method for calculating the level of final energy consumption of a building.
Implementation of an IT platform for collecting and monitoring energy consumption
Taxable persons are required to transmit annually, via a digital platform set up by the State [and in all likelihood operated by ADEME], the elements monitoring the energy consumption of their buildings.
The first declaration will concern consumption for the year 2020. It must be made on the platform no later than September 30, 2021.
This annual declaration must be made by the owner or the lessee. according to their respective responsibilities, depending on the contractual provisions governing their relations.
Note that the decree also provides that: “owners and lessees shall communicate to each other the actual annual energy consumption of all equipment and systems that they respectively operate”.
Good news: with iQspot, you already meet the constraints of the tertiary decree. And you have a real tool to improve your energy performance.
With iQspot, you are able to know the final energy consumption of all your buildings. Reliably and exhaustively, on all your fluids.
Consumption data that you can aggregate according to the granularity you want. For example, by period, by type of energy, by lot, by building, or by park…
You can then use them in your various energy and environmental reports.
You and/or your tenants are therefore fully able to meet the reporting obligations defined by the tertiary decree. If you wish, a feature of the tool will allow you to automatically upload this data to the digital platform set up by the state [Editor’s note: currently known as OPERAT].
But iQspot offers much more interest than a simple reporting tool. Thanks to real time, iQspot allows you to quickly identify and achieve energy and water consumption savings, an essential issue from both an ecological and economic point of view.
Graphical visualization, definition of key indicators and alerts on consumption deviations allow you to deal with structural anomalies, identify incidents as soon as they occur and gain operational efficiency.
iQspot is non-invasive, easy and quick to install. Its ROI is less than one year.
Why deprive yourself of it? Do like La Française, Foncière INEA, Imodam Property, CNP Assurances, Colliers International and other well-informed real estate companies or asset managers: contact us!
