Minergie: The Swiss Sustainable Building Standard

Abstract

Minergie is a sustainable building standard recognized globally for its effectiveness in achieving lower energy and resource consumption and a higher level of com-fort, regardless of building design or type. In Switzerland, where the standard was developed, over 14,000 Minergie buildings have been voluntarily certified and wide government backing across the cantons has led to market penetration of sus-tainable buildings unmatched elsewhere in the world. Also key to Minergie's suc-cess is Switzerland's vocational training system, which has produced a construction industry workforce with the skills to take full advantage of the Minergie system. Switzerland takes sustainability seriously. It is ranked number 1 in Yale's Environmental Performance Index 1 and is world-class in public transportation, recycling and organic food production as well as in buildings. Switzerland's success in the building sector is evidenced by comparing Minergie's penetration rates with LEED, a major U.S. green building rating system. 2 LEED has approximately 2,000 certified units. Minergie, in the roughly 100 times smaller Swiss market, counts over 14,000 certified buildings of many different types and sizes. A Minergie building consumes around 60 percent less energy than the conven-tional Swiss building, which in turn was built to one of the world's highest regula-tory building standards. Such energy efficiency is attained through an integrated planning approach as well as a focus on life cycle costs and quality benefits that involves the use of the Minergie standard from the very beginning of the planning process, as well as Minergie solution modules that solve design problems in partic-ular competence areas such as windows and ventilation. On a technical level, Minergie represents a combination of the following 10 key elements: