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This data article includes a dataset developed between 2020 and 2022 to characterize and analyze the state of energy efficiency of nearly zero energy buildings in ten Eastern European countries. The data article refers to the paper' Overview and future challenges of nearly zero-energy building (nZEB) design in Eastern Europe' (Attia and Kosinski et al., 2022). The data provides an overview of the status of building energy use, energy savings, and regulations for the newly constructed building stock, including Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia. The importance of the dataset lies in its unique approach of data collection that provides detailed information on electricity, gas, oil, coal, and wood used in the investigated countries between 2015 and 2020. The methodology involves compiling and fusing data from national registries and depositories written in ten different national languages. Thus, the data is not available in Eurostat or any EU platform. The methodology followed to produce the data is mainly a literature review of restricted national publications and an extensive questionnaire with 14 national experts involved with the nZEB implementation plans and policies. The data include several parameters, including building energy efficiency thresholds expressed in the form of primary energy use intensity; primary energy conversion factors; renewable energy shares; building envelope performance requirements; mechanical ventilation performance requirements; thermal comfort requirements; construction rates of residential buildings; and heat pumps market penetration expressed as heat pump units per 100 households. The data paper is valuable for scientists to conduct future research to implement energy efficiency measures and renewables towards energy-neutral buildings.

The recast of the European Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) requires all new buildings to be "nearly zero energy' buildings (nZEB) by 2020, including existing buildings undergoing major renovations. Belgium was even first to set a definition for a 'net zero energy house' (NZEB) in 2009. The revised Energy Performance in Buildings Directive calls governments to meet the nearly zero energy targets by 2020. Governments must adopt and publish regulations and procedures for the other requirements mainly the cost optimal calculation by July 2012. There are many elements of the recast Directive that pertain to new buildings. Unfortunately, the recast does not set targets for improving existing buildings and non-legislative measures will be needed to address how to achieve a greater share of renovation. Therefore, this paper aims to identify the share of the newly constructed buildings by 2020 in Belgium. The objective is to put the nearly zero energy targets in a wider perspective in relation to the existing building stock. The paper investigates some future scenarios for the national buildings stock growth rate, coupled with demographic growth by 2050. The study's final results indicate that newly constructed building will be less than 7% by 2020 and less than 15% by 2050 in Belgium. Thus by not addressing the potential for energy renovations in the building sector the EPBD is avoiding the elephant. ; Peer reviewed

This paper presents the Solar-2002 zero impact renovation project in Belgium. Its characteristics are based on fundamental principles taking advantage of natural resources by diverting the sun shine and rain in the building design. The building has been renovated aiming to achieve principals of occupant health and comfort, energy efficiency, renewable energy production, resource conservation and reduction of environmental impacts. The paper reviews the design concepts including the passive and active strategies and compare building actual performance to actual monitoring results. Innovations related to architectural design, building system performance and simulation are presented. Results show that the house achieved energy and carbon neutral balance, closed water cycle and almost a cradle to cradle building material cycle. However, monitoring results shows the difficulty to maintain optimal thermal comfort during extreme summer and winter periods. Achieving the environmental zero impact objectives is not economically feasible without the subsidies from the federal and regional government. ; Peer reviewed

The recast of the European Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) requires all new buildings to be "nearly zero energy' buildings (nZEB) by 2020, including existing buildings undergoing major renovations. Belgium was first to set a definition for a 'net zero energy house' (NZEB) in 2009. Every year the definition is revised for consistency with shortcomings and emerging issues. However, to reach the nZEB objective many questions are raised in the Belgian context. Many uncertainties exist among local governments and municipalities to achieve that objective. Therefore, the paper presents a review on the current Belgian definition and its market status in comparison with the international context. The paper builds on existing experience with the implementation of the EPB calculation method and the Passive House initiative. The aim of the paper is to review current definition discussions and pave the way to a more consistent definition. Finally, four principles are suggested to reach the nZEB objectives in Belgium. ; Peer reviewed

The term 'circular building' has mainly become popular over the last years and is now widespread across architectural and building engineering – at least in Europe. With climate change high up on the political and corporate agenda and introduction of the European Unions' Green Deal, the identification of design criteria for 'circular building' is in demand. Numerous approaches and projects have been proposed to develop evaluation criteria, ranging from sustainability rating systems (e.g., BREEAM and LEED), life cycle analysis methods, the Cradle to Cradle approach, Circular Building Service Companies (e.g., Oaplis and Werflink), research projects (e.g., BAMB, Facades leasing, FCRBE) and the European Waste Framework Directive and Circular Economy Action Plan. Despite the proliferation of those knowledge resources, however, there is an apparent lack of technical criteria to what extent a 'circular building design' is characterized. The scientific literature is surprisingly scarce of clarifications, even though countless studies on reversible building design exist. This paper explores the apparent discrepancy between professional and scientific use of the term 'circular building'. It suggests scientific design criteria based on commonly accepted circularity principles and environmental assessment modeling approaches. The paper answer a fundamental research question on the design criteria of a 'circular building' with an overarching aim to define robust indicators for their design and characterization. ; Peer reviewed

The building sector in Romania is dominated by residential buildings that are old and have poor thermal performance. As member of the European Union, Romania has to reach the objectives imposed by the Directive 2009/28/EC and to fulfill the requirements of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) by year 2020. To reach the 2020 objectives, the old buildings from the Romanian building stock should be rehabilitated and the new buildings should be designed according to the latest thermal performance characteristics. The following paper presents the literature review of building energy performance in Romania. The purpose of the literature review analysis is to provide an overview on current building energy efficiency in Romania. The paper also presents future perspectives on implementation of high performance buildings such as the Passive House (PH), nearly Zero Energy Buildings (nZEB) and Net Zero Energy Buildings (NZEB). The reviewed publications and case studies are classified under three categories: policy and regulations, technology and feasibility. Finally, the paper presents a holistic perspective on the Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats (SWOTs) of energy efficiency in Romania's residential building sector. ; Peer reviewed

During the last ten years, there has been an increasing development of the Net Zero Energy Building in industrial countries. For example, the European Union mandates that by 2020 all new public buildings must comply with the European Directive for nearly Zero Energy Buildings. In the context, of knowledge transfer and investigation of the implementation potential of high-performance building in Chile, this paper presents the findings of a comparative study that was done considering the Belgian regulation landscape. The study focuses on school buildings and the challenge of sustainable building design, construction and operation. The aim of this research is to present a roadmap to Chilean policy makers and designers to progressively understand and implement the Net Zero Energy Schools concept in all new constructions. The research methodology followed a mixed approach combing a literature review of the performance standards, case study comparison, and focus group discussions with Belgian and Chilean experts. The results of the comparative analysis indicate the need to set out a low-tech concept for Net Zero Energy Schools. The focus group discussions resulted in the validation of a novel roadmap and the identification of the most important performance aspects to consider for its implementation. Finally, the paper provides valuable guidelines and technical recommendations besides a roadmap that can be used for strategical planning to implement Net Zero Energy Schools in Chile. ; Peer reviewed

European countries are working towards carbon neutrality of the building sector. Regulations and initiatives, including the European Green Deal, aim at promoting circular buildings and low carbon design. Therefore, this paper seeks to investigate the role of legislation in paving the way towards achieving the circularity of buildings design and construction. A systematic literature review is conducted to compare the current regulations in different EU member states that address carbon emissions and life cycle thinking to achieve circularity. The study aims to demonstrate how the low-carbon emissions regulations in leading countries can lead to making the construction sector's circularity. The research is focused on five leading EU member states in low carbon buildings, including Denmark, Finland, France, the Netherlands, and Sweden. The study compares the performance indicators, metrics, and target thresholds found in the five selected states' regulations and examines them across a circularity assessment framework developed earlier by the authors. This paper provides insights on low emission building regulations state-of-the-art. Moreover, it offers a better understanding of the relationship between low-carbon emissions regulations and building circularity. The article explains the role of the legislative landscape and its impact on circular building design practices. Key findings from the study will assist the European Commission to identify policy options to support the uptake of "Circular economy principles for buildings design" in European, national and local policies. ; Peer reviewed

Assessing human health under climate change in hot climates is of particular importance in the Middle East. Cairo is one of those cities that have an estimated 2018 population as high as 13 million, with a metropolitan population of 21 million, which makes it the largest city in Africa and the Middle East. In and around Cairo, many of the summer seasonal deaths are blamed on human discomfort due to anthropogenic climate change. High urban population density, urban heat island effect, cramped living conditions including housing, schools and prisons are all reasons to the increase of heat-related health problems in Cairo. Therefore, this initial study investigates and maps overheating in free-running residential buildings in Cairo. The study follows a combined, monitoring and observational assessment of the 2015 heat wave (19-day event) in Egypt. Using surface urban heat island maps, representative urban areas were determined and field measurements were carried out to assess indoor air temperatures and relative humidity. This was followed by observational field visits and interaction with local citizens to document the impacts and adaptation measures corresponding to overheating. The paper provides insights on indoor human discomfort with a focus on physical and non-physical heat stress reasons during climate extremes. The study provides initial insights on thermal comfort that can prompt local professionals and governments to address overheating and thermal stress in free-running residential buildings. ; Peer reviewed

The Polish energy market heavily relies on coal. Pressured by the European Union, the Polish government has recently decided to accelerate coal phase-out and to gradually shut down all coal mines by 2049. In that context, it is necessary to assess the Polish energy market's state regarding energy efficiency, especially in the building stock. This paper aims to provide an overview of the current state of energy efficiency of residential buildings in Poland and insights into its future trends. A literature review was conducted, accompanied by focus group discussions with Polish building energy efficiency experts. The Polish energy sector is under a remarkable transformation that may be going too fast. A large gap between expectations, practices, and requirements can be observed. Raising awareness and capacity building in the energy efficiency sector, and a set of accessible guidelines should be developed so that the transformation is implemented correctly. A SWOT analysis results define the key opportunities and threats that are critical to meet net-zero emissions goals. The paper provides findings and insights on the 2020 targets status quo and raises awareness among stakeholders and fills a knowledge gap regarding energy efficiency in the Polish residential building stock. ; Peer reviewed