Decision support tools in energy-led, non-domestic building refurbishment: Towards a generic model for property professionals

Purpose – Pressure is growing globally for larger businesses to improve the energy performance of
the buildings in which they operate. Property or facility managers are usually responsible for these
improvements through energy-led refurbishment. The number and complexity of possible
interventions pose challenges that these professionals attempt to meet by using decision support
tools (DSTs). The work aims to identify key features of DSTs for energy-led building refurbishment
and define an optimum approach.
Design/methodology/approach – A desk study examined ten DSTs reported in the available
literature and evaluated them against a set of desirable attributes that a property or facility manager
would value for this task.
Findings – The results of the desk study concluded that no DST offers every feature and that there is
an opportunity for a new DST for energy-led refurbishment. An optimum DST template is proposed,
consisting of a seven-step process from assessment of the existing state of the building through to
continuous evaluation and improvement of the refurbished building.
Originality/value – The work combines the best features of available DSTs into a novel optimised
strategy for energy-led refurbishment of non-domestic buildings, which is geographically non-specific
and could be applied anywhere in the world.