The constant increase in energy prices is a global trend today. Energy is becoming more and more expensive because energy supplies are exhausting, and environmental protection regulations regarding emission reductions, especially carbon dioxide, are becoming more and more stringent. - The use of energy from fossil fuels is a cause of 90% environmental impacts on the planet, with a particularly high impact of fossil fuel consumption on climate change. Mitigating climate change through the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions requires a wide and broad action in the field of energy.

Research in the general consumer sector, that is, residential and non-residential, the public building sector, in EU Member States, has shown a steady increase in final energy consumption and those possible energy savings by investing in energy-efficient technologies with a return on invested funds of less than eight years.

Energy Efficiency (EE) in a building is an area that has a significant potential to reduce total energy consumption by implementing various interventions on buildings to improve their energy performance. Building sector accounts for around 40% of global energy consumption and is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, responsible for approximately 36% of the total CO2 emissions within the European Union (EU).

Energy efficiency of buildings is one of the targeted sectors of EU policies at the local and state level. Successful implementation of EE measures in buildings in addition to the continuing education of citizens includes the following basic directions of action:

  • increasing the thermal protection of existing and new buildings;
  • raising the level of efficiency of the heating, cooling and ventilation system;
  • increasing the efficiency of the lighting system and other consumers of electricity;
  • energy control and energy management in existing and new buildings;
  • determining the target value of the total annual consumption of the building per m2 of a useful area;
  • the introduction of an energy certificate, as a system for marking buildings according to annual energy consumption.

At EU level, a number of directives have entered into force, covering areas such as:

  • energy labeling of the product;
  • application of energy standards such as, for example, request for minimum thermal protection of buildings;
  • boiler efficiency;
  • measures to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by increasing EE.

An important place in EU legislation is the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive 2010/31 / EU, which was adopted in 2010, which is also binding on BiH. This directive states that it is necessary to develop a methodology for cost-optimal solutions for the reconstruction of existing buildings.

Also, under the EU 20 + 20 + 20 strategy by 2020 (20% increase in energy efficiency, 20% share of renewable energy in the energy structure and 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions), the EU's policy to state subsidies is building materials and services that are on the rise energy efficiency increase on the energy side instead of subsidizing energy consumption.