Trial / Demo
Welcome to the second in a series of three blogs focusing on Building Renovation Passports, and how they act as building specific renovation frameworks to help owners and desicion makers plan renovations in a structured and forward looking way. You can see the first BRP post here.
One of the central insights from the BRP project was that the value of a Building Renovation Passport lies as much in its design as in its content. So if BRPs will help support real world renovation decisions, particularly in the commercial sector, they truly need to reflect how decisions are actually made: progressively, under uncertainty, and across long time horizons.
The methodology developed during the project was shaped by a simple guiding question:
How can a BRP support long term decision making rather than act as a one off assessment?
A decision‑led design approach
Rather than treating the BRP as a static reporting output, the project framed it as a decisionsupport framework. This meant shifting the focus away from producing a single ‘result’ and towards enabling structured discussions around:
Four key design principles emerged:
A structured BRP process
Based on this approach, the project defined a clear and repeatable BRP process, aligned with both EPBD expectations and real commercial renovation workflows:
· Data collection and consolidation: drawing on existing sources such as BERs, audits, DEC data and surveys.
· Energy performance assessment: establishing a consistent and credible baseline.
· Intervention identification and prioritisation: exploring alternative renovation options without prescribing a single pathway.
· Long term renovation roadmap: sequencing actions over time to reflect life cycle, budget, and operational constraints.
This structure reflects a key reality of commercial buildings, that renovation rarely happens in one step. Instead, it unfolds through staged interventions, shaped by capital planning cycles and asset strategies.
Designing BRP dashboards in line with EPBD requirements
In parallel with defining the analytical workflow, the project focused on how BRP outputs should be structured and presented, in line with the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive.
The EPBD specifies a set of information that Building Renovation Passports shall include, alongside additional elements that may be included depending on national implementation choices.
· Information on the current energy performance of the building.
· A graphical representation of the renovation roadmap and its steps.
· A description of the renovation measures foreseen at each step.
· Indicative impacts on energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.
· The expected energy performance level achieved following completion of each step.
Beyond these mandatory elements, the methodology also considered information that BRPs may include to support richer decision making, such as:
· Indicative costs, savings, and payback considerations.
· Links to available funding, incentives, and advisory services.
· Information on technical constraints, dependencies, or conditions.
· Additional contextual data to support long-term usability and adaptability.
These EPBD-driven requirements provided a clear framework for structuring BRP outputs, ensuring that dashboards support regulatory intent and remaining flexible enough to adapt to national and user-specific needs.
Digital twins as the analytical backbone
At the heart of the methodology sits physics-based digital twin modelling to provide a stable analytical backbone for exploring ‘what if’ scenarios in a consistent way.
This enables comparisons including:
· Envelope-first versus systems-first strategies.
· Alternative sequencing of interventions.
· Or varying renovation depth over time.
From modelling to structured decision support
A defining feature of the methodology, was the decision to place visualisation at the centre of the BRP experience. Rather than delivering outputs in report form, modelling results were translated into clear, structured dashboards designed to support discussion and understanding.
These dashboards were designed to:
· Consolidate fragmented building data into a coherent baseline.
· Compare renovation scenarios side-by-side
· And visualise staged decarbonisation pathways over time.
This approach recognises that many BRP users, such as asset managers, public sector stakeholders, and finance teams, need clarity on direction and impact, rather than just access to raw calculations.
Another important methodological outcome was the distinction between different BRP use cases. The project defined a ‘Lite’ and ‘Plus’ approach:
· BRP Lite supports early stage screening and portfolio level prioritisation, using limited data and standardised assumptions.
· BRP Plus supports more detailed planning, including on site data collection and richer modelling, when buildings are approaching investment decisions or future regulatory requirements.
This flexibility allows BRPs to scale across portfolios and avoids placing unnecessary burden on owners early in the process.
Digital enablement by design
In parallel with the methodological work, IES led the development of a digital enabling framework to ensure the BRP could function as a long term tool rather than a static file. This work focused on:
· Understanding EU best practice in digital BRP delivery.
· Exploring storage and integration options aligned with Ireland’s digital transition.
· Investigating UX requirements for different BRP user groups.
· And ensuring interoperability with other databases and datasets.
This system level thinking recognises that a BRP only delivers long term value if it can be stored, updated, shared, and linked to wider digital ecosystems.
Iteration, testing, and real world feedback
Finally, the methodology was refined through training and testing with built-environment professionals, following an iterative approach. The insightful feedback from these activities were used to adjust assumptions, clarify workflows, and validate what level of detail is necessary to remain both usable and credible.
Setting the scene for the case study
Together, these methodological choices shaped a BRP approach that is digital first, decision led, and scalable, designed to support long term renovation planning in the commercial sector.
👉 In the final post of this series, we show how this methodology was applied in practice through a digital BRP case study, illustrating how digital twins and dashboards support real renovation decisions.
