Consume less energy at home without paying anything (or almost!) It’s possible! The zero-consumption house is not utopia. It’s possible to reduce the energy loss by up to 90% by intervening on your home, whether it’s new or old and needing to be restructured. Nearly all Italian buildings, starting from the public ones, are like colanders, from which most of the energy that enters seeps out. The energy revolution is done by getting ALL public buildings up to scratch, starting with the Ministries, NOT with new nuclear power stations. The ecological home has three great advantages: saving on heating, protection of the environment, in particular for the over-heating of the atmosphere, and the VALUE of the home itself. In fact an ecological home is worth more, it’s like buying a car without having to pay for the petrol. And so, dear public administrations, what are you waiting for to imitate the Autonomous Province of Bolzano where I went on an ecological trip?

I’m publishing a letter from Norbert Lantschner, director of CasaClima.

“Dear Beppe,
Thank you for taking an interest in the CasaClima project. The historical context in which we are working, calls for a serious reflection from everyone. As is well known, our civilisation is founded on the consumption of energy without which almost nothing of what is a characteristic of our lives would be possible. An energy crisis could produce greater harm than an economic crisis, that can cost the lives of many people, but without being pessimistic, it could cost us our current lifestyle. Without energy, nothing of what we are used to would be possible. As is well known, the building sector is one that is a major consumer of energy, but it is also the sector where it is easiest to take action, given that there already exist all the systems and there’s no need to invent anything new. It would be enough to have a massive application of the energy efficiency concepts and construction techniques, as is shown by the CasaClima project, to make a drastic reduction in global consumption. To do good construction it’s just necessary to have the will and to have communication.
People today choose CasaClima because they know that they are spending their own money well, because as well as having a home, an office, a factory with low maintenance costs, it is also contributing to the protection of the climate. CasaClima was created within a public setting, in the Autonomous Province of Bolzano in 2002, but there was no need for public incentives to set it up on a large scale: it has been enough to give transparency to the market and to communicate the advantages.
This process has brought about the realization of numerous certified buildings with a great reduction in what is consumed and what is emitted. People have freely chosen the class of building in which to live and the amount of money to be spent to stay warm in their own homes, according to their means. The market has adapted. There has been no need for commands from above. And this has been a contribution in relaunching the economy at a local level, creating a regeneration of professionalism and a growth in knowledge and in techniques.
A project by a public body in the interests of everyone, in which it is the citizen who wins, because finally they see their rights protected, as well as an important response for the protection of the climate. The key to the success is the control of all the phases of the building product, by the third party organisation. Every individual certified building has been examined at the planning stage and at the construction stage, before getting the certification with the energy classification. An important right, since anyone who is buying a house is spending money for years and they don’t have to make do with a piece of paper issued by who knows who. Just as for every other quality control system, even in this case, the third party organisation that is above all the interested parties, first gives a guarantee to the citizen.
The buildings that we visited together demonstrate that today, it is possible to construct in an intelligent and aware way, without creating waste. To get the building concerns and the people involved, we have created a “manifesto for sustainability”, an initiative to which anyone can give their support and can gain knowledge and express their own contribution to change. You can’t change if you don’t want to change. We can’t delegate to others the task of taking action; it’s not enough to complain about the absence of regulations. On the contrary, we can express our participation in the sustainability by promoting a “light-touch” and solar culture , by using a signature to declare our personal position and getting others involved in doing this. Thank you for your support.“ Norbert Lantschner, CasaClima