Virtual workshop in Lebanon: tools and resources for better buildings

On 18 March, the BUILD_ME team brought over 40 stakeholders from Lebanon together in a virtual national workshop. This event, organised by Lebanese Center for Energy Conservation (LCEC) in Lebanon and Guidehouse in Germany, built on the kick-off meetings held one year prior and this past fall in Beirut where stakeholders were introduced to the activities in Phase II of the project. In this workshop, the team presented the current status of the project as well as the tools and resources developed over the course of the past year.

Moderated by Riadh Bhar (Guidehouse), sessions included a live demo of the new Building Energy Performance Tool and overview of the building typology for Lebanon by Mohammad Hammad (LCEC), and the results of the baseline value assessment by Marco Reiser (Guidehouse). Following the BEP tool demo, 85% of participants indicated that they believe the tool could support them in their work and that they are interested in trying the tool after the launch in the coming weeks. 
The overview of these tools were followed by a presentation by Patil Mesrobian (LCEC) on the assessment of the NEEAP 2021-2025 that was conducted in the BUILD_ME project and the resulting recommendations. Nesen Surmeli-Anac (Guidehouse) presented a roadmap of a Voluntary Energy Classification Scheme that could be introduced in Lebanon, integrating the BEP tool and building typology developed in the project .

Lastly, Mohammad Hammad (LCEC) gave a live demo of BUILD_ME’s demonstration projects database, which is a one-of-a-kind compilation of low-energy buildings in the MENA region, and encouraged participants to upload their own projects.

In 2021, BUILD_ME will continue finalising and building upon the tools and resources created in 2020 in addition to conducting trainings for project developers and bankers, testing the voluntary classification schemes, and facilitating access to financing.

The presentation can be downloaded below: