Page 48 - ZEB Final Report 2009-2017

The Effects of the

Centre for the Partners

and Society at Large

The declared main objective of the Research Centre on Zero for the completion of activities and for the planning for
Emission Buildings (ZEB Centre) is to develop knowledge, future research partnerships. Feedback from the 2016 partner
competitive products, and solutions for existing and new evaluation, where 12 out of 22 user partners participated, points
buildings that will lead to the market penetration of buildings to expectations being mostly fulfilled:
with zero greenhouse gas emissions related to their production, “ZEB has been a powerhouse in the effort to reduce
operation, and demolition, looking at the whole life cycle of greenhouse gas emissions from buildings. - ZEB has helped
buildings. The creation of innovations and market value in to highlight research needs, diagnosing significant issues, and
collaboration with research, company and public partners showhow they can become opportunities.”
has been essential to achieve this aim. Concrete results from Partners expressed some impatience with the slow
the partnership are presented throughout the report, but development of research activities. They did not always see
particularly in the following section, success stories and the need to spend so much time on “state-of-the-art”, but also
solutions that are still being developed. A list presenting some understood that this way of working was new for them and that
of the innovations developed by the Centre is included. some patience was required. During the Centre's lifetime, there
Feedback from partners gathered through the obligatory was increasing focus on the need for good communication of
mid-way evaluation and from ZEB's own partner evaluation results. There are two sides to this. (1) Frustration with the
from 2016 shows a group of 25 partners who have risen to the regard to differences in language-use and communication
challenge of participating in an FME Centre. Being part of a techniques between user partners and researchers. (2) Pride
Research Centre on Environmentally Friendly Energy (FME) in what has been achieved by the ZEB Centre. The partners
was a new experience for everyone involved in ZEB, and also saw that they had themselves a responsibility if they were
learning what worked well, what did not work well, as well as to make the most of ZEB's success. Suggesting that a clear
what can be improved in similar constellations was essential company strategy and sufficient personnel are required.

“ZEB has been a powerhouse in the effort to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions from buildings. – ZEB has

helped to highlight research needs, diagnosing signiicant

issues, and showhow they can become opportunities.”