Can “EDGE” be the Solution to Sustainability of Buildings in Colombian Market?

Traditional energy efficiency certificates for buildings, such as LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), in spite of their worldwide success, have not yet gained the expected penetration in some developing (and less-developed) countries. Some factors contributing to such a trend include cost, complexity, and demand for new resources that may not be always available. In an effort to aid the building sector, the World Bank, which is one of the principal carbon emissions productive sectors and the user of a big amount of resources that implies high energy and water consumption, has developed a new tool called EDGE (Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies). This paper aims to examine the capabilities of EDGE and test if it can have qualities and features required to gain more momentum for energy upgrade in the building sector within developing countries. According to its proposal, EDGE is low-cost; has a user-friendly software to apply; and a “do-it-yourself” nature. We have focused on Colombian building construction market, and have investigated the opportunities for EDGE in three dimensions of: cost, operability, and penetrability. The opinion of energy rehabilitation and construction experts in Colombian building industry was mined through survey questionnaires and studied through a detailed qualitative and quantitative analysis of requirements for applying EDGE to building projects. Through analysis of the experts’ inputs, the paper aims to evaluate the success chance of such simplified methods in the Colombian building market.