Monday, 8 December 2025
The role of public buildings in achieving real decarbonization remains widely underestimated, according to conclusions presented by BuildGreen and CarbonTool following their participation at the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona between 3–5 November 2025. Their assessment highlights that only cities capable of managing their building stock through real data—not political statements—are likely to reach climate neutrality by 2030–2035.
Both the European mission “100 Climate-Neutral & Smart Cities” and the revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) set firm targets for the next decade, yet many municipal strategies stall before implementation. The missing link, they argue, is the operational chain that connects measurement, cost evaluation, financing models and long-term profitability.
“Companies and public entities from South America, the Middle East or Asia came to Barcelona looking for models and to learn from Europe’s mistakes – massive pollution, congestion, lack of vision. Romania, on the other hand, continues to suffer from the absence of an integrated city-level vision, and positive examples are few. In this context, my message is simple: the climate neutrality of cities starts with buildings, and their decarbonization starts with data”, said Răzvan Nica, CEO of CarbonTool and BuildGreen.
According to Nica, cities cannot plan meaningful interventions without a detailed picture of how their buildings consume energy and generate emissions. Budgets, scenarios and funding applications become speculative in the absence of measurement and verification mechanisms.
“From the experience we have accumulated through BuildGreen and CarbonTool, in hundreds of projects across numerous countries, the same pattern is obvious: wherever real measurement–reporting–verification mechanisms exist, investment decisions follow. Where we have only nice targets but no data, budgets are postponed, projects get fragmented, and emissions remain almost unchanged. Without measurement there is no reduction, and you cannot ask for public or private money for decarbonization if you cannot show, at building, district and city level, what you are cutting and at what cost”, explained Nica.
In most major European cities, buildings—through heating, cooling and electricity use—account for well over half of local emissions. Municipal building stock stands out as the most problematic: schools, hospitals, administrative buildings and cultural institutions often operate with outdated systems, minimal monitoring and inefficient processes. For Nica, this is where the greatest impact can be achieved.
“If we don’t start decarbonization exactly here, climate-neutrality missions remain just a communication exercise. At the same time, the private market shows us that it can be done: in office, logistics or hotel portfolios, well-designed intervention packages – combining electrification, heat recovery, smart controls and operational optimization – have delivered significant consumption reductions within 12–24 months, when backed by performance indicators that are constantly monitored. The same mechanisms can be applied at municipal level, with one essential condition: we must treat the city as a portfolio of buildings, not as a collection of disconnected projects”, he added.
One of the projects highlighted by BuildGreen is the renovation of more than 15 schools in Bucharest’s District 6. The works were financed on the condition that energy performance would exceed a typical nZEB-level school by at least 40%, while maintaining quality and comfort. According to the company, most renovations have already been delivered, accompanied by a before-and-after technical evaluation that confirmed a marked drop in consumption, lower emissions and reduced operating costs for the local authority.
“This is the approach we already see in large companies and the one we propose for municipalities as well. The city must become a portfolio with clear performance indicators, not just a list of projects that are hard to compare”, noted Nica.
Cluj-Napoca and Bucharest’s District 2 offer additional examples, having implemented incentive-based sustainability programs for several years. Yet, the new European requirements will now oblige municipalities to expand these efforts into systematic data collection and the translation of that data into budgeted, verifiable measures.
The conclusion shared by BuildGreen and CarbonTool is that genuine progress requires moving beyond communication strategies. Climate neutrality, they argue, depends on rethinking how public buildings are designed, funded, monitored and upgraded. Cities that treat their building stock as a strategic portfolio—supported by digital tools and continuous measurement—are expected to be better positioned to attract financing and investment and to retain residents.
