FACTORS THAT CHALLENGE IMPLEMENTATION OF A BUILDING ENERGY RETROFIT PROJECT

Abstract Building energy retrofits is one of the global strategies to achieve net zero carbon emissions. This building alteration has prompted revisions in regulatory frameworks and technical recommendations to enhance the energy efficiency of existing structures. However, building energy retrofit is an important step towards Net Zero, but it comes with significant challenges, such as a lack of clarity within existing regulations, along with the limitations of technical solutions. To this end, this paper positions itself to unravel challenges faced by professionals in South Africa. Hence, a purposive sample was expedited to elicit information from the experts. A total of 68 questionnaire surveys were electronically administered, and 38 were received back, which represents a 66% response rate, and these form the basis of this analysis. The result indicates that the challenges that top the list are lack of the required technical know-how, high investment cost, limited access to finance, lack of flexibility/adaptability in the delivery process, piecemeal-fashion energy efficiency implementation, uncertainty about the payback period, and lack of broad buy-in into the project, with mean scores of 4.47, 4.47, 4.18, 4.21, 4.13, 4.13, and 4.13, respectively. It is notable that the above-mentioned challenges have MSes of > 4.00 < 4.50 and can thus be deemed major challenges, which indicates in general that they hamper delivery of building energy retrofit projects to a great extent. The practical ramifications of the challenges in energy retrofitting encompass halted projects, inadequate performance results, wasted resources, and adverse effects on occupant health and climate change mitigation objectives.