The potential of the built environment to contribute in reducing societal carbon intensity has been well established. The EU Energy Efficiency Action Plan 2011 posits that buildings offer greater potential than any other area of activity, noting they account for ca. 40% of final energy consumption.

There are three broad strands of performance metrics that are applied to decision-making in building energy retrofits, viz. energy savings, financial return and more recently, reduction of carbon emissions. Best practice involves consideration of these metrics on a whole life basis using approaches derived from methodologies such as life cycle cost analysis (LCCA), and life cycle assessment (LCA).

However, obtaining satisfactory (not to mention optimal) choices requires acknowledgement of a number of different performance risks associated with these lifecycle metrics and necessitates the development of approaches to reflect them in the decision-making process.

This paper contributes to the required discussion by examining conventional approaches to assessing building energy retrofits and by identifying and exploring a number of performance risks.