In Poland, environmental issues in the field of architecture and construction are becoming increasingly important. These include issues relating to sustainable architecture, energy efficiency and ecological building materials. Whilst still voluntary, green certification for commercial facilities is progressing rapidly. From April 2023, it became mandatory for every building to have a building energy certificate, i.e., a certificate concerning a building’s energy assessment, indicating the building’s energy needs for heating and ventilation, hot water, air-conditioning and lighting.

For commercial buildings, in addition to the most basic certificates assessing buildings’ energy performance, certificates providing a broader assessment of a building are also common. The most popular of these certificates on the Polish market are British Researcher Establishment Environmental Assessment (BREEAM) and Leadership in Energy and Design (LEED). According to data published in April 2023 by the Polish Green Building Association, about 1,600 buildings in Poland are certified, and this number continues to grow dynamically. Between 2022 and 2023, there was a 27% increase in certificates awarded, i.e., by almost 8 million square meters. 

The renovation of existing buildings by 2050 is one of Poland’s biggest infrastructure challenges, which is why, in 2022, the Polish Council of Ministers adopted the Long-Term Strategy for the Renovation of Buildings. This strategy defines what actions need to be taken in renovating buildings to achieve high energy efficiency and low carbon performance of buildings in Poland, with the aim of modernizing them in line with the EU’s transition toward a climate-neutral economy.