Factor4 as EPC facilitator: how we guide organisations towards sustainable buildings
This week, our colleague Johan Coolen is in the spotlight within the ‘Sustainable cities in action’ campaign! As an EPC facilitator, he plays a crucial role in guiding energy performance contracts (EPC), such as with the city of Sint-Niklaas.
An EPC facilitator guides governments and organizations through every step of an energy performance contract. Together, you determine the ambitions and define the energy goal and sustainability targets. The facilitator then collects all the necessary information, such as an overview of buildings and energy data, to clearly map out the situation. Based on this data, they develop a structured and achievable contract, ensuring all parties are aligned. Even after signing, the facilitator remains involved and ensures that the project goes according to plan.
Factor4 is an expert in EPC guidance and the creator of Building Performance Contracting (BPC). In a BPC project, you save on average 50% more energy than in a classic energy performance contract. This is because Factor4 looks beyond the usual payback period.
We take into account the residual value of installations. As a result, investments not only remain profitable during the contract, but also retain their value in the long term. This makes structural and sustainable investments, such as insulation and in-depth HVAC renovations, more attractive. These are often postponed due to their longer payback period, but thanks to our approach, we tackle them right away.
So we ensure higher energy savings and a greater positive climate impact. Organizations like Sint-Niklaas benefit from this with more sustainable buildings and a financially advantageous solution that reduces budget pressure.
Want to know how an EPC facilitator can support your project? Feel free to contact us.
Recent articles
15 years of experience with NEN 2767: the maintenance standard that has taken Belgium by storm
In 2010, Factor4 was the first Belgian consultancy firm to examine the then relatively new and promising Dutch standard NEN 2767. This standard makes it possible to assess the technical condition of building components and installations in a uniform, objective, and reproducible manner.
Are you already familiar with our integrated approach combining EPC-NR, energy audits, and condition assessments?
As a building manager, you have to juggle many responsibilities at the same time. You must comply with increasingly stringent energy and climate regulations (such as EPC NR), organise structural and cost-efficient maintenance (through condition assessments and MJOPs), and at the same time keep energy costs under control through targeted energy audits. In practice, these trajectories often run in parallel, while the associated data is scattered across different systems and reports. As a result, the overall overview is lost — costing both time and money.
VDAB takes major steps toward greater workplace comfort
Investing in comfortable workplaces pays off. VDAB proves this with the results of its most recent Comfortmeter survey, conducted by Factor4. After the first measurement in 2017, a new survey was carried out in the winter 2024-2025 to assess how employees experience their workplace comfort. The result? A noticeable improvement in both satisfaction and overall well-being at work.