CHRONICLE project: Smarter buildings for a greener future

CHRONICLE is an EU-funded Horizon Europe project developing a new way to understand and improve buildings through digital twins, real-time monitoring and dynamic energy performance certificates.

Buildings are at the heart of Europe’s sustainability challenge. They account for about 40% of total CO₂ emissions from energy use, materials and construction. At the same time, Europe’s building stock is old and inefficient, more than one-third of homes are over 50 years old and three-quarters fall into poor energy efficiency classes.

This combination presents both a challenge and an opportunity. By improving how we renovate, operate and assess buildings, we can cut emissions, reduce energy costs and make homes and workplaces healthier and more comfortable.

That is the mission of CHRONICLE, a Horizon Europe project bringing together partners from eight countries and five pilot sites (in Greece, Spain, Ireland, Denmark and Switzerland). Running from 2022 to 2025, the project is pioneering digital methods to transform building performance assessment and renovation planning.

CHRONICLE methodology

The CHRONICLE approach is based on a simple but powerful vision: what if buildings could tell us what they need?

The project combines:
• Low-cost monitoring technologies, i.e. sensors for temperature, energy use and more.
• Digital twins, i.e. virtual models of real buildings.
• Enhanced energy performance certificates (EPCs) that go beyond the traditional A–G scale.

By calibrating digital twins with real-time data from sensors, CHRONICLE enables a dynamic assessment of a building’s condition, efficiency and renovation options. Unlike static certificates, this system reflects the actual state of the building at any moment, making it possible to evaluate both current performance and potential improvements, from adjusting heating setpoints to major renovations like upgrading insulation or windows.

Importantly, CHRONICLE looks at the entire building lifecycle: construction, use, renovation and end-of-life. This whole-life perspective is essential for reducing embodied and operational carbon.

Groundwork for innovation

Although still ongoing, CHRONICLE has already laid the groundwork for innovation in building assessment:
• Dynamic EPCs: Moving beyond letters to provide actionable insights on energy use, CO₂ emissions, comfort and economic impact.
• Decision-making tools: Helping building owners and asset managers weigh renovation scenarios with reliable, data-driven forecasts.
• Support for energy companies: Enabling energy service companies (ESCOs) to design performance contracts with guaranteed savings.
• Professional insights: Giving engineers and architects new ways to assess projects, from deep renovations to new builds, with metrics such as operational energy use, whole-life carbon, comfort and smart readiness.

For example, in its pilot sites, CHRONICLE is testing how digital twins can integrate real-world building data with renovation scenarios, making it possible to see the impact of changes before they happen.

Next steps

The CHRONICLE project is more than a technical experiment, it is a vision of how Europe can accelerate building renovation, reduce emissions and improve quality of life. By turning buildings into data-rich, self-reporting assets, CHRONICLE provides tools that are useful for professionals, but also understandable for citizens who want to know how to save energy and money.

With its multinational consortium, innovative methodology and European pilot sites, CHRONICLE represents a step towards a future where buildings are smarter, greener and more responsive to human and environmental needs.

To learn more about CHRONICLE and its activities, visit the project’s website.

About the author

Salima Ismayilzada is a Communication Expert at Smart Innovation Norway, specialising in strategic communication, dissemination and stakeholder engagement across EU Horizon projects. With a strong focus on sustainability, she creates impactful narratives that connect research and innovation with society, making complex ideas accessible to diverse audiences.