Factor4 seals marriage between Sint Niklaas and Luminus
At the inspiration day of VVSG's Climate Network on As A Service and Energy Efficient Patrimony at the BAU House in Sint-Niklaas, Sint-Niklaas' Alderman for Buildings Bart De Bruyne presented the first results of the energy savings project based on Factor4's Building Performance Contract. The city will achieve energy savings of 39 percent over the next ten years in nine of its buildings that consume the most. To that end, the city entered into a performance contract with Luminus Solutions. Factor4 acted as facilitator. Minister Tinne Van der Straeten saw that it was good.
During his keynote, the alderman called the partnership between the city and Luminus a marriage: “We entered into a long-term relationship with Luminus to put those nine buildings in their hands so they can make energy-saving investments there, and provide the necessary maintenance and monitoring.”
The city had Factor4 accompany it in the preparation of the contract. All possible dates of the buildings were inventoried, down to the smallest details. The contract was then put on the market. Luminus Solutions offered the most attractive proposal in terms of savings and investments. The contract started on January 1, 2022 and runs for ten years.
Luminus Solutions is responsible for the energy-saving investments, maintenance and adjustment of the installed installations, monitoring and reporting. Uniquely, residual value is also included in the contract. At the end of the contract term, the residual value of the building must be at least equal to the value at the beginning of the contract. That is, the condition of the building must not decrease. This allows the ESCO to invest in measures with a payback period longer than 10 years, the term of the contract.
"The innovative nature of this EPC project allows us to go the extra mile. It is a vision over a longer period with staggered budgets and proportionally a maximum of energy savings. This gives us more room to implement measures on the one hand and to guarantee much higher guarantees to the city on the other."
Ben Segers
Project Development Manager, Luminus Solutions
Full details about the project can be found on the website of Luminus solutions.
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.
From EPC-NR to MJOP: everything integrated into one clear approach
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.