OPENGELA
An innovative integrated home renovation service for private residential buildings to be validated in the Basque Country and with a high replicability potential in Europe. This will be achieved by setting up “district offices” as one-stop-shops to facilitate turn-key solutions to homeowners, covering the whole customer journey.
Illustration : Yves Alarie
The BIRTUOSS project is dedicated to addressing the challenges involved in renovating private residential buildings. This process often presents complex issues, ranging from financial, administrative, technical, and social challenges. Additionally, the renovation sector for these buildings is characterized by fragmentation and frequent coordination issues. Overcoming these interconnected barriers necessitates a systemic approach to innovation, wherein various stakeholders, such as public institutions, industry players, and civil society, collaborate to devise innovative, sustainable, inclusive, and replicable solutions.
The primary objective of BIRTUOSS is to enhance and expand the Opengela integrated home renovation service (IHRS), targeting a broader group of homeowners. This entails establishing collaborations with local stakeholders, designing a sustainable business model, and extending the service to cover the entire Basque Region. BIRTUOSS aims to focus on renovating multi-family buildings and improving their energy performance, building upon the experience gained from the HIROSS4all project. Lessons learned from this experience will inform a co-creation process to enhance the Opengela service and expand its reach to multiple municipalities within the Basque Region.
BIRTUOSS will initiate a pilot program (living lab) to test its model and intends to extend it to nine additional service systems (OSS) throughout the project’s duration, benefiting 4,800 residents and 2,102 dwellings. This effort is projected to result in primary energy savings of 62.83% (equivalent to 11.41 GWh/year) and a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 13,028.54 tCO2/year. Over the five years following the project’s conclusion, the aim is to scale up to ten more OSS, benefiting a total of 6,350 residents and 2,744 dwellings.
The BIRTUOSS consortium, led by the Basque Government, will tailor its approach to align with the regional context in which the project is implemented, with the ultimate goal of replication at the European level. The consortium includes 14 partners spanning the entire renovation value chain, with additional entities serving in advisory roles to support the achievement of ambitious objectives.
The BIRTUOSS project is co-funded by the LIFE Programme of the European Union.
Views and opinions expressed are however those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or CINEA. Neither the European Union nor CINEA can be held responsible for them.
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