How to implement Integrated Home Renovation Services? Examples from Europe

Building trust. These are the keywords that dominated this webinar on Integrated Home Renovation Services organised by the Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy – Europe and Opengela on March 15^th, 2022.

In this joint webinar moderated by the Basque Energy Agency, the representatives of Electric Ireland Superhomes and Fundaciò EuroPACE presented respectively their impressive work on deep retrofitting houses in Ireland and the programme GIDomus operating in the Municipality of Olot, Spain. They were of course joined by the Basque government who introduced the urban regeneration plan supported by OPENGELA and the Covenant of Mayors – Europe, introducing the 2050 targets launched in 2021. In addition, Christophe Milin, from CINEA, gave an overview of similar services from across Europe, concluding different types of home renovation services. These are detailed in the publication he wrote with Adrien Bullier: Towards large-scale roll out of “integrated home renovation services” in Europe

This webinar showed how a home renovation can impact the life of each one of us, both on an individual and global scale. It has been said and written many times that the recent crises, economic, sanitary, and, more recently, geopolitical, have demonstrated the importance of having a climate-neutral (net-zero emissions) Europe by 2050.

As well explained by Christophe Milin, building renovation is not always an easy path to follow for all citizens. Apart from the typical burden when one renovates its home, the difficulties to find and afford certified professionals may be one too many. The projects and programmes presented today all aimed to counter this downfall. One of the many common features was building trust with the citizens. This was recognised as one of the first and highly time-consuming challenges.

Either focusing on vulnerable populations or only renovating houses using renewable energy sources, the examples that took the floor today showcased that there is no one type of home renovation service and that their diversity is linked to the territories they are based on. Nevertheless, they all showed that their solutions can inspire other territories to replicate parts of their models and participate in the acceleration of the renovation of the EU Building Stock.