The main focus of BUILDINTEREST in the first year was to establish three financing platforms, aimed at creating a structural dialogue between the construction and financial sector, as well as facilitate the development of essential tools and financial instruments that will increase the attractiveness of investments in sustainable energy in buildings.
The quality of a stakeholder platform depends fully on the quality of the stakeholders on board: this can make the difference between “just talking” and making a real change in the market. The project team is therefore very proud that each platform—one in The Netherlands, one in France, and one in Emilia-Romagna in Italy—was able to engage top-level stakeholders. Each of the platforms has created a recognised brand and secured a strong and impressive support base.
The Dutch platform, Green BuildInvest, has gathered virtually all important stakeholders in The Netherlands, including all large Dutch banks (e.g. ING, ABN AMRO, Rabobank) and the two green banks Triodos and ASN, large construction companies including their national umbrella organisation, the relevant national government departments, but also EU level stakeholders such as EEFIG. These stakeholders are linked to the existing Duurzaam Gebouwd platform of building supply companies.
The Italian regional platform, Build Lab, is firmly rooted in the Emilia-Romagna region, an area that is one of Italy's economic powerhouses. They cooperate closely with the regional government and are very well connected to the main relevant regional, national and European projects and organisations. Build Lab has further secured the support and cooperation of big financial players like Unicredit and BPER. As in the Dutch platform, these stakeholders are linked to ASTER’s existing network of building supply companies.
The French platform has a strong focus on venture capital and start-ups. BPI France has opened up the powerful fundmatching tool of EuroQuity to innovative companies in the building sector across the EU. Despite the platform’s focus on venture capital and start-ups, they have managed to involve leading financial institutions like BNP Paribas, HSBC, CFF and Société Générale in their stakeholder group, as well as construction companies like Bouygues and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
All three platforms are working on highly ambitious solutions with a substantial impact on the market, thanks to the involvement of high-level stakeholders in the project. The successful development, facilitation and implementation of these solutions is the main objective of the second and last year of the project.
In addition, the impressive series of events and roundtables that were organised in the three countries in the first year will be continued in the second year. However, the focus of these events will shift from gathering information to enabling cooperating on specific financial tools and instruments.
Finally, the three platform partners expressed clearly that they intend to continue their respective platforms beyond BUILDINTEREST’s project duration, and have worked hard to secure this continuity.
