The EU-funded ProRetro project developed new One-Stop-Shop (OSS) services in five German cities or regions, where homeowners show a reluctance to retrofit. The project aimed to overcome barriers to residential energy efficiency renovations with OSS designed to meet the needs of German customers. OSS facilitate energy renovations by being a single point of contact. ProRetro has drawn from best practice examples in other EU Member States and used their experiences for the further development of new OSS services in Germany. OSS shall reduce non-financial cost (information and search costs, administrative costs) incurred by building owners and increase the quality of energy efficiency renovations.
ProRetro supports owners of residential buildings and condominium owners' associations who want to renovate their house. The OSS developed in the project have been put to test in five German cities and regions. In developing the new OSS, the implementing partners aimed to cover the customer’s journey of a building renovation, starting from the initial energy audit and planning to the contracting of construction work, implementation, monitoring, quality control and approval. The concrete scope of services offered varies however between the five OSS.
The German project partners are regional energy agencies and small and medium enterprises. Organisations from other European countries that have experimented with and implemented successful OSS business models have supported the German project partners. Peer-to-peer learning contributed to the project's success.
The ProRetro project aimed to
- Overcome barriers to residential building refurbishment by offering new OSS services to customers in five German cities/regions
- base the One-Stop-Shop design on the needs of customers so that they are attractive to customers,
- conceptualise, develop, implement and monitor and evaluate the new OSS,
- prepare their continuation beyond the project lifetime,
- cover the whole customer journey of a building renovation from audit/advice, planning, contracting, implementation and monitoring, quality control and approval – and involve respective stakeholders/ experts in the service offer,
- build on information and experiences in designing and implementing OSS from best practice examples in other European countries and establish peer-learning structures with those organisations.