ENERGY EFFICIENCY SUBSCRIPTION FOR DEEP RENOVATION WITH PERFORMANCE GUARANTEE

Project Information

EUROPA

Grant agreement ID: 956649

DOI

10.3030/956649

Project closed

EC signature date 4 September 2020

Start date 1 October 2020

End date 30 September 2023

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Secure, clean and efficient energy

Total cost

€ 1 916 425,00

EU contribution

€ 1 916 425,00

Coordinated by

REGIONE PIEMONTE
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - EUROPA (ENERGY EFFICIENCY SUBSCRIPTION FOR DEEP RENOVATION WITH PERFORMANCE GUARANTEE)

Reporting period: 2022-04-01 to 2023-09-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Renovating both public and private buildings is an essential action and to pursue this objective, in 2020 the Commission published the strategy "A Renovation Wave for Europe – Greening our buildings, creating jobs, improving lives" to boost renovation in the EU. It aims to double annual energy renovation rates in the next 10 years. As well as reducing emissions, these renovations will enhance quality of life for people living in and using the buildings, and should create many additional green jobs in the construction sector.
Europa project sets its actions in this context, boosting the capacity of five pilot regions to promote energy efficiency investments in the residential building sector.
The action has four specific objectives. On one hand, the project aims at defining common rules, approaches and methods in the promotion of energy efficiency in the residential building sector. On the other hand the project will trigger about 37 M€ of investment in all of the involved regions. Besides, the project will transfer knowledge to other European organizations (public authorities, energy agencies and private companies), by implementing a mentoring program. All these objectives will be fed by a mutual learning activity boosting the capacity and skills of the consortium toward a common understanding of the issues and sharing experience and knowledge.
The project is intended to define a common set of standards and requirements for the deep energy renovation (the so-called Energy Efficiency Subscription). It includes technical requirements and financial options. Although set on a common framework, the energy efficiency subscription is tailored on the basis of the regional peculiarities and national legislative framework. Its promotion and implementation is carried out through the management of One-Stop-Shop activities, set up in each pilot region. Partners are engaging relevant stakeholders (Associations of Condominium managers, construction companies, professional orders, social house managers, etc..) in order to activate demand and support the Energy Efficiency Subscription.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Europa project has been implemented by nine organizations in Italy, France, Portugal, Germany and Latvia with the support of technical partners. During the three years of implementation the partners joined their efforts to establish and run OneStop-Shops for home renovation in order to boost the energy renovation market in the respective region. In doing so, the partners developed a common scheme of standards and specifications to be used to provide an improved quality of works and forms of guarantee of energy performance, the so called Energy Efficiency Subscription. Besides, all the five regional partners spent a lot of effort in establishing cooperation with local market operators and financial institutions in order to activate the final demand (main target were condominium) and trigger energy efficiency investments. Besides, a mutual learning activity among the partners helped them to work together sharing ideas, methods, knowledge and strategies.
The project was used to establish and run 5 regional one stop shops in the regions of Piemonte, Allgau, Isere, Alentano Tejo and in the Latvia country. The five One-Stop Shops offer email, phone as well as in person consultations with clients (mainly condominiums) and provide information and supportive services. Moreover, all One-Stop Shops applied the adapted Energy Efficiency Subscription developed within the framework of EUROPA.
At least 3 main project outputs can be highlighted.
The first one is the Energy Efficiency Subscription scheme with its english general version and the 5 adapted versions to the regional context covered by the project. The Energy Efficiency Subscription (EES) sets standards and requirements for the deep energy renovation of residential buildings to improve the energy performance of renovated buildings while ensuring high quality of the renovation interventions in the five regions involved. The EES aims to build trust between house owners/property managers, operators (professionals, craftsmen, ESCo, utilities, construction companies) and financing institutions by defining technical, financial and contractual requirements and standards that need to be considered and implemented throughout the whole process of deep renovations of residential buildings, thus contributing to the achievement of expected energy savings.
Besides, the self learning material on the establishment and running of a One Stop-Shop for home renovation. During the EUROPA project, all project partners gained experience in engaging renovation stakeholders and diverse types of homeowners. To effectively share this knowledge, the mentors themselves prepared the mentoring process with the help of tailored learning materials on peer learning and replication processes. The self-directed learning package resulted in 9 video presentations about One Stop Shops and three video presentations about the Energy Efficiency subscription.
Finally, the SUNShINE platform powered by EUROPA as a multi-stakeholder platform for digitalising energy renovation activities from initiation to monitoring and evaluation. It consists of different tools to support the work of One-Stop Shops, any organisation active in energy renovation activities, as well as financial and governmental institutions, and, of course, the residents of multi-family buildings.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The project triggered more than 35 M€ of investments in energy efficiency with a primary energy savings of about 13 GWh. This impact has been achieved supporting the renovation of more than 1.100 dwellings. A lot of stakeholders at regional level have been involved in discussions and operational networks; this was the framework of the activities implemented by the one stop shops launched by the regional partners. About 2000 persons participated in the communication activities that the project organized or was involved. The replication activity and the network created provided the ideal framework to capitalize this result and step forward in the creation of a community of practice of Integrated Home Renovation Services at European level. Partners from Europa project and mentees selected in the project implementation joint their efforts under the coordination of Climate Alliance in the EU-PEERS initiative, that is supposed to build up and implement the community at European level.
The five One Stop Shops are exploitable results themselves, since the financial sustainability stood out as particularly relevant to all of the project partners, regardless of their legislative status and country. Thus, all regional partners developed tailored Business Model Canvas in order to ensure the longevity of their One-Stop Shop and the services offered. Apart from the confrontation of cost structures and revenue streams, the approach also allowed for a reflection on customer segments, customer relationships and contact channels, as well as key activities, partners and resources. All five structures are still alive and working after the project end.

Site visits in portugal

OSS consultation in Allgau

Replication workshop in Torino

OSS consultation in Piemonte