Half of the EU´s energy consumption goes to heating our buildings. Most of them are old and inefficient. Renovating the EU´s building stock is a huge task that can only be done if action happens across all European cities and towns.
The Energy Efficiency Directive (EED), Article 4, requires all EU Member States to prepare a national renovation strategy for their building stock. The second version was due in 2017 (not all yet complied). Energy community countries need to submit their first strategy in 2018. But buildings aren’t just in capital cities. They are in Europe’s smaller cities, towns and communes. EmBuild, a H2020 funded project (www.embuild.eu) helps municipalities to formulate local renovation plans. Only with such local plans can we achieve national and EU goals. EmBuild worked directly with public authorities in towns and regions in Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Germany. The project generated new tools, better processes and built capacity in local governments to design ambitious but realistic renovation strategies. Renovating the building stock contributes to the achievement of multiple goals: lower energy bills, increased comfort, healthier living and working spaces, improved air quality and new local jobs. Turning the focus on these wider benefits gets attention. Energy efficiency on its own may not be a strong argument at local level, but higher comfort, insulated schools in which you can learn better, renovated hospitals that make you heal more quickly are strong arguments. EmBuild has prepared a tool for measuring these wider benefits.
This tool and the experience of the EmBuild project will be presented and discussed at the EmBuild final conference in Belgrade, Serbia, on 7 June. The event is co-hosted by the Energy Community and is officially registered as an EUSEW energy day.
EmBuild has received funding from the European Union's Horizon2020 research and Innovation programme under grant agreement No 695169