Upcoming events:

“EU-wide policy conference in Berlin (Hybrid, November 19, 2024)”

Against the backdrop of a newly formed commission and the goal to reach a climate neutral building stock in the EU by 2050 the EUKI SURF EU-wide policy conference - “Fostering sustainable building renovation in Europe!” will discuss the existing regulatory framework, its deficiencies and opportunities for municipal actors to impact the transition in the building sector. The conference will bring together municipal, national and international actors with a ranging expertise from scientific, political and practical backgrounds.

To register for the conference please klick here

SUstainable Building Renovation – Forming the Future (SURF)

European municipalities as drivers of the Renovation Wave

Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH), Ae3R and Energiaklub implement the SURF project, funded by the European Climate Initiative (EUKI), to stimulate deep and sustainable building renovations by empowering municipal actors to foster and implement sustainable renovation projects. We are convinced that municipal decision-makers and professionals in cooperation with local stakeholders can trigger a paradigm shift in sustainable energy renovation from the ground up.

Background

The building sector is a key leverage point to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 36% of the CO2 emissions in the European Union originate from the building sector. Thus, the European Union aims at reaching a climate- neutral building stock in 2050, which is only possible through intensified renovations.

Although public buildings should act as role models for private sector renovations, renovation rates in Germany, Hungary, and Romania are significantly lagging behind the average annual renovation rate required by the European Commission.

Main elements of SURF

Transnational workshops: SURF brings together 2-4 forerunner municipalities in transnational workshops with municipalities from Germany, Hungary and Romania to learn from their experiences with best practices and successful concepts.
Online training: SURF addresses capacity gaps by providing a circular building training series as well as useful resources and guidelines.
SURF network: To amplify the impacts created, the project aims to establish the new transnational SURF network, to support the exchange of practical solution. EU-wide informal online “renovation lunches” and a conference will fill the SURF network with life to help connecting municipalities and build transnational partnerships.

"Circular Buildings" Training

About the “Circular Buildings” online training series

As part of the SURF project, "Circular buildings" online training series are planned. The aim of the training is to address the existing capacity gap by providing up-to-date expertise and thereby strengthen the skills of municipal stakeholders from EU Member States and promote sustainable renovations at the local level. The series of the ‘Circular Buildings’ trainings includes the following three modules, each dedicated to different topic of sustainable building renovation:

Module 1: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and climate-friendly building materials (Ausgust 31, 2023)
Module 2: Financing options for sustainable building renovation projects (March 21, 2024)
Module 3: Green Public Procurement. How to integrate 'green' criteria in public procurement for buildings (October 2, 2024)

Module 1: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) & climate-friendly building materials (past event)

Date: August 31, 2023

The EU Renovation Wave and the Circular Economy Action Plan set the course for delivering more sustainable buildings through intensified renovation activities. However, life-cycle assessment (LCA) or circular solutions find little or no practical application in the building sector in EU countries. In addition to the need for more financial support for municipal renovations, there are still challenges for municipal actors in terms of capacity and know-how on sustainable refurbishments.

To address these knowledge gaps, on August 31, 2023, we kick-started our "Circular Buildings" online training series with Module 1, which focused on LCA and climate-friendly building materials. Eva-Maria Friedel, senior researcher at Bauhaus Earth (tbc), introduced the training participants to the life cycle assessment, a tool that allows understanding the energy use and other environmental impacts associated with all stages of a building’s life cycle: site selection, design, construction, operation and maintenance, refurbishment and renovation or demolition. In addition, we heard some inspiring good practice examples of climate-friendly renovation methods (with clay, straw, hemp, paludiculture plants or circular construction/renovation) from Dr. Ipek Ölcüm, CEO Industrieverband Lehmbaustoffe e. V., Michael Burchert, CEO Bauwende e.V., and Dominik Campanella, CEO Concular GmbH.

• In English

• In German

• In Hungarian

• In Romanian

Module 2: Financing options for sustainable building renovation projects (past event)

The European Commission encourages Member States to use EU funding to implement national, regional and local support schemes to promote sustainable building renovation. However, the investments necessary to increase energy efficiency in buildings are already reaching a level that cannot be covered with public money alone. The EU invests €85-90 billion annually in the energy efficiency of buildings through public programs, while the renovation of existing buildings alone will require additional investments of €275 billion per year to reach the 2030 climate targets (COM). Therefore, the mobilisation of private capital for climate-friendly construction and renovation is crucial. As an important link between investors, industry and homeowners, local authorities need to familiarise themselves with the financial instruments and determine the most suitable ones for successfully implementing sustainable renovations at the local level.

In this context, Module 2 of the online training "Circular Buildings" was dedicated to financing options for sustainable building renovation projects. In Module 2, Mathieu Daloze from the European Commission (DG Energy) gave a detailed overview of the EU policy framework and EU financial programs for building renovations with relevance to local governments. In addition, Pablo Baigorria Kobylinski from Creara, a Madrid-based consultancy, introduced the training participants to innovative financing tools such as on-bill and on-tax schemes, energy performance contracting (EPC) as well as green mortgages, loans and bonds, while also discussing their advantages and disadvantages. Both presentations were followed by two good practice examples. Samuel Bretillot from Île-de-France Region introduced presented the Region's framework for green and sustainability bonds for green buildings, while Ly Loss from the Estonian Business and Innovation Agency KredEx shared Estonian experiences in financing sustainable building renovation projects, including with the help of the KredEx Revolving Fund.

Recording and presentations from the event:

Module 3: Green Public Procurement How to integrate “green” criteria in public procurement for buildings

Since public authorities are major buyers of goods, services and works, they can use their purchasing power to select climate-friendly goods, services and works and thus make a valuable contribution to achieving national as international sustainability and environmental policy goals.(COM) However, according to a study published in 2023 by the Stockholm Environment Institute, 55% of procurement procedures in the EU still use the lowest price as the sole award criterion. The study shows that local authorities need greater awareness and clear guidance on how GPP and “green” criteria can be used for impactful societal outcomes. Module 3 of our “Circular Buildings” training series therefore addresses these existing knowledge gaps among local stakeholders in European countries in the field of green public procurement for the design, construction, renovation, demolition and management of buildings.

In Module 3, Ms. Evelin Piirsalu, Senior Expert at the Stockholm Environment Institute, provided an overview of the results of the 2023 GPP study mentioned above. The study examined the GPP landscape in the EU and identified solutions and best practices, as well as policy recommendations to strengthen GPP policies to reduce GHG emissions, based on case studies from eight EU Member States. In addition, scientific project officer Ms. Ángela Ranea Palma and project officer Ms. María González Torres from the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) presented the Commission’s green criteria for the design, construction, renovation, demolition and management of buildings, which are currently under revision. Finally, we heard good practice examples of the implementation of green public procurement in the building sector from two European cities – Helsinki (Finland), presented by Ms. Sara Tapiala, Team Leader for Environment and Energy at the City of Helsinki, and Pesaro (Italy), presented by Ms. Margherita Finamore, Project Manager for Sustainable Built Environment at the Council of Pesaro.

Recording and presentations from the event:

• In English

Introduction (DUH)

Accelerating the EU's uptake of Green Public Procurement (Italian National Property Agency)

Green Public Procurement as a key to sustainability in the building sector (Joint Research Centre)

Implementing environemntal and energy targets in public building projects (City of Helsinki)

Replicable model of GPP : case studies on sustainable school construction (Stockholm Environment Institute)

• In German

Nachhaltige Gebäudesanierung –die Zukunft gestalten - DUH

EinführungeinesumweltorientiertenBeschaffungswesensin der EU beschleunigen - Evelin Piirsalu

Umweltorientierte öffentliche Beschaffung als Schlüssel zur Nachhaltigkeit im Bausektor - Ángela Ranea Palma / María González Torres.

UÖB-Verfahren: Integration ökologischer Kriterien in der öffentlichen Beschaffung für Gebäude - Margherita Finamore

Umsetzung von Umwelt- und Energiezielen bei öffentlichen Bauprojekten - Sara Tapiala

Online Renovation Lunches

About the Renovation Lunches

The EU Renovation Lunches are a new online format, which brings together municipalities, local and regional authorities and stakeholders from all over the EU. It provides an open and informal space to exchange about best practices, learnings and difficulties in implementing renovation but also to find partners for cooperation and support.

1st Online Renovation Lunch: One Stop Shop – An effective financing model for renovation projects in municipalities? (past event)

June, 28, 2023 | see presentation

The EU aims at an annual 3% renovation rate of buildings. However, we are far away from a Renovation Wave as the current renovation rate is roughly at 1%. Building renovations decrease energy consumption while reducing energy poverty and at the same time mitigating CO2-emissions to reach the EU climate targets. Municipalities and regions play a major role in facilitating building renovations. Unfortunately, financial questions often pose obstacles to renovation activities. Effective and easy financing models are needed.

The Rhodoshop project from Bulgaria represents such an example. In the first Online Renovation Lunch, Zlatka Nikolova from the Association of Rhodope Municipalities and Ivanka Pandelieva-Dimova from the Sofia Energy Center exchanged insights, successes, challenges and insights about the Rhodoshop project to introduce a one-stop shop (OSS) for energy renovation of buildings. OSS offers integrated renovation solutions with the main aim of simplifying the building renovation process for the property owners. It is intended to accelerate building renovations by informing, motivating and supporting building owners throughout the energy renovation process. In addition, OSS can facilitate access to financing, occasionally offer better interest rates and also improve the average depth of renovation in terms of energy performance.

2nd Renovation Lunch: Renovating With By-Products of Rice Cultivation as Sustainable Insulation Material (past event)

February 20, 2024 | see presentation

In the second edition of the Online Renovation Lunch, Alessio Colombo, CEO and Cofounder of CLEVER Cities project shared insights, successes, challenges and learnings of his project and its sustainable material use. The CLEVER Cities project has retrofitted four towers of social housing owned by the Lombardy region, public residential buildings. Their entire facades were renovated using rice husks. Allessio Colombo gave the participants insights into how the use of rice husk was a solution regarding sustainability issues as well as into the challenge regarding financing.

3rd Online Renovation Lunch: The Energy Sprong Method – a step into the future (past event)

June 13, 2024 | see presentations

The third and final informal online Renovation Lunch was dedicated to the Energiesprong concept. Energiesprong is a concept for the energy renovation of buildings that promises fast implementation, cost reduction and sustainability. After a renovation with Energiesprong, a building is a net zero energy building, i.e. it generates all the energy needed for its heating, hot water and electrical appliances itself. This can be achieved through the use of innovative technologies such as prefabricated façades, insulated rooftops with solar panels and smart heating and/or ventilation and cooling systems. A complete home renovation can be completed in less than 10 days, and in some projects, in just one day. In Europe, the Energiesprong concept is being implemented in the Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy and the UK.

At the third Renovation Lunch, Sanne de Wit, Head of Ideas at the Global Energiesprong Alliance, and Timo Sengewald, Senior Expert for Climate-Neutral Buildings at the German Energy Agency (dena), exchanged experiences with the implementation of the Energiesprong concept in the Netherlands and Germany. Both countries follow different approaches in applying this concept: while in the Netherlands it is applied to the renovation of residential buildings, in Germany it is used to the renovation of non-residential buildings instead.

Transnational Workshops (only for project participants):

1st Peer-to Peer Workshop

May, 10th, 2023 | Online |

During the online workshop, participating municipalities were introduced to the SURF project, the policies and goals for sustainable renovations at EU level, and the idea and importance of sustainable renovations. The municipality of Steyerberg (Germany) shared their best practice experience of sustainable renovation. In the second part of the workshop, the results of the participating municipalities’ discussion revealed that several participants still have little knowledge about sustainable and especially circular renovation of buildings. The discussion showed that sustainable renovations in Romania, Hungary and Germany face the following obstacles: (1) financial challenges, (2) lack of knowledge about sustainable materials, (3) lack of specific legislation on green public procurement and (4) acceptance of the costs of life cycle assessment. Most of these know-how-based barriers will be addressed through the capacity building activities of the SURF project.

Here you can read the presentation of the municipality of Steyerberg and the DUH presentation on the project.

2nd International Peer-to-Peer Workshop: On-site-visit of the best practice municipality Luckenwalde and the Urban Mining Hub Berlin

(Copyright: DUH)

During the workshop, the local staff from municipalities in Hungary, Rumania, and Germany visited best practice projects in Luckenwalde and Berlin (Germany). Luckenwalde managed to energetically refurbish residential buildings and seized the opportunity to connect the buildings to the local district heating at once due to successful cooperation between the urban planning office and other municipal administration and utilities.

Participants had the opportunity to visit the implemented measures such as an old apartment block building that has been energetically renovated to a low energy building ensuring a low rent, an energetically renovated library that formerly was a station hall as well as several energetically renovated residential districts and a renovated school heated by a hybrid geothermal heat pump.

Left: photography of the group in front of the energetically renovated education institute that was extended by a new annex building (Copyright: DUH)/Right: the building as such (Copyright: DUH)

On the third and last day, participants had the opportunity to visit the Circular House in Berlin, a former industrial building that has been reconverted and sustainably renovated into a living and office space. An expert from the Urban Mining Hub Berlin, Wilhelm Unnerstall, highlighted the sustainable renovation features, which led to an inspiring exchange amongst the participants.

Left: tour in the circular house (Copyright: DUH)/Right: house "Alltag" (Copyright: DUH)

“Alltag”, the building, offering flats and spaces for work and social occasions, is partially constructed with a timber structure. The tall windows in the staircase could be saved from a building that was demolished. The building envelope is conform to the standard of a passive house.

The immersion into the best practice examples in combination with the knowledge transfer that inspired the participants not only in a cognitive but also in a holistic way. The presentation about the energetic renovation of a whole district, for example, inspired them, but was not as highlighted by them as was the experience of actually being in a converted building, renovated with sustainable material made them combine the newly gained knowledge with a positive experience.

Workshops:

Additionally, participants exchanged their experiences in four workshops that were geared to each other. They analysed relevant municipal processes, challenges and stakeholders in the context of sustainable building renovation (SBR) in order to identify leverage points for improvements in and acceleration of SBR processes.

(Copyright: DUH)

The participating municipal staff was very happy with the exchange. They highlighted the inspiration they got by the selected best practices and that they would use in their hometowns.

3rd International Peer-to-Peer Workshop: Green Public Procurement in Building Refurbishment

November 28th | Online |

In this last international peer-to-peer workshop, another forerunner municipality will share their best practices. Further, there will be a discussion on how green public procurement can improve the sustainability of building renovations. Since it is the last of three workshops, participants will also get the opportunity to plan the implementation of the learning on sustainable building renovation in their own municipality.

Supporting materials

To support municipalities and stakeholders in planning, procuring, and implementing sustainable building renovation projects, Deutsche Umwelthilfe, Energiaklub, and Ae3R have developed a set of practical resources as part of the SURF project.

Factsheets: These provide a clear and concise overview of key topics such as climate-friendly building materials, a life-cycle approach to renovations, financing options for sustainable projects, and green public procurement for buildings. Each factsheet includes a good practice example from a European municipality or region, showcasing real-world applications of these strategies.
Checklist for Sustainable Building Renovation: A step-by-step guide through the renovation process—from strategic planning to demolition. The checklist uses simple, targeted questions to help ensure sustainability is integrated at every phase of the project.
Green Public Procurement Guidelines for Buildings: An easy-to-follow practical guidance on how to incorporate green criteria into public procurement processes for building renovation and construction projects.

These resources are available in three languages—English, Hungarian, and Romanian—making them accessible to a wide range of stakeholders.