Retrofitting

Where we will solve this challenge

Check out the map to see all the cities that face similar challenges in this area!

How to reduce the effect of heat islands in Belgrade?

Belgrade

In recent years the microclimate of central urban areas has changed and heat islands have been created. How can we solve the problem of heat islands in Belgrade?

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How "foresighted housing supply" look like and which data could be networked?

Mannheim

With around 18,846 apartments, GBG Mannheim is the largest local housing association in Baden-Württemberg. It provides living space for about 13 percent of Mannheim's citizens. [...]

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How Nijmegen can be energy-neutral in future?

Nijmegen

We can draw a great deal of energy from the sun and wind. That is smart and necessary. We are transitioning to a new system of sustainable energy.

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How to promote green solar roofs and facades? Good reasons to combine greening of building with PVs

Brussels

Roof gardens with photovoltaics help tackling air pollution, increasing biodiversity, and transforming buildings into self-sustaining living units. But there are few green solar roofs in Brussels. How can integrative planning and implementation be optimized? How can economic efficiency be increased?

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How to become aware of energy consumption of buildings and incite retrofitting and behaviour change?

Brussels

70% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Brussels is caused by the heating of buildings. Insulation of buildings is significantly reduces energy use. The challenge is to make owners and tenants aware of the potential for GHG emission reductions by investing efficiency measures and change of attitude

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Come possiamo ripensare gli edifici urbani per renderli più efficienti dal lato energetico?

Carpi

Molti edifici a Carpi hanno bisogno di essere rimodernizzati se vogliamo ridurre lo spreco di energia e il consumo di suolo. Come possiamo rinnovare gli edifici urbani pubblici e privati per renderli più sostenibili e accoglienti per tutti?

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Creating the built environment in a sustainable way

Leiden

Urbanization is here! More and more buildings are being constructed and the construction itself is part of their carbon footprint. How can we find ways to reduce the environmental impact of the construction process?

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Sustainable homes

Aguascalientes

Sustainability is the part of ecology that studies the balance of a species with the resources of its environment, and in this case applies to the idea that homes always consume less energy than they produce.

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How to build our city in a more sustainable way ?

Liège

Liège is full of new building projects : housing, infrastructures, urbanisation ... How can we make them positive right now and not only on the long term ?

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How do we make retrofitting more sustainable?

Buildings play a crucial role in mitigating climate change and are directly linked to the resilience of future neighbourhoods, districts, and cities. There is an urgent need for cities to bring about a significant increase in current retrofit rates to realise the "well below two degrees" Paris goal.

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As the built environment contributes to 40% of global emissions, it is of the utmost importance to increase energy efficiency and the use of (decentralised) renewable energy sources. This contributes to both the Paris Agreement and additionally to numerous Sustainable Development Goals.

With 80% of the current building stock in Europe likely to still be operational in 2050, systemic and scalable deep retrofit (near zero net energy/CO2 emissions) solutions have a vast potential to contribute to a low/zero carbon, built environment. An integral part of the pathway are innovative and systemic retrofit solutions that go beyond ‘business-as-usual’ in today’s market.

For the needed change, which requires a tripling of the retrofit rate from 1% to 3%, small incremental steps are not going to suffice. Rather, we need a “whole systems change”. This system includes national and European governments and their various and sometimes conflicting policies and regulations; the fragmented supply chains of manufacturers, subcontractors, builders, architects and consultants; national energy infrastructures, utility companies, a growing number of energy collectives and energy service companies; the urban space with city councils, departments, mayors, housing corporations; banks, retrofit funds, and many more.

Urban renewal programmes that are fundamentally driven by a local community will create the opportunity to comprehensively address the challenges of deeply retrofitting buildings and creating new energy supply systems that deliver social value first and decarbonisation second.

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