Energy Efficiency: First CondoReno Flemish National Advisory Board and Acceleration Workshop

On November 22, the CondoReno project reached a significant milestone with the convening of its first Flemish National Advisory Board (NAB). Hosted by the Technical University of Delft, the meeting aimed to discuss the expected goals, outputs, and deliverables of the project, but above all to facilitate discussions with local committed or interested stakeholders on improving the energy efficiency of condominiums in Flanders through integrated home renovation services (IHRS) for condominium associations (CAs), being this the man objective of the project. These services will provide full-scale support throughout the entire renovation process for buildings owned by numerous private homeowners. In essence, CondoReno aims to simplify and enhance the way condominiums approach and execute energy-efficient renovations, making the process smoother and more accessible.

In the first half of the meeting, the NAB Members received updates on the experiences, challenges, and state of play in the demonstration sites of CondoReno, including explanations and discussions on the roadmap for the renovation process, which led to several conclusions, such as:

Sensitization and the social approach within CAs are as vital, if not more so, than the technical aspects.
A step-by-step approach is crucial to gaining and retaining support from resident-owners.
The preparation of a renovation master plan plays a pivotal role in conveying the need for renovation to co-owners.
Further professionalization of syndicators is necessary to make them effective ambassadors for renovation projects.
Regulations and premium policies should be more precisely tailored to the unique requirements of apartment buildings.

On the second half of the meeting, input from the Advisory Board members was gathered through a roundtable discussion focusing on project contributions to the condominium associations’ sustainability acceleration agenda; the interaction focused on prioritizing challenges in the short term, outlining next action steps to be addressed in the next year, and gathering members’ insights regarding developing policy or national initiatives. Finally, the meeting concluded with a visit to the Mariahoeve project in The Hague, a neighbourhood where 95% of the large homeowners’ associations have been contacted by the city hall, with the aim to provide advice to homeowners’ associations on how they can make their homes more sustainable.

On the same day, an Acceleration Workshop, themed “More Integral Renovations for More Condominium Associations,” took place, with the objective to explore collaborative models and policy positions to accelerate energy-saving renovations for CAs. The workshop featured discussions on policy development in the field of energy renovations, experiences of Dutch municipalities, and a policy panel titled “How do policies achieve more integrated services, higher energy performance and more renovations for CAs?”, with notable local representatives from Dutch local and governmental authorities. Following this, it delved into the development of the demand and supply for integral housing renovation services, in which participants engaged in an interactive exchange to get insights and reflections from practitioners concerning the interests and concerns in developing these services.

While the outcomes from the Acceleration Workshop will be further developed by the project’s National Advisory Boards, these gatherings exemplify CondoReno’s commitment to collaborative, sustainable solutions, bringing together experts, policymakers, and practitioners to shape the future of energy-efficient renovations for buildings divided in multiple co-owned units.

Also, the CondoReno project team has recently published a new series of reports on the topic of stakeholder classifications and business models for IHRS in the Netherlands and Flanders, as well as internationally. These three reports are intended to enhance engagement between stakeholders along the value chain of energy-efficient building renovations, and can be found here.

Finally, EBC in parallel, in collaboration with the International Union of Property Owners UIPI and the Climate Agency of Paris, is developing the activities for the CondoReno International Advisory Board. If you are interested to contribute to the discussion on more energy-efficient condominiums in Europe, you can contact the EBC Secretariat to assess synergies in the CondoReno context.