BUILD UPON project launched today
The world’s largest collaborative building renovation project has been launched today by Europe’s green building councils to tackle one of its biggest climate challenges – its existing buildings.
BUILD UPON will support governments, industry and civil society to deliver so-called ‘national renovation strategies’ by 30 April 2017 – long-term plans on how they will renovate their nation’s homes and commercial buildings to high standards of energy efficiency – in a concerted effort to reduce emissions from buildings, which today account for 36% of the EU’s total CO2 emissions.
The €2.35m Horizon 2020-funded project will bring together a diverse range of organisations to agree clear energy saving targets; co-ordinated awareness raising initiatives that engage citizens; and skills programmes that train the construction workforce to deliver high quality retrofits. They will also consider financial mechanisms such as green mortgages and loans, and policies such as strengthened energy performance certificates.
Green building councils across 13 countries are leading the project (Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Turkey), which is being supported by the World Green Building Council’s (WGBC) Europe Regional Network.
“Existing buildings are one of Europe’s biggest challenges when it comes to tackling climate change,” said WGBC CEO Terri Wills. “We can turn that challenge into a solution, but need nothing short of a renovation revolution.
“BUILD UPON will spark that revolution by gathering an unprecedented number of key players, including governments, businesses and NGOs, in a collaborative community where they will work together to transform Europe’s existing buildings into green buildings.”
The project will use two key platforms to aid this collaboration: the ‘RenoWiki’ – a groundbreaking online portal which allows individuals to upload real-life initiatives on building renovations in Europe in order to share best practice and successful initiatives – and a series of over 80 events aimed at bringing together more than 1,000 organisations to consult and engage key players in what could be included in their renovation strategies.
“There are already hundreds of initiatives on building renovation taking place across Europe, yet they often exist independently from one another, with limited means of sharing success and best practice, or lessons learned,” explained Emilio Miguel Mitre, BUILD UPON co-ordinator and director of international affairs at GBC España.
“Now is the time to build upon these relatively strong but scattered foundations by combining our efforts and aligning our resources to achieve a greater collective impact. This huge co-ordination effort is the central challenge BUILD UPON is taking on.”
The RenoWiki and a full events programme are available at www.buildupon.eu.
