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RESIDENTS SAY “YES” TO NEXT WAVE OF RETROFITTING IN LUND, SWEDEN

March 8th, 2016 CITyFiED Dissemination and Communication Secretariat

Good communication and meaningful engagement with residents is key to ensuring support for retrofitting works at the Linero demonstration site of CITyFiED.

Making the transition from 1970's housing to a modern, energy efficient home supported by smart technologies is not an overnight event. Although meticulously planned to create the minimum disruption, tenants can typically expect four weeks of direct works conducted simultaneously on three floors, before their neighbour's apartment is then tackled. Add to that the general potential for noise and dust while works go on across the site, and the potential for disturbance is very real.

For housing authority partner LKF, the key to overcoming these inevitable issues has been communication and transparency. Project Coordinator Victoria Silfverberg explains: "To be able to perform the retrofitting activities, LKF needs to have the tenants approval. In some of our previous retrofitting projects it has been quite hard to get all the tenants to agree and the process has been long. Some cases needed to go through rent tribunal to get approval to perform the retrofitting".

To benefit activities in the Linero district being developed in conjunction with CITyFiED, the team decided to communicate early and often supported by tangible examples of the final product. "Informing the tenants at an earlier stage prepares them for the upcoming retrofitting and reduces the chances of unwanted surprises and frustrations". Ms Silfverberg continued. "In Lund, this has meant LKF started their communication with our tenants a full two years before the project began and has since arranged several meeting, workshops with an objective to engage with tenants and increase awareness about the retrofitting. To complement this, a newsletter, information folders and a project site on lkf.se have also been designed."

Together with other partners working on the site, a show apartment, complete with fresh entrance halls and facades was also completed. Nearly 100 residents recently took the opportunity to visit and share pizza with LKF representatives while their queries were answered.

The approach has shown significant reward – with 99% of the targeted 300 tenant agreements approved and signed after just two months.

More information:
alessandra.barbieri@youris.com
The CITyFiED project aims to develop a replicable, systemic and integrated strategy to adapt European cities and urban ecosystems into the smart city of the future, focusing on reducing the energy demand and GHG emissions and increasing the use of renewable energy sources by developing and implementing innovative technologies and methodologies for building renovation, smart grid and district heating networks and their interfaces with ICTs and Mobility.

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