Investments in energy-efficient renovations in social housing: SUPER-I project involved stakeholders in three fruitful r

The SUPER-i project has just concluded the first round of stakeholder meetings in three different countries: Denmark, Italy, Slovenia.

The aim of these meetings was to share experiences and to reflect together on the most effective sources of funding to trigger effective and sustainable investments on energy efficiency requalification in social housing contexts. The events were designed to pin down barriers to investments and to propose best funding sources with a focus on public-private partnerships.

The roundtables involved representatives from energy service companies and providers, social housing companies, households' organizations, financial institutions, public bodies and local authorities, research institutions and entrepreneurs in the building and renewables sectors.

Italy

In Italy the event was organized by CiviESCO, Energy service company specialized in energy efficiency refurbishment and impact investing, ATER Trieste, a social housing company, supported by project partners such as the University of York and APRE (Italian Agency for the Promotion of European Research).

The event was opened by the regional councilor for infrastructures, and saw the participation of various of stakeholders, such as social housing companies (Federcasa, ATER Trieste, ATER Gorizia, ACER Reggio Emilia), different representative of the financial sector, such as Investment funds (Fondo Housing Sociale FVG, Tendercapital LTD), Financial institutions (CiviBank) and a crowdfunding platform for impact investments (Lita.co); Research organizations (ENEA e ABI Lab, the latter specialized in innovation of the bank sector), and finally representatives from the industrial sector.

The discussion started with presentations by two main social housing sites on which the project SUPER-i will work on, describing their financial and technical strategic choices for the refurbishment. Additional presentations focused on financial instruments and mechanisms, as well as on considerations on the societal and ethical aspects of this type of intervention. They all stressed the importance of stimulating participative and co-designing processes with householder organizations, able to strengthen also the social and relational fabric of the communities involved.

Slovenia

The Housing Fund of the Republic of Slovenia, Public Fund organized a roundtable meeting in Ljubljana to discuss about factors, barriers, and opportunities for energy-efficient renovations of building stock for housing managers and owners.

The event was opened with welcoming remarks from the director of Slovenia's Housing Fund Črtomir Remec, while an introduction to the roundtable meeting and SUPER-i project was made by Nina Pečar. This was followed by the presentation of the current renovation project in Trbovlje given by social housing manager Zdenka Juvan (Spekter d.o.o.). The experiences of stakeholders who participated in energy renovations of buildings in Slovenia were presented to support new investments in energy efficiency in buildings. The event aimed to actively promote Energy-efficient renovations of affordable public rental housing, which can create a significant societal impact by reducing energy poverty.

The round table brought together all the key players involved in energy efficiency in social housing. The participants were from Energy Service Companies (Petrol d.d.), Social Housing Companies (JSS MOL, JSS MOM, NS PIZ), Financial Institutions (SID Bank and Eco Fund, Slovenian Environmental Public Fund), Public Bodies, including local authorities (Municipality Velenje), Households Organizations (Spekter d.o.o., Stanovanjsko podjetje d.o.o.) and State Authorities (Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning).

Denmark

The Association of Social Housing Companies, BL, and European Green Cities Network organized in the context of the EU-project SUPER-i, a roundtable meeting in Copenhagen in June 2022 on how to improve financing of investments in energy renovations for social housing companies.

An important conclusion from the Danish Roundtable is that there is a need to develop and implement a new "ESCO 2.0 Model" inspired by the SUPER-i project and focusing on a holistic approach of ESCO financing of energy savings and building integrated renewable energy investment in social housing residential building renovation.

Mikkel Jungshoved, The Association of Social Housing Companies, BL, and Hans Bjerregaard, European Green Cities, agree that such new ESCO models giving guarantees on return of the investments in energy renovation measures of buildings in the social housing sector can play a key role for promoting such investments.

The 3 events provided a great opportunity to share experiences, business practices and expectations in an effort to support energy efficiency investments in affordable public rental housing. Participants agreed to continue sharing experiences and best practices at similar events and to explore opportunities for project cooperation and exchange of knowledge.

More information:
SUPER-i (Extended Public-Private Partnership for Investment in Smart Energy Efficiency Projects in a Social Housing context) has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101028220.

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