May, 10th, 2023 | Online |

During the online workshop, participating municipalities were introduced to the SURF project, the policies and goals for sustainable renovations at EU level, and the idea and importance of sustainable renovations. The municipality of Steyerberg (Germany) shared their best practice experience of sustainable renovation. In the second part of the workshop, the results of the participating municipalities’ discussion revealed that several participants still have little knowledge about sustainable and especially circular renovation of buildings. The discussion showed that sustainable renovations in Romania, Hungary and Germany face the following obstacles: (1) financial challenges, (2) lack of knowledge about sustainable materials, (3) lack of specific legislation on green public procurement and (4) acceptance of the costs of life cycle assessment. Most of these know-how-based barriers will be addressed through the capacity building activities of the SURF project.

Here you can read the presentation of the municipality of Steyerberg and the DUH presentation on the project.

September, 4th to 6th | Luckenwalde and Berlin |

Participating municipalities from Hungary, Romania and Germany will visit the forerunner municipality Luckenwalde. The building design official will give a tour through energetically renovated districts introducing to their solutions of renovation finance, proceeding, renovation methods and further relevant aspects. Participants will also get the opportunity to visit a building in Berlin that has been renovated with circular materials. An expert from the Urban Mining Hub Berlin will highlight the sustainable renovation features.

Autumn 2023 | Online |

In this last international peer-to-peer workshop, another forerunner municipality will share their best practices. Further, there will be a discussion on how green public procurement can improve the sustainability of building renovations. Since it is the last of three workshops, participants will also get the opportunity to plan the implementation of the learning on sustainable building renovation in their own municipality.

Date: August 31, 2023, 10:30 – 12 CEST, online

The EU Renovation Wave and the Circular Economy Action Plan set the course for delivering more sustainable buildings through intensified renovation activities. However, life-cycle approaches or circular solutions find little or no practical application in EU countries. In addition to the need for more financial support for municipal renovations, there are still challenges for municipal actors in terms of capacity and know-how on sustainable refurbishments.

This is exactly where the online training series "Circular Buildings", implemented as part of the EUKI project SUstainable Building Renovation – Forming the Future (SURF), comes in. The online training, consisting of three modules, aims to strengthen the skills of municipal stakeholders from the EU Member States in the field of sustainable renovation.

On August 31, 2023, we will kick-start our training with Module 1, which focuses on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and climate-friendly building materials. Eva-Maria Friedel, senior researcher at Bauhaus Earth (tbc), will introduce us to the life cycle assessment (LCA), a tool that allows understanding the energy use and other environmental impacts associated with all stages of a building’s life cycle: site selection, design, construction, operation and maintenance, refurbishment and renovation or demolition. In addition, we will hear some inspiring good practice examples of climate-friendly renovation methods (with clay, straw, hemp, paludiculture plants or circular construction/renovation) from Dr. Ipek Ölcüm, CEO Industrieverband Lehmbaustoffe e. V., Michael Burchert, CEO Bauwende e.V., and Dominik Campanella, CEO Concular GmbH.
If you are interested, please register under this link.

We look very much forward to seeing you at our training!

Presentations from the event: 

• Michael Burchert: Building and renovating with the most climate-positive techniques possible
• Dominik Campanella: How digital tools will enable circular construction
• Dr. Ipek Ölcüm: Sustainable Building Renovation - Forming the Future "with clay earth building materials"
• DUH: SUstainable Building Renovation - Forming the Future (SURF) Online training "Circular Buildings" Module 1: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and climate-friendly building materials
• Eva-Maria Friedel: Life Cycle Analysis of conservation vs. demolition and new construction. Using the example of a facade refurbishment

tbc.

tbc

The EU Renovation Lunches are a new online format, which brings together municipalities, local and regional authorities and stakeholders from all over the EU. It provides an open and informal space to exchange about best practices, learnings and difficulties in implementing renovation but also to find partners for cooperation and support.

June, 28, 2023 | see presentation

The EU aims at an annual 3% renovation rate of buildings. However, we are far away from a Renovation Wave as the current renovation rate is roughly at 1%. Building renovations decrease energy consumption while reducing energy poverty and at the same time mitigating C02-emissions to reach the EU climate targets. Municipalities and regions play a major role in facilitating building renovations. Unfortunately, financial questions often pose obstacles to renovation activities. Effective and easy financing models are needed. The Rhodoshop project from Bulgaria represents such an example. Zlatka Nikolova (Association of Rhodope Municipalities) and Ivanka Pandelieva-Dimova (Sofia Energy Center) shared insights, successes, challenges and learnings of the Rhodoshop project.

• Ajka
• Alsómocsolád
• Budapest, District XI., Újbuda
• Budaörs
• Gyál
• Gyönk
• Pilisborosjen
• Szászvár
• Szeged

• Ploiesti
• Mizil
• Lipanesti
• Magurele
• Floresti
• Banesti
• Valenii de Munte
• Tinosu
• Targsoru Vechi
• Gura Vadului