Vienna thrusts building renovation to centre stage
Cities are growing. Around 2.5 billion more people will be living in cities by 2050. According to estimates, cities are also responsible for 75 % of global CO2 emissions, with transport and buildings being among the largest contributors. Vienna has long been working on sustainable urban development. In 2014, Vienna’s city council adopted the Smart City Wien Framework Strategy, a comprehensive blueprint for developing effective responses to climate change, including radical resource preservation, productive use of new technologies and improvements in quality of life. The strategy was updated in 2019 to incorporate the UN Sustainable Development Goals and to reflect the increased urgency of addressing climate change. As part of this strategy, the city has committed itself to reducing the energy consumption and water heating of the Viennese buildings by 1 % per person and year. “With a large share of municipal, communal and private multi-storey buildings in need of renovation, as well as the highest share of buildings built before 1919, Vienna’s building stock differs significantly from those in other Austrian provinces,” notes Bojan Schnabl, coordinator of the EU-funded RenoBooster project.
Accelerating energy renovation in buildings
“RenoBooster is mustering a tailored and timely response to boost the renovation rate in Vienna. Pooling institutional, technical and social expertise led by the City of Vienna, the project offers a variety of targeted services inspired by already existing one-stop shops in EU Member States,” adds Schnabl. One-stop shops are a collective term for services offering integrated renovation solutions to facilitate the renovation process for homeowners. One such initiative that kicked off in 2020 is Save the Homes. “RenoBooster’s single service point for the refurbishment of private residential buildings – Smart Renovation Hub – aims to facilitate access to information on housing renovation and refurbishment and is continuously expanding its services range towards this purpose,” remarks Schnabl. RenoBooster brings together all key stakeholders and combines all necessary services – from consulting and banking to the technical and legal framework. It allows testing and development of targeted packages involving new technologies, ecological and economical solutions.
A set of standardised services
“The Smart Renovation Hub has elaborated three standardised counselling services: basic (renovation counselling); advanced (site visit with a contractor), and targeted (elaboration of a funded renovation concept),” explains Schnabl. During the first three years of the project, the number of counselling requests was around 80 to 100 per month, but from early 2022, it rose to 370. Topics mainly included replacement of heat exchangers (54 %), queries about funds and subsidies (19 %), thermal renovation measures (18 %) and elaboration of funded renovation concepts (5 %). To ensure high-quality renovation, the services are complemented and supported by a quality network of service providers covering planning, financing and implementation of renovation work.
How renovation benefits homeowners and the environment
The Smart Renovation Hub offers integrated home renovation services along the whole costumer journey, especially for homeowners. So far, the services have targeted two-unit properties (52 %), condominiums (33 %) and rented multi-storey buildings (14 %). “Over the next five years, the integrated services offered by the Smart Renovation Hub are expected to boost the renovation rate and quality in Vienna. Overall, they are slated to drive investments of EUR 110 million and produce 5.5 GWh per year of primary energy savings and a reduction of 1 000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year,” Schnabl concludes.
Keywords
RenoBooster, renovation, buildings, Vienna, Smart Renovation Hub, homeowners, one-stop shop, Smart City Wien Framework Strategy, counselling services
