Periodic Reporting for period 2 - HIROSS4all (HOME INTEGRATED RENOVATION ONE-STOP-SHOP FOR VULNERABLE DISTRICTS)
Reporting period: 2020-11-10 to 2023-01-09
Renovation and refurbishment of existing building – to improve their accessibility and security, reduce energy consumption, and preserve cultural heritage – is becoming increasingly important, especially in urban areas. Some renovation services are too costly for home owners to consider. The EU-funded HIROSS4all project will develop and implement the Opengela one-stop-shop renovation service in the Basque Country (Spain). Coordinated by the Direction of Regional Planning, Urbanism and Urban Regeneration of the Basque Government, it will rely on citizen engagement and the development of an innovative financial instrument to make the service suitable for vulnerable population. The project will focus on energy efficient building renovations with improved accessibility and security, minimising logistical, financial, administrative and legal burdens. Two pilots will be implemented in the Otxarkoaga (Bilbao) and Txonta (Eibar) districts, to be upscaled in the Basque Country and replicated at EU level.
The main objective of HIROSS4all project has been to develop an economically viable, scalable and replicable integrated home renovation service (IHRS) for private residential buildings in the Basque Country. Specifically:
-Foster energy efficiency building upgrades, with a focus on vulnerable districts, where citizens live in or on the verge of energy poverty.
-Minimize logistical, financial, administrative and legal burdens caused by a complex and multi‐stakeholder home renovation process. This is will be accomplished by adapting an innovative financing tool to ease the access to financing to homeowners, including vulnerable groups. District offices will ensure that home renovation process is made easier, and homeowners will receive support at all steps of the process.
-Ensure that building retrofits consider the social dimension by incorporating security, comfort, and improved accessibility for Basque citizens to further improve the quality of life of vulnerable population.
-Design a scalable operating model to the district offices, based on the coordination of the Basque Government, and ensure the replicability of the one‐stop‐shop service, at both the Basque Country and the EU‐level.
-Create strong and reliable public‐private partnerships for the provision of the service. Identify and overcome regional‐local collaboration barriers inherent to home renovation services.
-Increase homeowner and regional partner awareness of the multiple benefits of energy efficiency, including health, wellbeing, comfort, job creation and energy poverty alleviation.
The Opengela service, developed and piloted in HIROSS4all, has reduced the burden to non-professional homeowners for their home renovation. The pilot leaders (VVMM and DEBEGESA), with the support of other HIROSS4all partners, have held several meetings and presentations with communities of neighbours and individual homewoners in the Opengela offices. The Opengela service users have shown that they are satisfied with the model. There has been a big participation, with neighbours accessing the offices and then coming back for further meetings. The district office scheme has proved useful for the renovation of private multi-family housing.
The main objective of HIROSS4all project has been to develop an economically viable, scalable and replicable integrated home renovation service (IHRS) for private residential buildings in the Basque Country. Specifically:
-Foster energy efficiency building upgrades, with a focus on vulnerable districts, where citizens live in or on the verge of energy poverty.
-Minimize logistical, financial, administrative and legal burdens caused by a complex and multi‐stakeholder home renovation process. This is will be accomplished by adapting an innovative financing tool to ease the access to financing to homeowners, including vulnerable groups. District offices will ensure that home renovation process is made easier, and homeowners will receive support at all steps of the process.
-Ensure that building retrofits consider the social dimension by incorporating security, comfort, and improved accessibility for Basque citizens to further improve the quality of life of vulnerable population.
-Design a scalable operating model to the district offices, based on the coordination of the Basque Government, and ensure the replicability of the one‐stop‐shop service, at both the Basque Country and the EU‐level.
-Create strong and reliable public‐private partnerships for the provision of the service. Identify and overcome regional‐local collaboration barriers inherent to home renovation services.
-Increase homeowner and regional partner awareness of the multiple benefits of energy efficiency, including health, wellbeing, comfort, job creation and energy poverty alleviation.
The Opengela service, developed and piloted in HIROSS4all, has reduced the burden to non-professional homeowners for their home renovation. The pilot leaders (VVMM and DEBEGESA), with the support of other HIROSS4all partners, have held several meetings and presentations with communities of neighbours and individual homewoners in the Opengela offices. The Opengela service users have shown that they are satisfied with the model. There has been a big participation, with neighbours accessing the offices and then coming back for further meetings. The district office scheme has proved useful for the renovation of private multi-family housing.
The Opengela service has reduced the burden to non-professional homeowners for their home renovation. The pilot leaders, with the support of other HIROSS4all partners, have held several meetings and presentations with communities of neighbours and individual homewoners in the Opengela offices. The Opengela service users have shown that they are satisfied with the model. There has been a big participation, with neighbours accessing the offices and then coming back for further meetings. The district office scheme has proved useful for the renovation of private multi-family housing.
Most renovation works within the project have incorporated the improvement of accessibility and the installation of elevators. It has been shown that the trigger for initiating projects is accessibility issues. There is a very clear need for lifts in vulnerable districts, which impacts on the ageing population.
What the end user values most is the improvement of the comfort conditions (noise, temperature).
Additional offices have been set up in Lasarte, Durango, Santurzti and Pasaia. Others are about to open in Abanto, Amurrio and Orduña, and several others (up to 17) will be running in the coming months.
The project has been an example of successful public and private partnership in the Opengela service provision. It has been demonstrated that Opengela represents a successful model of public-private collaboration, in which the public side facilitates the implementation of the offices so that the private side can carry out the work and investment.
As a result of the project, there is an increased awareness of energy efficiency and energy use by users of the Opengela service. Users can and do access online information about the energy consumption situation in their home.
Most renovation works within the project have incorporated the improvement of accessibility and the installation of elevators. It has been shown that the trigger for initiating projects is accessibility issues. There is a very clear need for lifts in vulnerable districts, which impacts on the ageing population.
What the end user values most is the improvement of the comfort conditions (noise, temperature).
Additional offices have been set up in Lasarte, Durango, Santurzti and Pasaia. Others are about to open in Abanto, Amurrio and Orduña, and several others (up to 17) will be running in the coming months.
The project has been an example of successful public and private partnership in the Opengela service provision. It has been demonstrated that Opengela represents a successful model of public-private collaboration, in which the public side facilitates the implementation of the offices so that the private side can carry out the work and investment.
As a result of the project, there is an increased awareness of energy efficiency and energy use by users of the Opengela service. Users can and do access online information about the energy consumption situation in their home.
-Energy savings triggered by the project: 4.251 GWh/y. The associated indicator of reduction of CO2 emissions, calculated considering an average consumption of 60% electric, 40% natural gas has been 945.14 tCO2eq/y.
-Cumulative investments made by European stakeholders in sustainable energy: total investments made by the household owners and the public bodies for building renovationhave been 15,162,100€.
-Number of demonstrations carried out by the project: Two pilots have been conducted successfully within the project for the validation of the Opengela model in the Basque Country: Txonta (Eibar) and Otxarkoaga (Bilbao). The office in Txonta is expected to be closed after all the renovation works are completed, however, the office in Otxarkoaga will continue its operation for further renovation projects in the district, together with the new offices launched in other municipalities of the Basque Region.
-Market stakeholders (professionals) with increased skills / capability / competencies on energy issues: A course on Management of rehabilitation was conducted on October 2019. 27 participants obtained the certificate of aptitude.
-Stakeholders reached: Web and social networks summed 356 followers in Twitter, 366 followers in LinkedIn and 11,689 unique website visitors.
-Jobs created: in Txonta 13 jobs have been created (5 people accompanying the process in the office and coordinating the programme; 7 architects drafting projects; 3 construction companies carrying out the works; 1 employment plan counsellor), and in Otxarkoaga, 31 jobs created.
We can consider an additional figure of 19 jobs created for every €1 million invested in construction, following the estimates by the European Construction Industry Federation (FIEC), in its 2017 report "EU Construction Sector: Current State, Challenges and Opportunities". With that approach, we can estimate the creation of 288 jobs related to the home renovation activities.
-Buildings under renovation: 18 buildings have been renovated of in process in the HIROSS4all pilots: 5 in Otxarkoaga (15 portals and 238 dwelings) and 13 in Txonta (187 dwelings).
-Households participating in the programme: the owners of 425 households are conducting renovations within Opengela (238 dwellings in Otxarkoaga and 187 in Txonta)
-Private investment mobilized: 5,288,446€.
-Cumulative investments made by European stakeholders in sustainable energy: total investments made by the household owners and the public bodies for building renovationhave been 15,162,100€.
-Number of demonstrations carried out by the project: Two pilots have been conducted successfully within the project for the validation of the Opengela model in the Basque Country: Txonta (Eibar) and Otxarkoaga (Bilbao). The office in Txonta is expected to be closed after all the renovation works are completed, however, the office in Otxarkoaga will continue its operation for further renovation projects in the district, together with the new offices launched in other municipalities of the Basque Region.
-Market stakeholders (professionals) with increased skills / capability / competencies on energy issues: A course on Management of rehabilitation was conducted on October 2019. 27 participants obtained the certificate of aptitude.
-Stakeholders reached: Web and social networks summed 356 followers in Twitter, 366 followers in LinkedIn and 11,689 unique website visitors.
-Jobs created: in Txonta 13 jobs have been created (5 people accompanying the process in the office and coordinating the programme; 7 architects drafting projects; 3 construction companies carrying out the works; 1 employment plan counsellor), and in Otxarkoaga, 31 jobs created.
We can consider an additional figure of 19 jobs created for every €1 million invested in construction, following the estimates by the European Construction Industry Federation (FIEC), in its 2017 report "EU Construction Sector: Current State, Challenges and Opportunities". With that approach, we can estimate the creation of 288 jobs related to the home renovation activities.
-Buildings under renovation: 18 buildings have been renovated of in process in the HIROSS4all pilots: 5 in Otxarkoaga (15 portals and 238 dwelings) and 13 in Txonta (187 dwelings).
-Households participating in the programme: the owners of 425 households are conducting renovations within Opengela (238 dwellings in Otxarkoaga and 187 in Txonta)
-Private investment mobilized: 5,288,446€.