In the first part of the REFURB conference the main question to the participants was how to speed up deep energy renovation dynamics with regional innovation and renovation offers? Opening speaker Adrian Joyce from the Renovate Europe Campaign underlined, that a joint effort and engagement is needed: “In order to be successful on energy renovation, we need to move away from “them and they”, and look at “we”“, he said in his opening line.

Session one consisted of three elaborations on the holistic approach to deep energy renovation, where Peter Rathje form Project Zero, Denmark stressed the importance of visualizing the customer journey of homeowners during the renovation process: “Stakeholders need to be aligned with the customer journey to accelerate renovation dynamics. Without coordinator, do it with coalitions,” he said.

Dominiek Vandewiele (Leiedal, BE) and Anne Goidts (Bostoen, BE) discussed how to bridge the gap between the demand and supply side of nZEB renovations. “We need to understand the homeowner: People do not start a renovation just because they want to save 15 EUR / month on their energy bill, but because they want more comfort or a new kitchen”, says Dominiek Vandewiele from Leiedal.

Again, the customer journey is pivotal in understanding and illustrating how homeowners act in a motion towards a renovation process. It functions as a bridge over the gap between the homeowner and the businesses on the supplier side. There are many factors at play, when homeowners decide upon renovation.  “The customer journey does not start when people contact building companies, it starts earlier, as soon as people become aware of the need to renovate” says Anne Goidts from Bostoen.

This involves not only focusing on the technical aspects of nearly zero energy benefits (nZEB) renovations but also understanding the key drivers and barriers to convince homeowners to commit to nZEB renovations. Therefore, the supply side might need additional tools to support the demand-side during the whole renovation process such as one-stop-shop models, using non-technical language, providing guidance.

A good illustration of such tools were presented by Dominiek Vandewiele; for example the online Belgian webtool “Mijn Energiekompas” and the service of a “Renovation Coach” offered to homeowners. These tools were developed within REFURB for Belgium.

Finally, Lotte Lindgaard Andersen (Clean, DK) illustrated the compelling offer for nZEB renovations developed by the Danish partners: “The package solutions are easy to understand, but the challenge is to find a consortium of building suppliers/regional stakeholders, that can see a good business case and also to share the cost of stimulate . The demand for energy renovation might increase if we award the homeowner with a good energy standard and communicate the economic value of a better energy standard in the house (value securing),” she said during her talk.

6 different models from 6 EU nations

The 6 national models for a compelling offer is an suggestion on how to seduce homeowners to make deep energy renovation, where value creation is crucial. The value creation for empty nesters (older couple, where the children have left home) and young families are different. For empty nesters the value is to ”Enjoy life more comfortably”, where the offer should provide safety, comfort, energy and a step-by-step approach, which allows the empty nesters to be their own entrepreneurs in a simple and easy way. For the young families it is another story, because the young families are challenged by limited time and money. They want a healthy home for their family´s activities. Other models focus on housing associations as target group.The compelling offers for the other countries were presented in a poster format and could be consulted by the participants during the coffee breaks.

You can find the compelling offers here: 
Denmark
Belgium
Estonia
Slovenia
The Netherlands
Germany

Speakers in session one:

THE HOLISTIC REFURB APPROACH FOR DEEP ENERGY RENOVATION.
How to create a succesful customer journey with focus on both business and value creation for selected customer segments,
by Peter Rathje , ProjectZero (Denmark)

BRIDGING THE BUILDING SECTOR OFFERS AND THE HOMEOWNER NEEDS.
The building sector and the homeowner are not yet on the same page. REFURB looked at the missing links to create a powerful offer,
by Dominiek Vandewiele, Intercommunale Leiedal and Anne Goidts, Bostoen (Belgium)

BUSINESS MODELS AND VALUE CREATION AS TOOLS TO DESIGN A CONCRETE AND ATTRACTIVE OFFER.
Non-energy and financial benefits for both the homeowner and the supply side,
by Lotte Lindgaard Andersen, CLEAN (Denmark)