Where the first session looked back on the achievements of the REFURB project, the second session looked forward. How to generate impact with renovation packages? Fiene Grieger (ISW, Germany) touched on the subject of quality guarantee in deep energy renovations. Then, Lisa Adema (Leeuwarden, Netherlands) discussed which role could be played by renovation coaches, pointing out the possible value of addressing the “soft skills” of renovation coaches such as communication. “A successful renovation coach knows all kinds of solutions,  has hard and soft skills, gets trust and gets into the skin of the homeowner, and creates value,” she said during her presentation.

In addition, Djoera Eerland (Buurkracht, Netherlands) shared the practical experiences of empowering neighbourhoods to perform renovation measures.  “We created a facilitating, supporting structure, to enable and help neighbourhoods to set up renovation programs, and help homeowners through the customer journey”, he elaborated during his speech.

This was followed-up by an interactive voting session moderated by Alan Laws (Leeuwarden municipality, Netherlands) in which policy recommendations where discussed with the audience. Statements included:

• “Member states should impose compulsory public private partnerships, including organizing single point of contacts, to overcome current significant barriers throughout the customer journey.”
• “Regional consortium of building firms should be subsidized for developing packages of compelling step by step offers.”
• “EPBD needs to set clear targets for renovating existing buildings instead of only requiring the MS to present national action plans for the promotion of nZEB buildings. Only then will the market have to deliver the high quality compelling offers that are needed.”
• “Soft skills should be a prominent compulsory part of recognized qualifications for energy advisors.”
• “Policy should be aimed at empowering local communities to implement and coordinate collective renovation schemes.”

Virginia Gomez Oñate (VITO, BE), coordinator of REFURB, concluded the end-conference, with the beautiful graphics of the visual summary of the conference as background. The project will continue until March 2018 with a rollout strategy of the deep energy renovation packages.

Speakers in session 2:

QUALITY GUARANTEE IN DEEP ENERGY RENOVATION.
Are performance guarantees after renovation a burden or an opportunity? Do policy and practice meet or differ?
by Fiene Grieger, ISW (Germany)

THE RENOVATION COACH FOR THE HOMEOWNER: ELIMINATING THE BARRIERS.
Single point of contact: Supporting and unburdening the homeowner in the customer journey
by Lisa Adema, Municipality of Leeuwarden (The Netherlands)

PRACTICAL EXPERIENCES IN NEIGHBOURHOODS
Energy ambassadors show their neighbours the way to save energy in their homes,
by Djoera Eerland, Buurkracht (The Netherlands)

REFURB LESSONS LEARNED AND POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ROLLOUT
How to create a powerful offer for homeowners and a succesful rollout strategy with stakeholders?
Time for a plenary discussion to conclude on some policy recommendations together with the audience by Alan Laws, Municipality of Leeuwarden (The Netherlands)