The 2018 EPBD update identifies deep renovation as key to drastically reduce energy demand and achieve the EU vision of a decarbonised building stock by 2050. The technology to achieve this reduction is available on the market today. Renovation rates are still far from the target 3% and shallow retrofits persist with low impacts on energy consumption. StepUP will develop a new process for deep renovation for decarbonisation, with fast design to operation feedback loops to minimise performance gap and optimise investments. The project will deliver plug&play technologies for minimal disruption, interconnected for maximum impact on energy, costs, IEQ and user comfort. The new iterative approach to renovation, based in big data for continuous performance improvement, will reduce financial barriers and make decarbonisation of existing buildings a reliable, attractive investment. StepUP will: 1. Make renovation more attractive and reliable with a new methodology based on near-real time data intelligence to identify cost-optimal, high impact interventions at any stage of the building life; 2. Reduce the performance gap to 10% via an integrated life-cycle software platform to plan renovation steps, identify high value ECM, improve IEQ, integrate RES (including storage) and optimise operations by constantly refining and verifying targets and constraints; 3. Minimise time on site to 40% by advancing innovative technologies for deep renovation to a market-ready renovation package of Plug & Play Technologies, including RE generation and storage for decarbonisation; 4. Optimise renovation investments via innovative financing models for optimisation of energy, comfort and cost performance over the building life, based on progressive financing and building performance as a service; 5. Accelerate the renovation market via an open protocol for interoperability of the StepUP solutions with third party market products, fostering a plug&play environment accessible to innovative SMEs.

Buildings are responsible for approximately 40% of energy consumption and 36% of CO2 emissions in the EU. Deep Renovation of existing old buildings has the potential to lead to significant energy savings and a tremendous carbon footprint shrinkage. The current EU climate targets open an ample opportunity for exponential growth in the building thermal insulation materials market owing to the increasing number of new residential buildings and current deep renovation needs. The target is to support residential building´s construction performance extraordinary at all three hierarchical levels of construction parts simultaneously (building, component, material) by creating an amplified environmental impact and reducing additionally VOC emissions. BIO4EEB will apply non-hazardous bio-based material as e.g., Posidonia and various bio-based foams to develop and to proof the marketability of smart components for external and internal use as material application, pre-fab panels or windows. The efficiency and effectiveness is quite important to match with market demands and establish a unique selling proposition including a seven years RoI! BIO4EEB will close the increasing gap of insulation material shortage caused by the regular growing demand and the mismatch caused by lacking production potential and the outcome of the current energy crisis by boosting the use of available bio-based qualified materials as alternative solutions. The objective is to substitute using fossil resources for components and replace them at a comparable price value positioning. New business models utilizing the complete economic value chain open the market for bio-based BIO4EEB solutions and products uplifting the generic bio-based material use and qualifying their application at a circular economy approach for creating a much greener EU building and construction industry real estate stock.

ENSNARE’s main objective is to boost the implementation of renovation packages through (1) the digitalisation of the entire process by means of a digital platform and (2) the development of an industrialised envelope mesh enabling fast assembly and interconnection of passive and multifunctional building components. The methodology and tools provided will facilitate the necessary market uptake of novel and highly efficient solutions for nZEB, accelerating the current retrofitting rate and supporting the transformation of the European building stock into a highly efficient and technologically advanced built environment. Within a comprehensive systemic approach, the project will target the development of modular adaptable components to be integrated within the system (rather than marketed as standalone products that increase the cost and complexity of the system), including an active window for ventilation and heat recovery, solar harvesting devices (thermal collectors, PV and hybrid panels with advanced technologies such as roll-bonding), heat pumps and energy batteries for load shifting. The digital platform will comprise a set of digital tools supporting and accelerating all stages for a more efficient renovation process: automated data acquisition, LCA/LCC analysis and decision support, digital BIM model building and computer-assisted manufacturing (CAM), and a smart building management system (sBMS) for optimised operation and maintenance. All these tools are linked to a digital model, which increases in complexity and interaction potentialities as the project develops. At completion, the model becomes a Digital Twin of the renovated building allowing real-time monitorization, simulation and optimised operation of all building components. The ENSNARE solution will be validated through three pilot renovation projects covering Nordic, Continental and Mediterranean climates, and three virtual demonstration buildings aimed at upscaling the development of the solution.

The LEGOFIT project aims to design, implement and validate an advanced and dynamic integrative approach to accomplish EPH based on smart and innovative solutions with a high scalability and replicability for building construction and renovation, through: i) developing an innovative holistic design platform that encompass not only passive and active technologies but also their integration for smartest exchange of information and interoperability of systems based on Building Information Modelling (BIM), available for both professionals and end-users, ii) integrating active and passive strategies (e.g. envelope, HVAC systems, integrated solutions, including nature based solutions, etc.) with smart management technologies (BAS, BMS) for climate neutral and high energy building performance providing maximum flexibility to users iii) investigating innovative routes for promoting minimum environmental impacts by the smart use of solid and liquid residues generated during building life cycle stages and iv) fostering sustainable stock of buildings by guaranteeing not only the fulfilment of sustainable criteria (economic, social, environmental) but also according to the enhancement of smart readiness of buildings. This innovative and integrated approach is demonstrated in 3+ demos across a range of geographical, cultural and construction stages/technological market maturity scenarios. The building typology focus is the residential sector, multifamily houses and dormitories, including both new and existing constructions. The involvement of professionals in the sector is ensured through the development of a community of stakeholders and an open innovation community for Building Energy System (BES) professionals. Training courses focused on the new positive energy house approaches will ensure a new generation of multidisciplinary team of experts on the topic.

In recent years, research has shown that energy savings resulting from energy efficiency improvements have wider benefits for the economy and society such as increases in employment, GDP, energy security, positive impacts on health, ecosystems and crops or resource consumption. In order to develop more cost-effective energy efficiency policies and optimised long-term strategies in the EU, these multiple benefits have to be accounted for more comprehensively in the future. Although this field of research is growing, the findings are disperse and mostly have important gaps regarding geographic, sectorial or technical measure coverage and findings vary largely. This makes a consideration of multiple benefits in policy making and policy evaluation difficult today. The proposed project addresses these issues and aims at closing the identified gaps by five central research innovations: 1) data gathering on energy savings and technology costs per EU country for the most relevant 20 to 30 energy efficiency measures in the residential, commercial, industrial and transport sectors, 2) developing adequate methodologies for benefit quantification, monetisation and aggregation, 3) quantifying the most important multiple benefits and where adequate, monetising, 4) developing an openly available calculation tool that greatly simplifies the evaluation of co-impacts for specific energy efficiency measures to enable decision-making and 5) developing a simple online visualisation tool for customisable graphical analysis and assessment of multiple benefits and data exportation. Project outcomes can thus directly be used by stakeholders and will help to define cost-effective policies and support policy-makers and evaluators in the development and monitoring of energy efficiency strategies and policies in the future.