The European Union is undertaking consistent action to enforce and promote energy efficiency in building sector. The new energy efficient constructions, expression of the European efforts to decrease CO2 emissions, represent a growing share of the building stock. Now there is an unavoidable need to learn from what we are doing, or have recently done, to improve the quality and the performances of the future building sector. This proposal plans the creation of European Energy Efficient building & district Database (ExcEED). ExcEED will be a solid and well-structured database with measured and qualitative information from beyond the state of the art buildings. The key aspects of the database will be: • A set of tools that allows geo-clustered, statistical, and knowledge analysis of the data; • A collection of tailored Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that will “transform data into information”; • The ability to analyse building-district interaction; • The existence of the database and associated analyses will be guaranteed beyond the project conclusion thanks to a model of financial self-support; • The ability to continuously gather new data thanks to specific features (e.g. occupant surveys) that increase project visibility among designers with interest in the major rating schemes (e.g. LEED); • The connection with the major EU financed databases on buildings (i.e. Building Observatory). The advanced tools and KPIs associated to the database will allow the analysis of energy performance and environmental quality at the level of single building/district, geo-cluster of buildings, and European new or renovated building stock. The analysis will result in knowledge to inform single building managers, designers, and European policy makers.

"Efficiency First" (E1st) is a fundamental principle applied to policymaking, planning and investment in the energy sector, which is gaining visibility in European energy and climate policy. ENEFIRST will help making the E1st principle more concrete and operational, better understand its relevance for energy demand and supply and its broader impacts across sectors and markets, focussing on the buildings sector. Its main objectives are to define the principle of E1st in practical terms, assess how it has been applied internationally and how it applies to the EU context, to assess the value of applying E1st across different policy areas for buildings’ end-use energy efficiency and to quantify the impacts of increased building energy efficiency for the future energy system in the EU, and to identify key policy areas for the application of E1st and develop policy proposals for its implementation in the EU Buildings Sector. The methodology of ENEFIRST has been designed in light of the novelty of the approach informed by a deep understanding of the current energy policy landscape and the existing practices of energy efficiency policy making and is based in three pillars a) identification of the most relevant policy areas where the E1st principle can be applied to achieve the highest impact in terms of energy system benefits, through screening 5 areas of potential application, modelling three scenarios and five modelling case studies and applying the E1st in three regions in the EU, b) application of the E1st in policy instruments, through assessing the applicability and transferability of international E1st approaches and quantifying the impacts of E1st (through modelling and multi-criteria analysis), and c) application of E1st through the design of policy instruments and the analysis of their application in country case studies. All the foreseen tasks will be carried out with the validation of experts’ groups that formulate the ENEFIRST Stakeholder Community.

The detailed knowledge of building stock features and performances has a potential positive disruptive effect on the ability of the EC to design effective policies targeting buildings in view of the 2050 strategy and the European Green Deal. Given the lack of comprehensive and reliable data on the EU building stock, BuiltHub will develop a structured and inclusive data collection approach, as well as an easy to access & use datahub, in the shape of a structured web-based platform (IT infrastructure, analytics and user-friendly dashboard), which will be fed into thanks to a benefits-based engagement strategy targeted to data and metadata providers, as well as simple users. The mentioned benefits-based engagement strategy will be implemented by developing added value information services tailored to lead-users of the platform and other main beneficiaries (end-users). The main premise behind the BuiltHub community building proposal is that data owners will be willing to feed-in data/information to the BuiltHub platform, in exchange for the added value information/knowledge that will be put out by the platform through its operation. In addition, “multipliers” will disseminate the BuiltHub achievements for enlarging the related community. The BuiltHub consortium will also develop different data processes and service schemes to cover possible users, based on their needs and potential use of data & analytics, as well as the benefits they could enjoy from cooperating with BuiltHub. The project aims to build upon the building stock observatory database and related analytics for making the data flow easier, resilient and safe. However, the BuiltHub consortium is also ready for a development approach which stands on its own, as a back-up plan. It also aims to work in close collaboration with mirror and sister projects and in particular B4E-6 MATRYCS by sharing data collection approach and a standard definition of each elements at different level (country to single building).

Leveraging on the business operations of consortium partners (4000 integrated building renovations conducted to date), TURNKEY RETROFIT will develop and replicate an integrated home renovation service which will be initially operated in 3 EU countries - France, Ireland and Spain - with an expected 335M€ investment pipeline for home renovation within the first 5 years (approximately 14 700 dwellings renovated, leading to 96,6 GWh/year Primary energy savings triggered) beyond the end of the project. The project will point to further replication across Europe and Internationally in particular via the Green Building Council network. The TURNKEY RETROFIT service will be developed as a home-owner-centric renovation journey, which will transform the complex and fragmented renovation process into a simple, straightforward and attractive process for the home-owner. It will include the initial technical and behavioural diagnosis, technical offer, contract development and agreement, structuring and provision of financial support, as well as the on-site coordination of works and quality assurance. It will be a service-oriented model where the home-owner is offered tailor-made solutions through the whole customer journey. The service will be accessible through a user-friendly digital platform and it will address drivers of building renovation that go beyond a desire to reduce energy bills and increase asset value, such as home improvement, increased comfort, enhanced health & quality of life.

Ren-on-Bill’s overall objective is to scale up investments towards deep energy renovations (ER) of residential buildings by promoting the development and implementation of On-Bill Financing schemes, based on the cooperation between energy utilities and financial institutions. On-Bill Financing (OBF) is a method of financing ER investments that draws on utility bills as repayment vehicle. OBF has been in use for more than 30 years, and it is especially widespread in the USA and Canada, where it significantly drives the building renovation market, with over 1 billion $ investments reached by 2013. Compared to traditional loans, default rates have been found to be lower, thus making OBF a lower risk instrument for investors. In Europe, although a few attempts have been made, OBF has not yet had a significant impact on the residential energy efficiency building renovation market. In detail, the project will: - Analyse and define the residential building ER and OBF market context to enable replication of suitable OBF schemes across Europe; - Engage key stakeholders (in particular energy utilities, financial institutions, representatives of the final user and ER market side) through national stakeholder platforms; - Develop tools to structure the residential sector’s ER financing demand allowing allows utilities and financial institutions to assess ER investments based on a transparent methodology and to bundle investments accordingly; - Develop suitable utility business models for the deployment of deep energy renovation OBF schemes for residential buildings in Europe; - Implement selected OBF business models at the 3 Ren-on-Bill partner utilities through a collaboration for strategic development of pilot on-bill financing schemes; - Exploit the insights gained over the project horizon to support European-wide dissemination of knowledge on OBF schemes towards utilities, financial institutions and policy-makers.