BUILD UPON: Empower stakeholders to assist public authorities. 1. Provide large-scale capacity building or engagement activities: The key objective is to engage and empower a ‘critical mass’ of over 1,000 stakeholders with the process of defining and implementing their long-term national renovation strategy (Article 4, Energy Efficiency Directive). Process carried out by an important organisational innovation, ‘Green Building Councils’ (GBCs), in BG,CZ,ES, HR, IT, IE, FI, LV, RO, SE, SI, SK and TR. GBCs are multi-stakeholder platforms, formalising a ‘Regional Action Network’ of connected actors who will ensure the continuation of the activities beyond the project’s duration. 2. Target specific actors among a wide spectrum of stakeholders: The renovation stakeholder ecosystem will be mapped across the Project countries, to understand precisely which organisations will be needed to define and implement Article 4 and how this system functions. BUILD UPON has received over 100 letters of support across all its target groups. 3. Demonstrate a strong European added value: The complex landscape of renovation initiatives (both public policy and market driven) will be compressed in a living ‘RenoWiki’ resource, to enable stakeholder understanding and dialogue, and ensure all stakeholders are ‘on the same page’. The stakeholder ‘community’ will be developed through a series of nearly 80 workshops across the region at local, national and European level. These will explore collaborative and solution focused working methods to deliver the stakeholder buy-in required by government to define and implement ambitious and viable Article 4 strategies. Experts involved with the design and management of identified best practice renovation initiatives will help stakeholders assess feasibility for implementing these in other countries, to move best practice sharing beyond information to action, and an incubator for new concepts will help launch further implementation orientated projects.

BACKGROUNDThe construction sector is a sector in continuous updating due to the integration of new technologies for the design of projects and the incorporation of environmental considerations of construction materials. This incessant and rapid modernisation of the labour system requires constant and continuous training of the professionals in the sector, most of whom have professional careers of more than 20 years' experience. In Europe there are 600,000 architects, 64% of whom are over 40 years old.In recent years there has been a large decline in the number of architects working independently, in favour of an increase in work in companies and firms. The percentage of architects practising individually has fallen by up to 50% in the last decade. These tendencies suggest that architects are returning to a paid employment in the practice, instead of free exercise, assuming that they will have to adapt to the design systems established in the companies, much more prone to modernization and integration of innovative methodologies, complicating the incorporation of professionals with extensive experience whose training does not fit the current design tools.The environmental profile is an increasingly important criterion for public and private procurement and for consumer choice. Companies and professionals have various mechanisms for accrediting and communicating the environmental excellence of their products and services, including Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs). These EPDs provide a reliable, relevant, transparent, comparable and verifiable environmental profile that allows an environmentally friendly product to stand out, based on LCA according to international standards and quantified environmental data.Life Cycle Thinking implies a form of global analysis that not only includes the traditional parameters, but also considering all the processes that take place throughout its life cycle (from the cradle to the grave). In this way, the hidden impacts surface and the transfer of loads is avoided; Helping to make decisions and identify options.Institutions such as the United Nations Environment Program (through the UNEP-SETAC Life Cycle Initiative) or the European Commission (through the European Platform for LCA) promote its application for the environmental improvement of products and processes in all sectors, including construction.OBJECTIVESThe BIMEPD project is, in its nature, the production and development of multimedia materials based on BIM and taking into account challenges related to LCA and EPDs of construction materials, to be used as training material for both adult education for professionals in the architecture sector, in order to satisfy a series of main objectives.PARTICIPANTS-Architects who are low or intermediate skilled in BIM and EPD, who need to improve their skills for professional growth and to get more chances to find a new job or keep their job.-SMEs of the construction sector willing to improve their competitiveness.-Employment centres dealing with updating of skills and active labour market policies.-Universities and VET.-Architecture and engineering companies.PRODUCTSThe main results of the project are:01. Establishment of common learning outcomes adapted to adults on BIM technologies and EPDs.02. BIMEPD Multimedia Materials. New Interactive BIM-Learning Application for adults based on ecological challenges.03. BIMEPD Open Educational Resource (OER).RESULTSAs a consequence, the BIMEPD project will deepen the transversely of BIM technologies in the concept of sustainable construction on a professional level, taking advantage of the flow of knowledge in construction in these models and will develop a learning methodology adapted to the needs of a professional generation who are at risk of exclusion from the labour market due to lack of qualification in emerging design and control technologies.To this end, the tangible results of this project will be:-To define the competences and skills of architects in the current training systems and of professionals over 45 years old in the labour market, in relation to BIM technologies and EPDs.-Determine the most appropriate teaching methods and the system/process of assessment for adult learning on BIM and EPD.-To design a qualification curriculum adapted to adults for continuing education courses for architects that includes the latest technologies and environmental challenges, which fit perfectly with the current IT-based information methodology.-To provide professionals in the sector with an innovative digital tool, which combines the complete BIM methodology for building design with the different variables that determine the environmental impacts of the building.-Providing professionals with innovative and interactive resources, in order to digitise the content required in their training in BIM technologies and EPDs to achieve a much more complete qualification based excellence.