Articles

On September 24th in Luxemburg, the NEBULA project organised the very first workshop dedicated to the New European Bauhaus at the Sustainable Places Conference, with a participative approach proposed. This article proposes a synthesis of the exchanges between participants.

The article explores the strategies in renovating historic homes while improving their energy performance and indoor climate along with preserving heritage values. It highlights renovation challenges and financing complexities.

While the path to decarbonising Europe's building sector is fraught with challenges, adopting diverse and innovative financing mechanisms for building renovation is crucial to achieving the objectives of the European Green Deal. This article provides a non-exhaustive overview of the current financial instruments available for stimulating building renovation in the EU, sheds light on the obstacles impeding access to these resources and explores ongoing policy efforts and solutions to accelerate the transition towards a more energy-efficient built environment.

This article explores challenges and learnings from a living lab project on energy-efficient renovation in multi-storey apartment buildings in a neighbourhood context. It offers valuable insights for policymakers, building professionals, and homeowners.

Passive cooling involves a series of strategies to cool buildings without electricity and represents an invaluable set of tools to address the increasingly intense summer heatwaves, even in Europe.

The iBRoad2EPC project, funded by the EU's Horizon 2020 programme, developed an affordable, adaptable and modular renovation passport that helps Member States meet most of the mandatory and optional requirements for renovation passports listed in the EPBD, according to their national priorities and targets. This approach also helps Member States to bridge the gap between EPCs and renovation passports, integrating them to motivate building owners to undertake staged deep renovations.

LIFE SUPERHERO aims to diffuse the use of ventilated and permeable roofs (VPR) and HEROTILE-based roofs (HBR) as an effective climate adaptation and mitigation solutions based on 'passive cooling'.

What if citizens could not only be active participants in the energy transition but also reap economic and social benefits?
Collective, non-discriminatory, citizen-driven initiatives that support the clean energy transition and energy communities start mainly as renewable energy projects. These initiatives are increasingly involved in the progressive renovation and decarbonisation of the building sector. They aim at collective social and environmental well-being rather than profit, often with the additional objective of combating energy poverty by making the cost of energy more affordable.

Skills are no longer just a means to an end; they have become an asset in their own right. Just like money, skills can be traded, invested, and accumulated. They have the power to open doors and create opportunities. In a skills-based economy, individuals who possess in-demand skills are more likely to secure high-paying jobs and enjoy greater career mobility.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projections show rising temperatures in Europe, particularly in the Mediterranean. Cities and homes must prepare for longer and more frequent extreme heat events. COOLTORISE proposes low-tech and bioclimatic solutions to adapt homes and urban spaces of energy-poor neighbourhoods.