Miriam Navarro Escudero is an experienced practitioner in sustainable renovation and community‑led energy projects, combining hands‑on project coordination with a deep commitment to social inclusion and energy efficiency. Over the course of her career, she has designed and delivered community mobilisation strategies, led pilot retrofit initiatives and developed practical tools that translate technical solutions into accessible, locally relevant actions for vulnerable households and hard‑to‑reach groups. Her expertise spans the full renovation pathway: stakeholder engagement and trust‑building, technical and financial advisory, capacity-building through workshops and training, and the production of communication materials and guidance documents that support uptake at the neighbourhood level. Miriam has a proven track record of coordinating multi‑partner initiatives, ensuring effective knowledge transfer between research, implementation and policy, and aligning local practice with broader regulatory frameworks and funding mechanisms. She is particularly skilled at bridging the gap between technical teams, local authorities, NGOs and citizens, designing participatory processes that increase awareness, reduce barriers to renovation, and create socially equitable pathways to deep retrofit.

The conversation explores how Renovation Passports function as tailored, staged renovation roadmaps, providing building owners with clear, step-by-step guidance to improve energy performance and progress towards zero-emission buildings. Miriam highlights the importance of transparency, long-term planning and clear benefits for building owners as key elements for increasing renovation uptake.

The interview also addresses what makes a high-quality and future-proof Renovation Passport, focusing on the need for a reliable building diagnosis, a credible renovation roadmap and effective support mechanisms for building owners. Beyond these core principles, the discussion looks at implementation challenges across Member States, the diversity of national starting points, and the factors that can support successful roll-out at the national level.

Finally, the conversation reflects on the contribution of EU-funded projects in testing and refining Renovation Passport concepts, and how their experiences can inform the design of robust and actionable national schemes.

The BUILD UP Expert Talks series is an initiative of the BUILD UP portal and features face-to-face interviews with experts from across Europe, offering diverse perspectives on key topics related to energy efficiency and renewable energy in buildings. These interviews align with the Topic of the Month and explore it in depth, providing valuable insights, experiences and expertise to the BUILD UP audience.