European countries are finalising strategies on how to renovate their existing buildings, as WorldGBC’s BUILD UPON project successfully concludes a campaign of over 100 events to support ambitious strategies that help implement the goals of the Paris Agreement.

The two-year EU funded initiative – the world’s largest collaborative project on building renovation – was championed by 13 Green Building Councils in the Europe Regional Network (and led by GBC España), who have been working closely with governments and cities in their countries to deliver these renovation strategies.

BUILD UPON has been instrumental in bringing together the most important organisations in and around the renovation sector to craft strong and robust strategies that will assist countries in unlocking the huge energy saving potential in their buildings.

Highlights include:

• Since March 2016, BUILD UPON has engaged a critical mass of nearly 2,000 key organisations at its 100 events, exceeding original aims to ensure over 1,000 key organisations were actively working together on this key challenge for Europe’s climate goals.
• The project’s online RenoWiki portal features over 750 individual initiatives on renovation across Europe, from awareness raising campaigns and educational projects, to energy efficiency policies or financial incentives – all serving to inspire and encourage the renovation community.
• BUILD UPON has received praise from dozens of ministries, cities and other public authorities across Europe.

In an announcement last week, Irish Minister Seán Canney said “With the support of projects like BUILD UPON I am confident we can convert our ambition into real actions to reduce emissions, and bring about the transformation required if we are to decarbonise our economy.” 

The project was also praised last year by Maroš Šefčovič, Vice President, European Commission, who said: “WorldGBC’s BUILD UPON is a true community of leaders – we are counting on your leadership to create a renovation revolution across Europe.” 

Countries are now finalising their national renovation strategies ahead of 30 April 2017, the deadline by which they are requited to submit them to Brussels.

Where next for BUILD UPON?

Although the first phase of the project is drawing to a close, there are still a number of outputs expected over the coming months. These include:

• Final recommendations for each country, which will help to shape future strategies and be an important input to current negotiations over the EU’s key energy laws.
• A final report summarising the project and its key learnings.

Who did BUILD UPON engage?