Collect Your Retrofits

The deployment of energy reduction actions jointly across multiple buildings at once are much needed toreach the climate targets of reaching a reduction of 3.4 megatons of CO2 for the built environment. In theNetherlands, over 1.5 million homes are part of associations of co -owners VvE (Vereniging van Eigenaren).Each dweller is accountable for their own energy use, while being constrain ed with their own financialcapacity and a shared will to act with other buildings co -owners. There is an existing and ever growing splitbetween individualized responsibilities and the collective energy transition, which has led to fragmentedscale and scope responses to the energy retrofitting challenges. Collect Your Retrofits intends to design areplicable and collective retrofit approach in the context of monumental areas while reframing the culturalnotion of energy. As opposed to the current energy system where one is individually incentivized, theresearch aims to support VvE communities in making collective and informed multi -criteria decisions forenergy-efficiency retrofit solutions in line with monumental regulations.
The project develops the collective approach under the real conditions of two communities: a self -organizedwoongroep and a VvE in the historic centre of Amsterdam. Instead of each owner investing into their ownenergy retrofitting, the community would invest into the most impactful measures and ensure that thegenerated economic value is retained locally in order to make further sustainable investments. Ultimately,this approach would allow innovative practices to emerge such as large -scale visions of energy retrofittingstrategies for historic areas

The energy transition is a highly complex technical and societal challenge, coping with e.g. existing ownership situations, intrusive retrofit measures, slow decision-making processes and uneven value distribution. Large scale retrofitting activities insulating multiple buildings at once is urgently needed to reach the climate targets but the decision-making of retrofitting in buildings with shared ownership is challenging. Each owner is accountable for his own energy bill (and footprint), giving a limited action scope. This has led to a fragmented response to the energy retrofitting challenge with negligible levels of building energy efficiency improvements conducted by multiple actors. Aggregating the energy design process on a building level would allow more systemic decisions to happen and offer the access to alternative types of funding for owners.

“Collect Your Retrofits” intends to design a generic and collective retrofit approach in the challenging context of monumental areas. As there are no standardised approaches to conduct historical building energy retrofits, solutions are tailor-made, making the process expensive and unattractive for owners. The project will develop this approach under real conditions of two communities: a self-organised “woongroep” and a “VvE” in the historic centre of Amsterdam. Retrofit designs will be identified based on energy performance, carbon emissions, comfort and costs so that a prioritisation strategy can be drawn. Instead of each owner investing into their own energy retrofitting, the neighbourhood will invest into the most impactful measures and ensure that the generated economic value is retained locally in order to make further sustainable investments and thus accelerating the transition of the area to a CO2-neutral environment.