The majority of workers express dissatisfaction with their shared workplace design, which harms their health, wellbeing, productivity and social relations. So-called ‘adaptive’ workplace technologies try to manage these health risks by automating a wide range of architectural building services. However, there is severe lack of concrete evidence on how the short- and longer-term impact of such adaptive architectural technologies on health and wellbeing can be objectively measured, and then become benchmarked and optimized for a variety of hybrid workplace contexts. SONATA therefore aims to generate evidence-based recommendations on the use of architectural adaptation as technological intervention that can benefit human health and well-being in the workplace. Firstly, SONATA aims to measure, quantify and increase the range of health and well-being benefits of the separate and combined effects of state-of-the-art architectural adaptations on four different building shearing layers. Secondly, SONATA will generate empirical knowledge on how these multiple co-located adaptations can be intertwined together so that their health and wellbeing impact is greater than the sum of the separate layers. Lastly, SONATA investigates how these positive effects can become equitably negotiated between the varying - and often conflicting - work situations that must co-exist in a shared workplace. To ensure the resulting recommendations are feasible, easily adoptable and cost-effective to implement, SONATA will involve the pro-active participation and critical analysis from a well-considered selection of key target group representatives, such as workers, OSH-responsibilities, OEM and OHP experts, architects, workplace organisation innovators, adaptive technology manufacturers, and building certification consultants.

If BIM is key to address the construction sector growing technical complexity, to overcome construction processes fragmentation and communication problems between stakeholders, to reduce on-site time and improve quality and affordability, its uptake for the renovation of the EU existing building stock is yet to come and already late. To face this BIM4REN starts from 3 workflows adapted to the construction sector segmentation (90% of companies are SMEs) presenting particular technical and organisational requirements and has adapted the project and consortium to provide adequate and innovative processes, methodologies, software and hardware tools & BIM developments for each one of them, backboned by state of the art BIM technologies like worldwide used BIM Server (open-source) and BIM Bots by TNO among many others. BIM4REN gathers together top European RTOs active in the Built Environment domain (Nobatek, CSTB, Tecnalia, TNO, Fraunhofer ISE) alongside key industrial actors (EDF, CMB Carpi & ATI Project (leading BIM implementers in the EU market) with 2 Universities (RWTH & Vilnius Gedimas) and up to 11 SMEs: R&D performing (R2M, Ekodenge), SME contractors (Kursaal) and technology providers (IES, EnerBIM, WiseBIM, VRM, AEC3, etc.) with the European Builders Confederation, the Green Building Council Italy and a large French Social Housing Organisation (Logirep) representing the whole residential renovation value chain. B4R digital ecosystem will be accessible via a web based One Stop Access Platform, where depending on each user profile and needs, orientation, best practice examples from a dedicated database and links to the different tools and services (from Top-grade to Entry-level) will be provided on differentiated access schemes underpinned by different business models. Inspired by the Open Innovation 2.0 paradigm the project will setup a demonstration campaign with “pilots as Living Labs” integrating all stakeholders in 3 cities (Paris, San Sebastian and Venice).

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.

BUILD UPON2 proposes to address one of the main barriers stopping proper public management, and consequent upscaling of Deep Energy Efficiency Renovation: the lack of an adequate, widely shared Impact Framework. Buildings are one of the biggest contributors to climate change in Europe and account for over 40% of the EU’s final energy demand and 36% of CO2 emissions. To meet EU’s energy efficiency targets for 2020 and 2030 and long-term goal under the revised EPBD to decarbonise it’s building stock by 2050, renovation becomes crucial, and its rate needs to increase to at least 2-3% per annum. National Renovation Strategies under the EED aimed to accelerate the rate of renovation, however these have not proved effective. The 2018 recast of the EPBD strengthens the role of these Strategies and obliges MS to set out a roadmap to decarbonised building stock by 2050, supported by a suite of measurable progress indicators and milestones. BUILD UPON2 proposes to work with local, national and European stakeholders to create a Multi-Level Renovation Impact Framework that contains a suite of milestones and measurable progress indicators for building renovation strategies, integrating data and insights from the city level. This Framework will serve as a tool for Cities in delivering the EPBD and ensure that local initiatives are aligned with national and European policies. A methodology will be developed to indicate how the Framework reporting system can be integrated into Sustainable Energy Actions Plans (SECAPs), how to use the Framework and how data to support the indicators will be collected and used. The Framework will be tested with 8 pilot cities and the results of this testing phase will be used to update the Framework and create policy recommendations, ensuring that the Framework can be replicated across Europe and help local, regional and national authorities deliver on European energy efficiency goals. The Project Consortium ascertains a successful delivery.

Many citizens, particularly in nascent green building markets, make suboptimal decisions in the design and construction choices for renovation approaches and new home purchases due to a fear of bank financing. Borrowing sufficiently to bring forward necessary resources to build homes properly both reduces citizens’ “Total Cost of Monthly Ownership” (loan payment plus energy, health and repair costs) while unlocking a critical increase of construction budgets facilitating ownership of the greenest, high-quality homes. Financing Green Homes with the borrower subject to lower monthly operating costs is less risky to banks which provide discounted credit without harming profits. The SMARTER project effectively communicates the benefits of Green Homes to citizens and other key stakeholders to bring a systemic solution to a systemic problem that inhibits the financial industry to design and offer green finance products and the citizens to understand and request them. SMARTER replicates a successful “Green Homes and Green Mortgage” program to 12 new countries, addresses barriers and brings green innovation with relevant research and cluster formation, adapts essential tools for administration and communication, and effectively expands collection of actual energy and financial performance to improve risk analysis with local data. Public investment is leveraged and ambitious green EU targets are supported as banks, developers, and green solution providers all contribute budgets to increase private financing for building exemplary homes. The SMARTER “Green Homes Investment Platform” guides new programs to a suitably ambitious, common definition of green investments and facilitates institutional investment by collaborating with ongoing initiatives including EeMAP and EEFIG; aligning with EC objectives such as “Mainstreaming Energy Efficiency Finance” and advancing the Financial, Technical and Behavioral de-risking championed by “Smart Finance for Smart Buildings".