About the project
A more efficient usage of resources, including energy, forms the basis forfinancial growth and sustainable development. A Resource Efficient Europe is
one of seven flagship initiatives of the Europe 2020 strategy and also the
Baltic Sea Region strategy supports the resource efficiency policy. The
flagship concludes that existing policies on buildings, mainly linked to energy
efficiency, need to be complemented with policies for resource efficiency
looking at a wider range of resource use and environmental impacts, across the
life-cycle of buildings. The energy efficiency of buildings is an important
factor when it comes to stopping climate change. Energy consumption in
residential and commercial buildings represents around 40 % of total final
energy use. Moisture and mold problems are a threat when trying to maintain
sustainable buildings. The neglected building maintenance is currently
estimated to cost 30-50 billion euros in Finland. Neglected building
maintenance and postponed repairs lead to aggravated user health problems and
more extensive need and increased costs for repairs. The costs for increasing
the energy efficiency in buildings are significantly lower if coordinated with
necessary renovations.
Insufficient expertise on how to design and renovate buildings is a major
barrier to energy efficient and sustainable buildings. To be able to meet the
new demands there is an urgent need for competence development and better
training in the building sector. The main goal for this project is therefore to
increase the number of skilled professionals needed to perform resource and
energy efficient renovations within the Botnia Atlantica area. The goal can be
reached by establishing a Nordic Renovation Center. The center would be a
Nordic knowledge network that would share best practices and support regional
stakeholders with information, education and new pedagogical tools on how to
perform sustainable renovations. The primary target groups are companies within
the building sector, municipalities and house owners. In order to provide
relevant information, the project will gather information on end user needs and
renovation methods. To be able to educate different stakeholders, the project
will increase the availability of innovative and flexible pedagogical tools.
The results will be disseminated through the project website and social media,
network meetings and visits to key stakeholders, different types of
dissemination events, reports and articles, and mobile e-learning tools like
digital cases, e-books and apps. The results will be published in English,
Swedish, Finnish and Norwegian. The project results will also be spread on a
wider basis to Europe through the website and international conferences. During
the project, activities like networking, benchmarking, visiting stakeholders,
and dissemination and implementing results and tools to municipalities and
companies will spread the awareness of the Renovation Center and help making
the center sustainable. However, to ensure the continuation of the Renovation
Centre after the project, three types of organizational models will be explored.
The companies, municipalities and property owners who participated in project
activities will, after the project, have expanded their network of valuable
contacts, have an increased knowledge on sustainable renovation methods and
have new tools for proactive property maintenance and energy efficient
renovations.