The objectives and impacts of the SUPERSHINE project will assist and support the European Commission to implement the European Green Deal. Particular attention will be paid to the renovation of social housing, to help households who struggle to pay their energy bills. In addition, SUPERSHINE will also contribute to the decrease of energy poverty. The SUPERSHINE lighthouse districts will be characterised by energy efficient buildings, low carbon mobility, smart grids, efficient water and waste management, all underpinned by responsive technologies that optimise resources while promoting wellbeing and sustainable lifestyles. More specifically, SUPERSHINE will adopt an integrated strategy with these key principles: a)‘Energy efficiency first’; b) Affordability; c) Decarbonisation and integration of renewables; d) Life-cycle thinking and circularity; e) High health and environmental standards by promoting sustainable energy behaviours; f) Tackling the twin challenges of the green and digital transitions together; g) Respect for aesthetics and architectural quality. The main areas of intervention are: a) Strengthening information and incentives for public and private owners and tenants to undertake renovations while improving community participation or inspiring new patterns of citizen behaviour; b)Ensuring adequate and well-targeted funding by supporting innovative bottom up financial solutions such as Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) and Green Public Procurement (GPP) and collaborating with innovative local Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs); c) Promoting comprehensive and integrated renovation interventions; d) Making the construction ecosystem fit to deliver sustainable renovation, based on circular solutions, use and reuse of sustainable materials, and the integration of nature-based solutions while reducing whole life-cycle carbon emissions.

Cities need support to implement their Sustainable Action Plans in line with the ambitious and stringent regulations towards a zero carbon Europe. The EYES HEARTS HANDS Urban Revolution (EHHUR) project will develop and test a co-designed methodological structure to support cities in their built environment transformation by using already existing good practices and complementing them with the New European Bauhaus and EU Missions principles. 7 Lighthouse demonstrators will be involved across EU and Associated countries (DK, EL, BE, PT, TK, HR, IT). EHHUR will tackle socio-economic and cultural challenges through relevant case studies facing social segregation, vulnerable residents (experiencing energy poverty), coal transition, depopulated and degraded historic centres. EHHUR relies on engagement and co-design as the “backbone” of its methodology, by deploying a set of tailored social innovation activities aimed not only to engage, but also to commit the participation of relevant urban players at multiple and multidisciplinary levels (technology co-design, co-financing, aesthetic co-creation). The EHHUR new integrated methodology will cover innovative i) engagement practices to transform citizens into active players of their future urban transformation and empower them in the decision-making process, ii) financing schemes involving local businesses and citizens, iii) digital and green technologies, iv) architectural design and materials to meet climate change and sustainability challenges while respecting heritage and cultural eco-systems, v) arts and creative co-design in third sector buildings and public areas. The diversified experiences of the LH demonstrators will provide a variety of good practices and guidelines for future replication. Future adopters will benefit from a DSS tool, supported by a capacity building programme, that offers the ideal mix of best technical solutions, optimal financing schemes and engagement tools and social innovation practice.

CHRONICLE will deliver a holistic, life-cycle performance assessment framework and tool-suite for different building variants, supporting sustainable design, construction and/or efficient renovation and investment decision making. It will be methodologically integrate ongoing initiatives, like EPCs, Level(s), SRI, under the umbrella of the Digital Building Logbook concept. Performance will be assessed by means of well-defined KPIs, based on both static (by design) as well as dynamic information (sensor measurements) appropriately tailored to different types of use and building life-cycle phases (new or existing buildings under refurbishment). Continuous monitoring and analysis of the actual building performance over its lifetime, will be based on a powerful digital twin framework. The proposed data availability and accessibility within CHRONICLE will extend the limits of the EU energy related policies while the aggregated EPC advanced information will facilitate efficient energy planning. To this end, CHRONICLE will allow all stakeholders to realize in quantified terms the short- and long-term impact of the project activities, from policy to practice, and across the whole building life cycle. It will therefore promote evidence-based impact assessment practices to support policy coherence, design of smart penalties and reward schemes towards motivating energy consciousness, while also paying attention to the voice of market stakeholders (AECs, ESCOs, FMs) but also building owners and tenants/occupants, who are directly impacted by future regulatory decisions. CHRONICLE’s building performance assessment framework and tool-set will be demonstrated and validated in five pilot sites spanning the geographic diversity of Europe, namely in Spain, Ireland, Denmark, Greece and Switzerland.

An important component of a more socially and economically inclusive urban transition is the ability of the cities to implement energy efficiency and renewable energy (RES) projects and initiatives, especially in the housing sector. Despite the progress already made, the large-scale impact that was expected towards promoting energy efficiency is still far off from being fully achieved. The SUPER-i project will provide a significant contribution to generating investments and collecting data on energy efficiency in the social housing sector. Energy efficiency (EE) renovations of social housing can generate a significant social impact by reducing energy poverty. The objectives and impacts of the SUPER-i project will assist and support the European Commission to implement the European Green Deal. The general objective of SUPER-i is to support the funding of EE refurbishment of social housing stocks across Europe while increasing the share of renewable energy in the final energy consumption through the following specific eight objectives: 1) Tailored ePPPs (EE Public Private Partnerships) and roadmaps; 2) Capacity building among financial investors; 3) Data gathering and processing; 4) Integration of EE investments within portfolio management strategies; 5) SUPER-i KPIs; 6) Awareness and Replicability; 7) SUPER-i investment pipelines; 8) SUPER-i Roadmap and Platform. The SUPER-i project will contribute to generate substantial investments in energy efficiency within the social housing sector in two folds: 1) by establishing a direct dialogue, at local government level, between financial institutions, other private investors and social housing managers while also involving ESCOs (Energy Service Companies); 2) by collecting relevant data on EE investments, helping to develop efficient financial schemes. The direct dialogue and data collection will be pivotal to effectively boost the development of energy efficiency PPPs.

POCITYF supports the Lighthouse cities of Evora (PT) and Alkmaar (NL) and their Fellow cities Granada (ES), Bari (ΙΤ), Celje (SI), Ujpest (HU), Ioannina (GR) and Hvidovre (DK) to address their urgent need to deliver positive energy blocks and districts in their cities, towards rendering their mixed urban environment (also including the case of cultural protected buildings) into cheaper, better accessible, healthier and more reliable. By demonstrating in overall 10 integrated solutions (ISs), comprising 73 individual innovative elements (technologies, tools, methods), rooted under existing City Information Platforms (CIPs), POCITYF quantifies their value, and connects interests of many different stakeholders in innovative business models, allowing for upscale and replication of those solutions in a form of a validated roadmap for sustainable cities across Europe and world-wide. To achieve this, POCITYF works along 4 Energy Transition Tracks (ETTs), encompassing the ISs according to the role each one serves for. ETT#1 focuses on the examination and application of ISs transforming existing and new building stock into Energy Positive, while ETT#2 focuses on the application of a) grid flexibility strategies and b) storage systems, supported by DSM platforms for optimizing energy flows to maximize self-consumption and reduce grid stress. ETT#3 with its merit of innovation offers the integration of e-Mobility to as well promote the decarbonisation of the mobility sector. The 3 ETTs under the coordination of ETT#4, which links existing CIPs with innovative apps and other instruments, offers inclusive and holistic services for interdisciplinary citizen engagement and co-creation of them with the city stakeholders and industry, towards the development of each city’s own bold city-vision up to 2050. Through POCITYF the two LHs will achieve a local RES penetration of 16.2 GWh/y, energy savings of 2.32 GWh/y and an emission reduction of 9,743 tons CO2eq/y within their districts.