EuroPACE: Integrated home renovation platform

Vol 3 Issue 1, March 2020

Eco-Sustainable Home Renovation for All

Updates from the EuroPACE project

Our journey designing, deploying and scaling a home renovation program continues into the 2020. Thank you for your continued interest in the EuroPACE project! This month, we'd like to dedicate this newsletter to trust, which is absolutely key in home renovation. This is how we think about trust within the HolaDomus program in Olot:

Marketing and Communications: all information shared with customers is relevant, actionable and speaks to citizens' needs. The HolaDomus office is based in Olot's City Hall building, which makes it more reliable and trustworthy in the eyes of the citizens.
Project Design Phase: HolaDomus program is always on the homeowner's side. This involves providing impartial technical advice about home improvement measures, analysis of energy bills, and ensuring that contractors' quotes are reasonable.
Project Financing Phase: GNE Finance is a trusted provider of financing for the HolaDomus program. GNE ensures that all customer data is secure and homeowners receive a fast and clear financing offer.
Project Execution Phase: HolaDomus energy experts verify project's completion to ensure that the homeowner receives an excellent service from a contractor.
Monitoring and repayment: HolaDomus sends periodic reminders to check in on the home renovation, to ensure that a homeowner is still part of the community. GNE interacts directly with homeowner to securely collect the payment and resolve delays if necessary.

These trust-building elements are meant to transform an uncertain and often stressful home renovation experience into a reliable process resulting in high quality renovations.

HolaDomus Program Press Briefing

On February 17th, some milestones from the HolaDomus Program were shared with the press at the Olot City Council. Olot Mayor, Pep Berga, was joined by HolaDomus manager, Jordi Ayats, and Vice-President of the EuroPACE Foundation, Jordi Güell, to discuss the program's progress and current status. Since the project's launch last October, more than 70 Olot residents have inquired about the HolaDomus initiative and 14 have applied to renovate their homes.

Mr. Berga commented that the program is expected to aid more than 420 families with increasing their homes' energy efficiency over the next two years, mobilizing an investment of around 5.2 million euros and creating new jobs along the way. The HolaDomus office is located in the Olot town hall, ensuring easy access to information and the program support team.

"We currently have various types of projects up and running, ranging from simpler ones such as the replacement of roof tiles or facade insulation; we have some instances where we're installing solar panels, and some pertaining to an integral home renovation."
Jordi Ayats, HolaDomus Manager

"Any Olot homeowner looking to improve their property's energy efficiency can come by here at the town hall, and together we can get started on identifying how we can save energy within their home."
Jordi Güell, Olot Urbanism Councilman and Vice-President of EuroPACE Foundation

Visit HolaDomus program site

First Home Renovation is in Progress

While the HolaDomus program is generating more and more and interest from Olot residents, the first project was completed. It involved replacing external wall insulation with highly efficient materials. The project managed to achieve a reduction of 45% in terms of energy usage.

Download HolaDomus brochure (CAT)

HolaDomus featured on OlotTV (Catalan)

See full segment (CAT)

"Fighting Energy Poverty - Affordable financing for sustainable home renovation" Webinar

Join the webinar hosted by Joule Assets Europe together with UpSocial and GNE Finance

WHEN: Thursday, March 26, 2020 at 15:00 - 16:00
A common misconception in Europe is that issues like energy poverty are not experienced in daily life or by the average person. Join the webinar and learn more about the issues of access to finance for domestic refurbishment and why this is should be considered a significant social justice issue in European Union member states.

An Update from GNE Finance

At the end of last year, GNE Finance closed a funding round with Fundación Repsol which will allow the company to accelerate the roll out of eco-sustainable home renovation programs in Spain and in Europe. It is a big milestone and an unmissable opportunity to grow and expand the social and environmental impact promoted and deployed with the EuroPACE initiative. See full Press Release here.

Past and Upcoming EuroPACE Events

European, International and Regional Events

On February 13th, GNE Finance Founder and CEO Davide Cannarozzi visited Bilbao to present the EuroPACE project and home renovation solutions developed by GNE. Big thanks to the AGREE project and the Basque Government for this invitation.

On February 18th, Mr. Cannarozzi attended the EEFIG meeting in Brussels, where he emphasized GNE Finance's mission to support and enable the transition to a climate neutral Europe.

On February 19th, the EuroPACE project was presented alongside the RenOnBill project at the EU Covenant of Mayors Investment Forum in Brussels.

The EuroPACE project was invited to organize a session at the European Sustainable Energy Week taking place in Brussels on June 22-26. We are honored to be part of this key event and bring together sustainable home renovation experts. Stay tuned for more updates!

Special Feature

A letter from the European Commission

Davide Cannarozzi, Founder and CEO of GNE Finance spoke at "Creating local conditions on the ground for making decarbonisation of buildings a reality" at the EU Energy Day that took place on Tuesday 10 December 2019 within the framework of COP25 in Madrid. We'd like to share an insert from the letter we received thanking us for:

..."inspiring contribution that was very supportive and relevant to our policies for citizens’ engagement, scaling up of renovations, replicating innovative finance approaches as well as creating the conditions for concerted and impactful action by different governance levels, from local to country level."

Keeping PACE with the Latest Developments

Relevant articles, reports, opinion pieces

This month, Eurostat published statistics indicating that in 2018, energy consumption in the EU was 5% above the efficiency target set for 2020.
European buildings' heating systems are responsible for 1/3rd of the EU's annual CO2 emissions. This article discusses how to tackle that issue.
10 of the leading European renewable energy associations drafted a joint letter to stress the strategic importance of renewable energy technologies in light of the EU's decarbonization ambitions. You can read the joint letter here.
See recent briefing by Renovate Europe, "Financing Deep Energy Renovation: The Roles Of Policy Action, Public-Private Partnerships And Financial Tools For Private Dwellings".

Thank you for being part of the EuroPACE Community

We look forward to working with you to make EuroPACE a success

Sincerely,
The EuroPACE Partners

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The EuroPACE Project is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 785057.