Practical Approaches to the Building Renovation Challenge is a paper summarizing the findings of building experts; i.e. researchers, engineers, architects and practitioners, from some 40 EU-funded projects.
Buildings are responsible for 40% of energy consumption and over a third of CO2 emissions in the EU. Most of the buildings that will exist in the year 2050 are already built. Renovation of the existing building stock is therefore key to meeting our long term energy and climate goals. In practice however this is very challenging due to a variety of technical, regulatory and other barriers. Action is required, including more research, demonstration of innovative solutions, and facilitation of their roll-out into the mass market.