TrainRebuild is targeting owners to upgrade their buildings
TrainRebuild is targeting owners of buildings in the private sector who are reluctant to undertake energy upgrading of their buildings because of a phenomenon known as the “split-incentive” in which it is unclear that the person who invests in upgrading works will financially benefit from the resulting improvements.
Upgrading of buildings
Work on this project commenced in December 2010 and is expected to be complete by December 2012. TrainRebuild will produce training materials that national organisations of building owners will use to address this obstacle to the upgrading of buildings. Within the TrainRebuild project the Architects’ Council of Europe (ACE) has contributed to the planning and execution of a survey of best practices relevant to the project objectives, which include:
- Services offered by associations and/or local authorities;
- The related training programmes for the staff that run them;
- Campaigns to reach individual property owners in connection with services;
- Financial schemes;
- Specialised training programs on retrofitting of existing buildings.
Best practices for energy efficiency and renewable measures in EU Member States
The ACE has already participated in one laboratory for building professionals, with the purpose of obtaining the views of building professionals on best practices for energy efficiency and renewable measures in EU Member States, as well as to prioritise for property owners which measures to adopt. The next tasks within the TrainRebuild project in which the ACE is involved include the contribution to the development of a training package and a training toolkit to support it, as well as the setting up of a “train the trainers” meeting. The latter will be an event addressed to representatives of property owners’ organisations, condominium associations and residential building managers from the involved in the project Member States.
The EU 2020 objectives with regards to buildings
Furthermore, the ACE is expected to participate in 4 European
Forum Meetings on training issues related to the retrofitting of
buildings. These Forums will be a “physical meeting place” linked
with the Build Up Training Community. The long-term strategic
output of these Forums will be to facilitate the implementation at
the regional and national levels of the EU 2020 objectives with
regards to buildings. However, these Forums intend to go beyond
EPBD implementation, addressing topics not covered by the directive
(e.g. the split- incentive) and propose recommendations for policy
makers. By the completion of the project in December 2012,
practical deployment of training for experts from Property Owners
Associations and staff from Local Authorities will be underway.