Fist of all sustainable services is defined as services that are offered to residents at their home, directly or via an intermediary organisation, that contributes positively to sustainable development in its three dimensions: environment, social, and economy. Due to rising competition in the housing market, there are various ways to meet this competitive challenge. One of them is the extension of the supply of home services to residents. So the principal target groups of the project are the residents, the intermediaries, such as the housings organisations, and the service providers. Residents’ demands and organisational as well as economical aspects of the suppliers and intermediaries need to be taken into account. The present situation with respect to services is described in 12 municipalities in the six participating countries. In Portugal the chosen cities were Lisbon and Torres Vedras.

The project Home services – “Benchmarking Sustainable Services for the Housing Sector in the City of Tomorrow” is funded by the European Commission Research Directorate-General, within the framework of the program “The City of Tomorrow and Cultural Heritage”. Duration of the project is 24 months, lasting to the end of September 2004.

The questionnaire applied within the Home services project aimed at providing indications on the residents’ perspective regarding these services and some interesting  results were retained , which are relevant for the introduction of sustainable home services in Europe. They are as follows:

Portugal has the highest reported  services, Finland has the lowest reported services due to cultural/behavioural reasons.
The environmental profile is not the most relevant criterion for the choice of products and services, but considered important by a significant percentage of the respondents.

The housing organizations supply approximately 20% of the respondents mentioned as being more used/important.
It was observed that advertising was not the most mentioned vehicle for respondents to get to know about the service they chose as most important.

Sustainable home services

01/01/2006

Paula Trindade, Paula Duarte, Cristina Rocha, Rui Fernandes, David Camocho

research

Urban Policy > Housing

Housing management