Under the Horizon 2020 programme and the EU call for De-carbonisation of the EU building stock, the European Commission was looking for innovative and affordable solutions for the de-carbonisation of buildings in the EU. Solutions that will accelerate the energy renovations of buildings all around Europe. The ‘Drive 0’ project has been identified and evaluated as one of them.
The project consortium will include Housing Europe, the INSTITUTO VALENCIANO DE LA EDIFICACION (member of our Spanish member AVS) and it should officially start 1 October 2019. Huygen Installatie Adviseurs (NL) is the lead coordinator of the project which will run over three years. The testing of the renovation concepts – to reach nZEB or ‘zero on the meter’ level – takes place in seven pilots in seven countries, including social housing located in Kerkrade (NL), Barcelona (ES), Argelato (IT).
Drive 0 has a unique concept, offering efficient renovation solutions concerning energy, materials and costs, within innovative consumer-centred circular renovation processes. By implementing this concept, DRIVE 0 encourages a transition from a linear economy to a circular economy. This transition is urgently needed if we want to come to zero energy built environment. DRIVE 0 will identify specific local drivers that motivate and persuade building owners for deep renovation; exploiting these local drivers make deep renovations more attractive, environmentally friendly and cost effective. Along the whole renovation journey, a focus is on users acceptance when developing the circular economy business plans. Furthermore, for housing providers it is relevant to notice the project will work on Circular Process and Production development (e.g. Development of new generation of automated BIM controlled production lines for circular prefab renovation products, product-market-combinations and business cases.)
DRIVE 0 focuses on three strategies of developing and implementing (scaling up) of circular deep renovation solutions for the existing housing stock: re-using and recycling locally available materials by urban mining, using renewable environmental friendly materials, and using bio-based engineered materials. The project approach will be demonstrated at the seven demonstration locations in Europe representing different building and cultural typologies having specific local drivers that allow testing of different combination of solutions and business models. Housing Europe will collaborate to the communication and dissemination activities. So, stay tuned, more information will follow soon.’