The 2025 Eurobarometer reveals that housing is one of the top concerns for Europeans while companies struggle to find workers, which is complicated by high rents. Recent national elections reveal the political vulnerability that housing policy failure brings. The 2040 emission cutting deadline is looming for governments.
This summit will consider different paths to decarbonisation which maintain the goal of liveable neighbourhoods and affordability.
From neighbourhood-scale renovation and pre-fabrication methods, to low carbon new delivery through bio-sourced materials, heat pumps and sustainable mobility. Projects that are showing the way from the public, social and cooperative housing sector will be showcased. The Summit will link with the EU policy and financial framework just ahead of the launch of the Affordable Housing plan, the deadline for re-allocation of Cohesion Funds for Housing, the roll out of the Social Climate Fund (SCF) and the implementation of the revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD).
Join us on December 3 and 4 at the BIP Meeting Centre at Rue Royale 2/4, 1000 Brussels.
Programme Day 1
3 December 2025
10:30-11:00 Opening
11:00-13:00 Neighbourhood-scale renovation with a social purpose – Salle des guichets
Decarbonising the building stock is a massive challenge that requires scale and integrated approaches that encompass both technical and social innovation. This session will explore how climate-neutral neighbourhood renovation can serve as a driver for decarbonising public, cooperative, and social housing while at the same time strengthening social cohesion. Drawing on lessons from the EU-funded ARV project and real-life pilots across Europe the session will showcase how integrating technical innovation with participatory approaches can revitalise neighbourhoods, empower residents, and achieve deep energy renovations. Participants will learn from a wide range of tested solutions from circular construction to smart technologies, and resident engagement to deliver climate impact without compromising affordability.
13:00-14:00 Networking lunch
[Parallel sessions]
14:00-16:30 Reduced parking for affordable housing – Zinneke room
Private fuel-based vehicles like cars are a key source of carbon emissions, pollution and grey infrastructure in housing projects, particularly those located in peripheral areas. Sustainable mobility can be decisive in bringing whole life-cycle carbon emissions down, especially in new builds. The public, cooperative, and social housing sector can play a pivotal role in leading a new housing paradigm that optimises land use and prioritises low-carbon, affordable and healthy mobility options.
Incorporating shared mobility into social housing projects in the national Social Climate Plans can bring Social Climate Fund (SCF) co-financing, as they align well with the objectives of providing affordable, low-emission transport options for low-income communities. However, car-oriented parking norms, strict building codes and regulatory restrictions to collaborate with mobility providers are limiting public, cooperative and social housing providers in their transition to sustainable mobility.
As part of the EU-funded Interreg North Sea Region project “SHARE-North Squared” aiming to integrate shared mobility solutions into housing developments, the Cities of Bremen (Germany) and Mechelen (Belgium) are introducing groundbreaking policy measures to change mobility in public, cooperative and social housing. This session will explore how shared mobility—through carsharing, bikesharing, micromobility, and integrated public transport—can act as a transformative lever in decarbonising public, cooperative, and social housing by reducing car dependency, cutting emissions, and enhancing spatial justice for communities.
14:00-16:30 Tackling embodied carbon through wooden construction – Salle des guichets
When it comes to buildings, embodied carbon accounts for more than 50% of a project’s whole life carbon footprint. Since the revised EPBD requires all buildings to be Zero Emission Buildings (ZEB) by 2050, shifting to bio-based materials such as wood is one of the most effective ways to reduce embodied carbon and move toward compliance. However, lack of skilled practitioners, diverging national regulations and cultural resistances due to the perceived risk of damage in case of fires or floods are some of the factors hindering uptake of this sustainable material in the residential sector in several European countries.
In this session -coinciding with the project’s final conference- we will explore how LIFE BE-WoodEN contributed to overcoming this knowledge gap by developing a series of training opportunities and studies on wood use -encompassing sustainability, financial feasibility and more technical aspects, such as deterioration and protection and mechanical properties – targeting architects and practitioners working in the public, social and cooperative residential sector. More over, a series of training materials are devoted to include New European Bauhaus Compass and principles in designing housing and common spaces
All activities were guided by a framework inspired by the core dimensions of the New European Bauhaus: inclusion, sustainability, and beauty. A notable example was the Challenge Based Learning launched by Regione Liguria, which engaged local stakeholders, including architects and social innovators, in co-creating the common areas of a social housing complex for elderly residents in Imperia using wood. The initiative resulted in a replicable model for collaborative placemaking aimed at making shared spaces more inclusive and aligned with local needs. Participating designs will be showcased in an exhibition, with the winning team recognized during an official award ceremony.
Programme Day 2
4 December 2025
10:30-11:00 Prefabricated construction and renovation – Salle des guichets
Decarbonising the housing stock not only requires scale, but also fast, affordable and standardised methods of renovation and construction. This session will delve into how prefabricated renovation and construction at scale can accelerate the decarbonisation of public, cooperative, and social housing in a cost-efficient way while promoting industrial competitiveness. Drawing inspiration from the GigaRegioFactory project—which uses open‑source tools and plug‑and‑play industrialised retrofit packages to aggregate and renovate housing clusters to net‑zero energy standards across Belgium and France —participants will explore high-impact industrial processes for deep energy renovation. The Build‑Up SPEED initiative will show how modular, factory-built components accelerate construction timelines and cost-effectively deliver quality social housing units. Finally, the BARRIO project will showcase the demand‑aggregation model to upscale pre-fab renovation projects. Together, these pioneering examples highlight how combining off‑site prefabrication and digital planning tools can unleash a transformative approach to decarbonising affordable housing and support housing supply in light of the upcoming European Strategy for Housing Construction.
13:00-14:00 Networking lunch
14:00-16:30 Decarbonised heating and cooling through heat pumps – Salle des guichets
About 50% of all energy consumed in the EU is used for heating and cooling, and more than 70% still comes from fossil fuels, mostly natural gas. Heat pumps are one of the key technologies promoted by the European Commission as part of its decarbonisation strategy. REPowerEU, for example, sets the target of installing at least 60 million additional heat pumps by 2027. However, the rollout, across both private and social, public and cooperative housing, is facing setbacks, as shown by declining sales in 2024.
By exploring the work of the EU-funded install.res project, participants will gain insights into how high upfront costs—one of the main barriers to heat pump adoption—are addressed in the install.res pilots. Representatives from the pilots in Austria, North Macedonia, Slovenia, Poland, and the Netherlands will talk about their experience with putting innovative business and delivery models for heat pumps into practice. These experiences feed into a broader discussion on enabling a just heat transition and ensuring that low-income households and residents of social, public, and cooperative housing are not left behind. The session will also examine how national policies, strategies, and standards can create the right conditions to ensure equitable and inclusive access to clean heating solutions.