In November, our member, the Co-operative Housing Federation of Norway (NBBL) met Housing Europe's staff in Brussels for a face-to-face exchange from which we learnt about what is at stake for cooperatives in the north while we explained how EU legislation is directly impacting the EEA area.

According to Eurostat statistics, in 2020, buildings represent nearly 40% and households, alone, 27% of the total energy consumption in the EU. It is therefore clear that in a technologically advanced environment and with finite energy resources, it is of paramount importance to make use of the plethora of data and evolved techniques for the development and evolution of building sector energy efficiency strategies. Elissaios Sarmas, a PhD candidate at the Energy Policy Unit of the National Technical University of Athens is explaining how MATRYCS, the EU-funded project that Housing Europe is part of is doing this in practice.

Embarking on an inspirational journey, the social services department of central Brussels (CPAS) has turned a former abandoned and decontaminated soap factory into a ‘village’ of 42 sustainable social housing studios and small houses.