SHEERenov Best Practice Guide

01.02.2023

Residential energy efficiency has been a challenge across Europe due to the aging building stock, market failures and lack of functioning homeowners’ organizations. In Bulgaria, the refurbishment efforts in multi-family residential building sector have faced considerable policy, market, and information barriers.

SHEERenov initiative, implemented in 2020-2022, has objectives to develop and test a model for the provision of integrated residential renovation services on the territory of Sofia, to create enabling conditions to attract and facilitate participation of relevant market stakeholders and players in the process of energy-efficiency renovation in the residential sector, and to initiate policy change regarding multifamily building renovation in Bulgaria.

This Best Practice Guide is prepared according to the needs of target groups in Bulgaria identified in the SHEERenov project, and results of the analysis of local and European good practices with a focus on applicability and know-how transfer to establish a sustainable market-based renovation model, that is to say, a refurbishment model and financing scheme where owners of private property, market players and commercial financing institutions play the leading role facilitated in this action by public authorities. The main purpose of this guide is to inspire authorities and housing organizations to support the renovation of residential buildings with different legal, financial, organisational, and training instruments.

This guide focuses on practices that authorities can adopt to promote efficient management, maintenance, and renovation of multi-family buildings. It shows how complex issues with energy-efficiency renovation have been tackled in Estonia, Hungary, and other countries. All of the selected practices have resulted in better outcomes, with strong performance achieved through systematic activities. The presented examples are considered to have high potential for replication with objective basis for claiming effectiveness in Bulgaria.

The four areas of best practices described in this guide are:
→ Legal and Regulatory Framework
→ Financial Instruments
→ Renovation Project Management
→ Training, Awareness Raising and Marketing

The knowledge gained from the four areas of activity presented in this guide underpins the importance of strategic and systematic coordination for multi-family building renovation, which helps homeowners respond to the challenges of energy efficiency in their homes and helps communities of owners overcome their collective action problem.

READ:

SHEERenov Best Practice Guide – in English

SHEERenov Best Practice Guide – in Bulgarian