Site visit – Condominium energy retrofitting in Paris : It takes trust, entrepreneurship and ambition!


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Author

Floriane Cappelletti

Publication date

January 25, 2017

On the occasion of the kick-off meeting of ACE-Retrofitting – Interreg North-West Europe, the Paris Climate Agency (Agence Parisienne du Climat – APC) organised in cooperation with Energy Cities a full-day event on the energy retrofitting of condominiums, on 18 January 2017 in Paris. Besides the ACE-Retrofitting project partners, the event gathered local players from the renovation sector in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United-Kingdom, Germany and Slovakia.

After a great morning session focusing on public policy and local energy renovation schemes for Parisian condominiums, the day unfolded with a visit of the Du Guesclin multi-appartment dwelling that proves possible to complete ambitious thermal retrofitting in a condominium where there are great historical and architectural challenges to face!

“Showing that it is possible” is the motto of the actions undertaken by the APC, whose main tool is CoachCopro, which is both a collaborative web tool and a comprehensive supporting scheme that provides guidance to co-owners and building professionals through several steps to accelerate condominium energy retrofitting.

This will for an operational scheme relies on several levers aiming to accelerate the transformation:

  • Building trust between co-owners and professionals. For instance, training the condomium managing structures on the energy renovation issue is important to get the profession move forward and give it extra value, as this role is crucial in the renovation process. Helping professionals get acquainted with this peculiar context of condominiums, and notably with the concept of non professional, multi-stakeholder client, is a key issue. Likewise, the ongoing setting up of the condominium renovation observatory allows for highlighting and objectively assessing the evolution of the market.
  • Innovation is a constant will. Technical and regulatory work is in progress to encourage the raise of buildings to be renovated, as it allows for generating financial flows for co-owners to cover part of their renovation works. Ideas are also flourishing to work at block level and encourage a number of co-owned properties to engage into a renovation process, or to imagine a new job of eco-manager at block level.
  • Breaking the negative image of working with condominiums. The objectives of a project are always communicated with a positive message. Co-owned property is modern and trendy! This is a message that will become mainstream, and the APC is working on it!

As a conclusion, APC Director Anne Girault expressed her enthusiasm about being a partner in the ACE-Retrofitting project. She sees it as an “extraordinary opportunity to get another point of view on Paris’ experience, to benefit from others’ to go further, and to unite European local authorities around this huge common project”!

Programme of the day (click on titles to access the presentations): 
Framework, issues, public policy and local energy renovation schemes for Parisian condominiums:

Accelerating energy retrofitting with the CoachCopro approach

This site visit was organised as part of the Interreg North-West Europe ACE-Retrofitting project – Accelerating Condominium Energy Retrofitting (Sept 2016 – March 2020). The ACE-Retrofitting project aims at developping a governance model led by local authorities that will support owners and professionals from the building sector to accelerate the energy retrofitting of condominiums. The French CoachCopro tool will be enhanced and adapted to other countries. The project consortium is composed of the Paris Climate Agency – Agence Parisienne du Climat (France), Maastricht University (Netherlands), Energy House Antwerp (Belgium), City of Liège (Belgium), Aberdeen City Council (UK), Frankfurt Energy Agency (Germany), City of Maastricht (Netherlands), Changeworks (UK) and Energy Cities (lead partner).
>> http://www.nweurope.eu/ace-retrofitting