Policy practice and regional impact assessment for building renovation

The work presented in this report provides scientific support to building renovation policies in the EU by promoting a holistic point of view on the topic. Integrated renovation can be seen as a nexus between European policies on disaster resilience, energy efficiency and circularity in the building sector. An overview of policy measures for the seismic and energy upgrading of buildings across EU Member States identified only a few available measures for combined upgrading. Regulatory framework, financial instruments and digital tools similar to those for energy renovation, together with awareness and training may promote integrated renovation. A framework for regional prioritisation of building renovation was put forward, considering seismic risk, energy efficiency, and socioeconomic vulnerability independently and in an integrated way. Results indicate that prioritisation of building renovation is a multidimensional problem. Depending on priorities, different integrated indicators should be used to inform policies and accomplish the highest relative or most spread impact across different sectors. The framework was further extended to assess the impact of renovation scenarios across the EU with a focus on priority regions. Integrated renovation can provide a risk-proofed, sustainable, and inclusive built environment, presenting an economic benefit in the order of magnitude of the highest benefit among the separate interventions. Furthermore, it presents the unique capability of reducing fatalities and energy consumption at the same time and, depending on the scenario, to a greater extent.