22 May 2025
The positive effects of renovation go far beyond energy savings alone. To fully unlock its potential, it’s essential to align regulatory, financial, and economic instruments—many of which remain emerging or poorly connected. Social and cultural factors related to housing, its accessibility, and its use must also be considered.
Multiple co-benefits, beyond energy
Energy renovation generates numerous economic, environmental, and social co-benefits (European Joint Research Center, 2020):
- Environmentally, deep renovation helps reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, while improving indoor air quality, health, and comfort.
- Economically, it’s a strong lever for recovery: creating local, non-relocatable jobs, enhancing energy security, and optimizing public spending. In Europe, these benefits are estimated between €65 and €291 billion per year (COMBI, 2016; IEA, 2016), with a potential of 160,000 jobs that can be created by 2030 (C40 Cities, 2024)—a major challenge for the sector.
- Socially, renovation helps fight energy poverty by targeting inefficient homes occupied by vulnerable households—a key issue requiring tailored financing solutions.
What CLIMACT offers
At CLIMACT, we support public and private organizations aiming to improve housing quality and succeed in the energy transition through renovation. We co-develop ambitious, pragmatic, and inclusive action plans, combining existing tools and innovative regulations, financing, and governance.
We also support the deployment of high-impact solutions, mobilizing our expertise at every stage of the process in the field of renovation:
- Think: Strategic advice, prospective studies, impact modelling, and innovation in economic models.
- Engage: Stakeholder consultation and co-design, workshop facilitation, information, and training.
- Act: Policy design, implementation of innovative projects, and applied research combined with pilot cases.
Recent projects illustrating our commitment
These ambitions take shape on the ground. Over the past months, our Buildings team has been working hand in hand with local authorities, public institutions and private actors to turn ideas into action. Here are a few concrete projects that bring our vision to life.
- In Mechelen, CLIMACT supported the city in preparing a successful EU LIFE application, structuring an innovative project combining on-tax financing and neighborhood-based renovation for condominiums—securing over €1 million in EU funding.
- In Antwerp, we are co-developing two innovative mechanisms targeting vulnerable co-owners: a deferred repayment loan and a third-party financing model with partial property transfer, as part of the LINK project supported by Horizon Europe and the Net Zero Cities mission.
- In Wallonia, we are supporting the Walloon Region (Service Public de Wallonie – SPW) in designing and deploying SIARE (Service Intégré d’Accompagnement à la Rénovation), an institutional framework aimed at scaling up, professionalizing, and sustaining household renovation support.
- Internationally, we helped a major European industrial player analyze regulatory contexts and identify strategic opportunities for renovation, through a structured internal workshop.
- In Anderlecht (La Roue district), we are co-leading a collective renovation initiative with over 40 households, aiming to pool costs and simplify processes, as part of the Renov’Roue-Rad project supported by RENOLAB.ID and FEDER funds.
Want to do the same?
Inspired by these projects? Let’s talk. Together, we can bring your ideas to life and build the solutions to renovate more, better, and for all.
