HFHI proudly announces 2 upcoming housing conferences this autumn.
The Europe Housing Forum (EHF) will be a four-day conference taking place between November 16 - 19, 2021.
The second REELIH Regional Conference, Scaling up energy efficiency renovations of multi-apartment buildings: Energy poverty alleviation in Eastern Europe, will be a part of the EHF 2021.
"The time has come for key decision-makers and stakeholders in the housing industry to cooperate to build a sustainable future for all and to bring the issue of decent housing to the forefront of the agenda in Europe"
Rick Hathaway, Vice President of Habitat for Humanity International EMEA
The second REELIH Regional Conference, organized by Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), is focused on the energy efficiency of multi-apartment buildings and its further renovation with the goal to alleviate energy poverty of homeowners in the region of Central and Eastern Europe. The conversation about energy efficiency and housing equity built on its strength and relevance after the European Commission introduced its new initiative - the European Green Deal. Even though the implementing countries of the REELIH project are not part of the European Union, they are impacted, apart from the EU initiatives, through the Energy Community and its policies. Research initiatives, EU policies, community participation, financing models, and proper legislation will form 5 individual sessions hosted by HFHI and USAID. These topics are overlapping with those of the Energy and Sustainability track of EHF so we are going to have additional sessions during the Europe Housing Forum.
The Europe Housing Forum 2021 intends to create a space for housing experts from various NGOs, academia, technology companies, donor agencies, advocacy, urban planning, and architectural institutions to learn and collaborate to reach our common goal - to position housing as a key driver of sustainable cities as well as economic growth and to seek innovative solutions to the challenges of affordable housing.
The main objectives of the EHF are to connect leaders and experts to collaborate, inspire future projects and advocate for policies that promote inclusive, equitable, affordable, and sustainable housing.
Thanks to Hilti Foundation, Whirlpool Corporation, and Somfy Foundation, we have the opportunity to reward enterprises that contribute to affordable housing solutions in Europe. The winners will be announced in three categories: best public policies, best practices, and best technologies. Entries can be submitted online until September 12, 2021. Everyone is welcomed to participate and in case you know about a policy, practice, or technology that would be eligible for the award, please, do not hesitate to share this opportunity with them.
The Europe Housing Forum is bringing together housing experts to learn, collaborate and spotlight affordable and inclusive housing as the key factor of a sustainable future. We believe our Awards can motivate others to come up with innovative solutions to one of the most basic human needs - the need for shelter.
Help us share the word and stay tuned for more details!
Find out more about the event here,
about the REELIH Conference here,
Or follow the event on our Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn.
The last week of June traditionally belongs to the biggest event dedicated to energy efficiency and renewables in Europe – EU Sustainable Energy Week. 15th time organized Sustainable Energy Week took place not as usual in Brussels, but online between June 22 and 26, 2020. It was accompanied by Policy Conference, EUSEW Awards, Energy Days, networking activities, side events and for the first time, EUSEW introduced the European Youth Energy Day.
This is the biggest European conference dedicated to topics of renewables and energy efficiency. The sessions are organized by the European Commission and energy stakeholders. Their focus is on sustainable energy issues, new policy developments, best practices and sustainable energy ideas.
The discussion went much around the European Green Deal and its Renovation Wave initiative which becomes even more crucial in the uncertain times of coronavirus crisis. Due to the current situation, the Renovation Wave will serve not only as an initiative boosting current low renovation rates but will become a means to support recovery process after the crisis, too.
We drive your attention toward one of the EUSEW's sessions
which talks about the specificities and potential of CEE countries for recovery and the transformation to a zero-carbon economy. Simultaneously, the session is directed to local and regional authorities interested in examples of good practice in this region.
Take the chance and check out more of EUSEW2020's interesting sessions available on EUSEW youtube channel:
the European Climate Pact is an initiative under the European Green Deal aiming to engage citizens and communities in action for greener Europe. The session provides inspiration on how a dialogue can be built between different stakeholders and sectors
The EUSEW Secretariat stands behind the EUSEW Awards together with the Technical Advisory Committee which brings together experts from different fields of sustainable energy. They then decide for the winning initiatives in different categories. Most common initiatives that apply for EUSEW Awards consist of citizen-led sustainable energy-awareness programs, public schemes promoting energy-saving buildings, and private companies leading the way in green tech and carbon-neutral manufacturing.
This year, EUSEW Awards had three categories - Innovation, Youth, and Engagement. Additionally, there were winners of Women in Energy Award, the Eastern Partnership Award and the Citizens' Award.
Energy Days – an opportunity for all to contribute. These days take place between May and June and can be held anywhere within the region of the European Union. It can be any digital activity or an event organized by local public or private organization which is non-profit and aims to attract the public to promote clean energy and energy efficiency. Just check out the map of Energy Days across Europe.
This was the first time this event took place during EUSEW. A special concept invited young enthusiastic EU citizens aged between 18 - 30 to talk about their visions on Europe’s energy future, to present their ideas on innovation and views on European Green Deal. This was a unique opportunity for European youth to meet and build a dialogue among themselves as well as with Frans Timmermans, Executive Vice-President of the European Green Deal, who was personally involved in the discussions. This event shall serve as a starting point of new collaboration and implementation of many great ideas, connecting young experts from different fields who are determined to make the European continent carbon-neutral and number one in the process.
Find more information about EUSEW2020 here.
Find all online sessions recorded here.
Energy Poverty Days
are organized by an initiative called Social Innovation to Tackle Energy Poverty. This initiative is co-created by the Schneider Electric Foundation and Ashoka under the aegis of Fondation de France and accompanied by a local partner Enel Romania.
This event is the final stage of the Social Innovation's program to support innovative ideas and mature projects working in the field of energy poverty in five European countries - Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. 15 projects were selected to join 5 months acceleration program helping them improve the strategy and amplify their positive impact on society and on the environment. This program includes:
The Energy Poverty Days will be a two day conference. Day one is dedicated to a discussion of cross-sectoral perspectives on tackling energy poverty. This will be an interactive session introducing several examples of social innovation and strengthening the network among participants of the project, policymakers, researchers and social entrepreneurs attending the conference. The second day is reserved for finalists' presentations of smart solutions in their project in front of international jury who will choose the winning project for each of the five country. Most successful and winning projects will be awarded with additional grant for further development. You can find more details on the agenda here.
Habitat for Humanity International will not miss this event. Will you?
This week, being it on purpose or not, Brussels is hosting not one, but several energy-related events that our representatives from Habitat for Humanity International are attending, too. Experts, stakeholders and activists from all around Europe will meet in one city to discuss the challenges of global warming and ensuring energy security for better future for all. Having tradition since 2006,
EUROPEAN SUSTAINABLE ENERGY WEEK (EUSEW)
organized by the Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME), has become the leading event offering many panels, discussions, sessions, workshops and presentations during the whole week between June 17th and 21st, 2019. EUSEW is not an ordinary conference but rather a combination of talks, panels, fair, competition awarding and many other activities promoting sustainable energy innovation. The platform consists of four major events including Policy Conference, Networking Village, Awards Competition and Energy Days which gives space and opportunity, in fact, for everyone to fit in and take part this week. The main pillars of the platform are energy efficiency, decarbonizing the economy, research, innovation and competitiveness, so wondering about housing challenges, this topic surely will be part of the program.
• The Policy Conference
Organized by the European Commission, the main aim of this conference is to provide space for experience-sharing and promotion of energy efficiency practices and renewable energies. Thanks to this event and learning about successful policies, Europe can make a step forward the EU's energy and climate goals. The Policy Conference will take place between 18th and 20th of June, 2019.
• Networking Village
Another part of EUSEW is unique Networking Village which brings the EUSEW community together to forge alliances and provides with space for information-sharing. It is one of the complements to the high-level Policy Conference. The village will consist of Energy Fair, Energy Lab and Energy Talks. Like the Policy Conference, the Networking Village will be open for everyone between 18th and 20th of June, 2019.
• Sustainable Energy Awards
EUSEW Awards celebrate the outstanding ideas transformed into projects and award the year's most successful projects for clean, secure and efficient energy. There are 12 finalists who will be considered by the expert jury and even by you, if you are a European citizen (public vote). The winning projects will be eventually awarded in categories of Engagement, Innovation, Leadership and Youth. This year's competition and voting process is already closed, however, for future competitions, anyone within the EU can submit their recent project that helps work towards the Energy Union. This year's Awards Ceremony will be held on 18th of June, 2019.
• Energy Days
Energy days do not take place only in Brussels and only during the week of the conference but take place throughout months of May and June anywhere in Europe. This project serves as to roof the activities and events throughout whole Europe to promote clean energy transition. Anyone interested in clean energy transition and energy efficiency is encouraged to organize any kind of workshop, conference, competition or anything else related as to engage citizens for action in building Energy Union, let's say in the topic of housing issues as well. There are no limits on size or length of the event. It can be something local or more region-oriented, it can last from few hours to week or month. All the events are available on Energy Days Map.
Find more information about EUSEW 2019 here.
The World Habitat Awards (WHA), established in 1985, are the world’s leading housing awards. They are run by World Habitat (a UK based NGO) in partnership with UN-Habitat. The WHA recognize and highlight innovative, outstanding and sometimes revolutionary housing ideas, projects and programmes from across the world. More than 250 outstanding World Habitat Awards projects have been recognized over the years, demonstrating substantial, lasting improvements in living conditions.
We are proud to announce that Residential Energy in Low Income Households (REELIH) project, coordinated by Habitat for Humanity International with the support of USAID, was one of the eight finalists of the WHA 2017 from over 100 entries from across the world. REELIH was also one of the two projects that had additionally received a special mention from the judges (the second best in the global North!).
Through the REELIH project, homeowners living in formerly state-owned buildings are supported to work together to improve their homes. Many multi-apartment blocks in former Eastern Bloc countries Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia fell into widespread disrepair following mass privatization in the early 1990s. By supporting homeowner associations, we help residents to have access to loans and subsidies to carry out energy efficiency improvements to their homes. This makes heating homes more affordable, improving the health and well-being of residents.
After proving successful in Macedonia, the approach was transferred to Armenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Although all three countries face similar challenges, we adopted our approach to meet different needs in the 3 countries.
The project has developed connections between individuals, homeowner associations, local governments and banks. The work has helped spread awareness about residential energy efficiency and increased the funding available to residents to improve their buildings.
Find out more about the REELIH project on getwarmhomes.org
or topaodom.ba for Bosnian
or taqtun.am for Armenian local pages.
See the World Habitat Awards website and 2017 winners and finalists, as well as their blog post - Why Armenia’s REELIH project is worth making a noise about.
Written by Stuart Macdonald, a World Habitat trustee and Managing Director of PR agency See Media. See the original post here.
REELIH – Residential Energy Efficiency for Low Income Households is a project of Habitat for Humanity International and USAID.
We are in a quiet, windswept car park on a hill above Yerevan. The Soviet-era blocks of flats that surround us have impressive views down to the capital of Armenia below and west to Mount Ararat and Turkey.
An old man is painstakingly sweeping autumn leaves into a neat pile, when suddenly the peace is broken by a group of colourful women who burst around the corner of one of the blocks of flats.
Immediately our small group of World Habitat Awards judges is enveloped by enthusiastic chatter about the difference the REELIH energy-efficiency project has made to the lives of residents of these high-rise blocks.
‘We are so much warmer’, says one. ‘The difference is incredible’, says another. ‘Before there was wind blowing through the front door and now there is not – it is very simple!’
On the surface, REELIH – led by non-profit housing organisation Habitat for Humanity International with the support of USAID – means that some relatively simple refurbishment jobs are undertaken in old Soviet-era high-rise blocks. It ensures funds are in place through existing ‘homeowner associations’ for energy-efficiency works to communal areas to install new double-glazed windows and secure, air-tight front doors. REELIH has also started a programme of external insulation work to buildings that – despite the exposed nature of many of the homes and sub-zero winter temperatures – were built with little or no insulation in the 1960s to 1980s.
This work is crucially important in helping tackle the fuel poverty that affects many Yerevan households. Around one-in-three are classed by the government as being in poverty. Yet the improvements are simply the final act in what has been a painstaking process to put in place the necessary funding.
So what is it about the REELIH project that caught the attention of the World Habitat Awards judges and saw it become a finalist in the 2017 Awards?
To my mind, it was because they are:
How does REELIH work?
REELIH helps groups of high-rise residents to use their existing ‘homeowner associations’ to access bank loans to contribute to the cost of energy-efficiency improvement works. The difference is then made up by a local government grant.
The concept is relatively simple, but it had never been done before in Armenia due to lender concerns about the creditworthiness of homeowner associations. Also, while local and national governments could see that citizens face an issue with poorly insulated homes and rising energy prices, the capital works bill to adequately address this is steep. The REELIH mixture of loan and grant funding addresses these issues.
How did it overcome the challenges?
Habitat for Humanity Armenia was so keen to demonstrate the potential of REELIH that it first ran a pilot where it lent money to a homeowner association in order to convince lenders to come on board. This was a gamble, but it worked, with the homeowner association repaying the loan from its service fees.
As a result, lender Inecobank became a REELIH partner alongside the Yerevan Municipal Authority – the latter investing up to 40% of the overall cost per high-rise block.
By the end of 2017, 30 Yerevan blocks had been refurbished at an average cost of just $5,000. The Municipality plans to work with REELIH, Inecobank and homeowner associations to complete works to a further 100 buildings.
What is the impact?
The outcome of all parties working together to strike a deal on REELIH is that fuel poverty is reduced among some of Yerevan’s most vulnerable people.
However, it has proven difficult to accurately measure the fuel bill savings due to people now heating their homes adequately, whereas before they were simply living with cold rooms.
As well as the Armenian government taking notice of the success of the REELIH model and looking to build on its success at a national level, other former Eastern Bloc countries are also learning more. Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia are also implementing REELIH-based approaches.
While in Yerevan, our group of World Habitat Awards judges met residents of several high-rise blocks and at each one the message was the same: ‘REELIH has significantly improved our homes and lives’.
The first residents we met were right: REELIH is definitely worth making a noise about.
