Barriers and opportunities for business collaboration in the nZEB single-family housing renovation market

Abstract

Research was done in Austria, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Norway as part of the Intelligent Energy Europe project, entitled “COHERENO - Collaboration for housing nearly zero-energy renovation” (www.cohereno.eu) to better understand the emergence of collaboration structures for nZEB renovation of owner-occupied single-family houses (SFH). The partners analysed experiences from various supply-side actors who recently engaged or intend to engage in such collaboration structures. Based on this research we detected key barriers and opportunities for collaboration and business model development in this market segment. The research first determined insights from (emerging) national developments and on-going initiatives on the emergence of collaboration for nZEB SFH renovation based on literature study and an international workshop. Next, various supply-side frontrunners in the nZEB SFH renovation market were interviewed and each country organized a national workshop to detect barriers and opportunities. It is observed that the supply side for SFH renovation is suffering from a severe image problem of lack of knowledge and trust, inefficient construction processes, insufficient quality assurance and communication difficulties with homeowners. Important barriers on the supply side are lack of knowledge, particularly understanding the necessity for and approaches of collaboration, and to address customer values. Also, there is a lack of capacity to absorb knowledge in small enterprises. There is a lack of connection to wishes from the demand side, such as providing confidence in professionals’ experience, independent advice, tailored pricing and project management solutions. The study found various opportunities to eliminate process and market barriers by collaboration. Various types of loose or formal collaboration structures for delivering nZEB SFH renovation appear in all countries and their experiences set the scene for further development. New types of actors emerge that offer integrated solutions to unburden the homeowner, such as specialised consultants, physical renovation stores, and project managers. A market shift is experienced towards including quality assurance and energy performance services. Policy actors and sector federations support this development, specialized networks are being formed and non-profit organisations offer customer portals with recommended professionals. The study concludes that today’s actor collaborations in the nZEB SFH renovation market are still largely suboptimal. Collaboration structures still need to develop sound business models that propose scenarios for customer segments, explore partnerships, develop quality assurance and integrate alternative financing methods.