The Third Succes Factor of Renovations with Energy Ambitions

Abstract

Everyone acknowledges the importance of sufficient financial resources and wellfunctioning technologies when it comes to renovation processes with energy ambitions. However, Dutch experiences show that these two factors alone do not automatically result in success. More is needed, and this ‘more’ has to do with less concrete, but in the existing living environment very influential factors such as emotions and wellbeing. This hard to grasp factor is called ‘the third success factor of energy friendly renovation processes’. In the Netherlands, the questions ‘What exactly is this third success factor?’ and ‘How to integrate knowledge about this third success factor in the rational-oriented building industry?’ have been put high on the agenda of people who want to achieve the national energy goals related to the built environment. Research that combines knowledge from human sciences with energy efficient renovation experiences, the development of new educational methods, and a search for success stories has been part of joined efforts to find answers to these questions. A national knowledge platform called ‘HomeMates’ has been established to bundle and share all these findings. The Dutch experiences are described and discussed in this paper. They are also linked to Canadian experiences, based on the results of a project of Parallel52⁰ , the Dutch Canadian Sustainable Building and Planning network. In this project, Dutch findings and findings in the Toronto area were compared and discussed.