Opportunities and barriers for business modelling of integrated energy renovation services

PAPERS

PRESENTED AT THE

CONFERENCE

2

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DAY 1

MAIN CONFERENCE HALL ... 5

THE SKARPNES RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT - A ZERO ENERGY PILOT PROJECT ... 5

NET ZEBOFFICE IN SWEDEN - A CASE STUDY, TESTING THE SWEDISH NET ZEB DEFINITION ... 6

DESIGN OF A ZERO ENERGY OFFICE BUILDING AT HAAKONSVERN,BERGEN ... 7

PASSIVE- AND PLUS ENERGY ROW HOUSES IN NEAR-ARCTIC CONTINENTAL CLIMATE ... 8

POWERHOUSE ONE: THE FIRST PLUS-ENERGY COMMERCIAL BUILDING IN NORWAY ... 9

SMALL CONFERENCE HALL A ... 10

RETROFITTING OF EXISTING BUILDING STOCK – AN ARCHITECTURAL CHALLENGE ON ALL SCALES ... 10

DESIGN OF A PASSIVE HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING IN TRONDHEIM ... 11

PASSIVE HOUSE WITH TIMBER FRAME OF WOOD I-BEAMS – MOISTURE MONITORING IN THE BUILDING PROCESS ... 12

TIMBER FRAME CONSTRUCTIONS SUITABLE FOR PASSIVE HOUSES ... 13

SMALL CONFERENCE HALL B ... 14

IMPROVEMENT OF TRADITIONAL CLAMPED JOINTS IN VAPOUR- AND WIND BARRIER LAYER FOR PASSIVE HOUSE DESIGN ... 14

PASSIVE DYNAMIC INSULATION SYSTEMS FOR COLD CLIMATES ... 15

POSSIBILITIES FOR CHARACTERIZATION OF A PCM WINDOW SYSTEM USING LARGE SCALE MEASUREMENTS ... 16

ENERGY DESIGN OF SANDWICH ELEMENT BLOCKS WITH AGGREGATED CLAY ... 17

HEATING AND COOLING WITH CAPILLARY MICRO TUBES INTEGRATED IN A THIN-SHALE CONCRETE SANDWICH ELEMENT ... 18

SMALL CONFERENCE HALL C ... 19

GUIDELINES FOR DEVELOPING ONE-STOP-SHOP BUSINESS MODELS FOR ENERGY EFFICIENT RENOVATION OF SINGLE FAMILY HOUSES ... 19

OPPORTUNITIES AND BARRIERS FOR BUSINESS MODELLING OF INTEGRATED ENERGY RENOVATION SERVICES ... 20

PROMOTION OF ONE-STOP-SHOP BUSINESS FOR ENERGY EFFICIENCY RENOVATION OF DETACHED HOUSES IN NORDIC COUNTRIES ... 21

AMBITIOUS UPGRADING OF POST-WAR MULTI-RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS:PARTICIPATION AS A DRIVER FOR ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND UNIVERSAL DESIGN. ... 22

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DAY 2 - MORNING SESSION

MAIN CONFERENCE HALL ... 23

DEVELOPMENT OF ENERGY EFFICIENT WALL FOR RETROFITTING ... 23

ENERGIKONSEPT FOR OPPGRADERING AV NORDRE GRAN BORETTSLAG I OSLO ... 24

KAMPEN SCHOOL -RETROFITTING OF AN HISTORIC SCHOOL BUILDING WITH ENERGY EFFICIENT VENTILATION AND LIGHTING SYSTEM ... 25

REDUCING ENERGY CONSUMPTION IN A HISTORICAL SCHOOL BUILDING ... 26

EXAMPLES OF NEARLY NET ZERO ENERGY BUILDINGS THROUGH ONE-STEP AND STEPWISE RETROFITS . 27

SMALL CONFERENCE HALL A ... 28

OPTIMAL SPACE HEATING SYSTEM FOR LOW-ENERGY SINGLE.FAMILY HOUSE SUPPLIED BY LOW -TEMPERATURE DISTRICT HEATING……….28

PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF A COMBINED SOLAR-THERMAL AND HEAT PUMP TECHNOLOGY IN A NET-ZEB UNDER STOCHASTIC USER-LOADS ... 29

HEAT PUMP SYSTEMS FOR HEATING AND COOLING OF PASSIVE HOUSES ... 30

UTFORDRINGER MED INNREGULERING AV VAV ANLEGG I PASSIVHUS ... 31

THE POTENTIAL OF FAÇADE-INTEGRATED VENTILATION (FIV)SYSTEMS IN NORDIC CLIMATE ... 32

SMALL CONFERENCE HALL B ... 34

MARIENLYST SCHOOL –COMPARISON OF SIMULATED AND MEASURED ENERGY USE IN A PASSIVE HOUSE SCHOOL ... 34

VERIFICATION OF ENERGY CONSUMPTION IN 8DANISH PASSIVE HOUSES... 35

A PASSIVE HOUSE BASED ON CONVENTIONAL SOLUTIONS ON THE MARKET ... 36

MEASUREMENTS OF INDOOR THERMAL CONDITIONS IN A PASSIVE HOUSE DURING WINTER CONDITIONS ... 37

SMALL CONFERENCE HALL C ... 38

FROM PASSIVE HOUSE TO ZERO EMISSION BUILDING FROM AN EMISSION ACCOUNTING PERSPECTIVE ... 38

LIFECYCLE PRIMARY ENERGY USE AND CARBON FOOTPRINT FOR CONVENTIONAL AND PASSIVE HOUSE VERSIONS OF AN EIGHT-STORY WOOD-FRAMED APARTMENT BUILDING ... 39

COST EFFECTIVENESS OF NEARLY ZERO AND NET ZERO ENERGY BUILDINGS ... 40

ARCHITECTURAL FREEDOM AND INDUSTRIALIZED ARCHITECTURE - RETROFIT DESIGN TO PASSIVE HOUSE LEVEL ... 41

ARCHITECTURAL QUALITIES IN PASSIVE HOUSES ... 42

4

DAY 2 - AFTER LUNCH SESSION

MAIN CONFERENCE HALL ... 44

ERFARINGER MED PASSIVHUS – ET SYSTEMATISK OVERBLIKK ... 44

LIVING IN SOME OF THE FIRST DANISH PASSIVE HOUSES ... 45

EVALUATION OF THE INDOOR ENVIRONMENT IN 8DANISH PASSIVE HOUSES ... 46

LESSONS FROM POST OCCUPANCY EVALUATION AND MONITORING OF THE 1ST CERTIFIED PASSIVE HOUSE IN SCOTLAND ... 47

OVERHEATING IN PASSIVE HOUSES COMPARED TO HOUSES OF FORMER ENERGY STANDARDS ... 48

SMALL CONFERENCE HALL A ... 49

BOLIGPRODUSENTENES BIM-MANUAL FOR PASSIVHUSPROSJEKTERING ... 49

SIMULATION OF A LOW ENERGY BUILDING IN SWEDEN WITH A HIGH SOLAR ENERGY FRACTION. ... 50

SS24300:ASWEDISH STANDARD FOR ENERGY CLASSIFICATION OF BUILDINGS ... 51

NS3701:ANORWEGIAN STANDARD FOR NON-RESIDENTIAL PASSIVE HOUSES ... 52

SMALL CONFERENCE HALL B ... 53

GEOMETRISKE KULDEBROERS INNVIRKNING PÅ NORMALISERT KULDEBROVERDI ... 53

HAM AND MOULD GROWTH ANALYSIS OF A WOODEN WALL ... 54

HYGROTHERMAL CONDITIONS IN EXTERIOR WALLS FOR PASSIVE HOUSES IN COLD CLIMATE CONSIDERING FUTURE CLIMATE SCENARIO ... 55

PERFORMANCE OF 8COLD-CLIMATE ENVELOPES FOR PASSIVE HOUSES ... 56

LABORATORY INVESTIGATION OF TIMBER FRAME WALLS WITH VARIOUS WEATHER BARRIERS ... 57

SMALL CONFERENCE HALL C………. 58

VAD BEHÖVS FÖR ETT MARKNADSGENOMBROTT AV NYBYGGNATION OCH RENOVERING TILL PASSIVHUS -ANALYS FRÅN SEMINARIESERIE ... 58

KOMMUNERS MÖJLIGHETER ATT STYRA UTVECKLINGEN MOT PASSIVHUS I SVERIGE OCH UTBILDNING AV BESTÄLLARE INOM KOMMUNAL SEKTOR ... 59

PASSIVHUSCENTRA I NORDEN ... 60

Paper Passivhus Norden 2012

Opportunities and barriers for business modelling of integrated

energy renovation services

Erwin Mlecnik, Passiefhuis-Platform vzw, Gitschotellei 138, B-2600 Berchem, Belgium & TU Delft, OTB Research Institute for the Built Environment, P.O. Box 5030, 2600 GA Delft, the Netherlands

Trond Haavik & Synnøve E. Aabrekk, Segel AS, Øyane 11 – P.O. Box 284, N-6771 Nordfjordeid, Norway Irena Kondratenko, Passiefhuis-Platform vzw, Gitschotellei 138, B-2600 Berchem, Belgium

Abstract

Single-family owner-occupied homes can be renovated towards the passive house standard, but the further development of this market requires changes in the supply side. Processes for ambitious energy-efficient housing renovation are at present often too fragmented between many SMEs. Instead collaboration between enterprises is key for developing integrated energy renovation services.

To achieve such integrated services on a regional level, enterprises need to explore their own collaboration opportunities between various market players in the renovation value chain. A new method to research such collaboration opportunities was developed in the framework of the ERANET-ERACOBUILD project ”One Stop Shop - From demonstration projects towards volume market: Innovations for sustainable renovation”. This networking method, entitled “Business Zoo”, was first tried out as an international business event on 18th April 2012 in Antwerp. It successfully led different types of enterprises on the housing renovation market to detect their collaboration opportunities and barriers for business modelling of integrated single-family housing renovation with a focus on achieving high energy performance. On 19th of June a more compact version of the methodology was tested out in Nordfjordeid, Norway.

This paper investigates the organization of, and experiences with, this new type of event and research method. It further clarifies how the different networking activities systematically led to detecting opportunities and barriers regarding supply chain collaboration. In the conclusion, the detected opportunities and barriers for business modelling of integrated energy renovation services are presented.

Introduction

Today’s new-built housing market focuses on higher energy performances. While a market niche emerges for highly energy-efficient new-built houses – such as passive houses -, improving the existing building stock appears to be more challenging [IEA SHC 2010]. Demonstration projects show that companies could shift activities beyond the implementation of single energy-saving measures towards offering integrated energy renovation services [Mlecnik et al. 2011-1]. Since major home renovation requires more substantial financing than the implementation of single measures, the owner-occupant will need to be convinced to trust actors who provide whole renovation solutions. Therefore, if supply actors want to reach owner-occupants more effectively, they will need to build up more efficient communication tools [Mlecnik et al. 2011-2] and customer

relationships. Building up such relationships requires a holistic view on how a company’s project management can deal with energy performance criteria and cost setting, customer’s planning and design wishes,

commissioning and quality assurance.

To provide a better understanding of what business models for advanced housing renovation could be developed for enterprises, the international research project “One Stop Shop. From demonstration projects towards volume market: Innovations for sustainable renovation” [OSS 2012] was set up under the European

ERANET-ERACOBUILD programme, involving researchers from Belgium, Denmark, Finland, and Norway. The overall aim of this “One Stop Shop” project was to facilitate (volume) market development of (mainly owner-occupied) whole house renovations. The project focused on renovating single-family houses to very high energy standard while providing improved customer relationships, using value offers to occupants like environmental

Research approach

Many innovative technologies are available to do ambitious single-family home renovations. However, implementation of these innovations in practice is hindered by organizational, financial, and/or

communicational issues (awareness). On the organizational level, particularly supply side collaborations are needed between SMEs (Small and Medium-sized Enterprises) in order to achieve the higher quality of

integrated energy renovations and to adopt the technological innovations in daily practice. Therefore, research strategies were developed for detecting supply chain collaboration opportunities for advanced housing

renovation, while at the same time reflecting on how to build up customer relationships to increase demand of energy renovations. The goal was to detect business opportunities and barriers from collaboration exercises between different supply side actor categories, and potential clients.

In order to achieve this goal a networking event was organized held in Antwerp on 18 April 2012, entitled ‘Business Zoo: Innovative Business Models for Integrated Housing Renovation’ [BZOO 2012]. The event was attended by 88 professional participants, involving actors from the whole construction chain as well as potential customers. About one third of the participants originated from foreign countries. The networking event had an original formula, starting with ten inspiring pitch presentations on integrated home renovation. Afterwards, the participants were asked to divide themselves into groups according to their interest in the presented subject. In these groups all participants were consulted by the moderator to bring in ideas to answer questions to problems related to the topics addressed in the presentation. The format of this first type of interaction was the so-called ‘intervision meeting’. In the second part of the meeting, new groups were formed from the participants. The groups were preassembled involving different types of actors and animal characters depicted on the badge: informing actors (crows), convincing actors (horses), responsible actors (tigers), executing actors (beavers) and quality assuring actors (hawks). The participants in each group were asked to satisfy specific customer (goose) wishes using home renovation case studies which reflected potential on the market. Different types of case studies were used in different groups, like home extensions with limited budget, villa renovations, terraced house renovation, renovation of a house with a monumental façade, partial renovation of a street (roofs or back façades), renovation of collective housing. Meanwhile moderators (gulls) stimulated interaction and detected the collaboration opportunities and barriers, using a predefined canvas (see Figure 1). This type of research was called ‘animal gathering’.

Furthermore, as an immediate follow-up of the animal gathering, the participants were then asked to develop ideas for collaborative business models to deal with volume market development of similar cases, using a business model generation canvas [BM 2011, BM 2012].

The whole event thus consisted of four consecutive parts: 1. Pitch presentations

2. Intervision meetings 3. Animal gathering

4. Business model generation

The whole event was moderated by several construction and academic professionals who were trained the day before on how to moderate the groups. The findings of these moderators are presented below.

Detected barriers and opportunities

Pitch presentations/ intervision meetings

Pitchers introduced the following discussion topics on possible barriers/ opportunities (presentations available on [BZOO 2012]:

1. Objective framework for cost guaranteed renovation 2. Smart and speedy renovation of post-war housing

3. Enhancing Energy Performance Certification to promote integrated energy renovation 4. Homeowners’ project manager as key for coordinated and holistic supply side

5. Realising marketable propositions for energy neutral buildings 6. Public funded energy plans for renovation

7. Challenges of building services manufacturers to reach integrated renovation 8. Quality problems in integrated renovations

9. Renovate Europe campaign

10. Innovative supply chain collaboration

Table 2 provides an overview of (a selection of) final questions that were dealt with during the intervision meetings, and the final answers provided by the group members under lead of the moderator. Note: Each group contained 6 to 10 persons, freely arranged according to the topics introduced by the pitchers.

Detected main question Solutions proposed by the group

How can a technical company become more human science oriented? How to change focus from mainly technical to a combination of technical and human science focus?

Organize meetings. Don’t neglect organizational changes. Integrate different departments. Hire someone with knowledge. Incorporate human science (sociologist) in R&D. Deal with different companies together.

Thinking needs to change (subsidies?).

Collect the right information. Use client segmentation. Use clients as input: ask them what indoor climate they need. There is no average person, so define a range of needs. Set up a questionnaire for architects.

Which role can a future EPC advisor play in future renovation processes, taking into account independency?

The expert needs to be independent, but his/her role should be extended to advice on more topics than only energy efficiency. For example, advise on aesthetical elements that incorporate energy efficient solutions.

The advisor should point out a range of solutions so that people become aware of the possibilities of renovation and are not only cost oriented.

How to stimulate more energy responsibility for house-owners?

Create obligation for an energy label; create different groups of house-owners; support clients in finding subsidies; make information more accessible; involve financial sectors and ESCO’s in advisory role.

How do we get the building sector convinced to build differently?

Training programs and communication to build differently; involve all professions and all stakeholders; visualize long term path: Passivehouse/low energy standard today will be the building code in the future. In a long term perspective this will be an investment.

How can we demonstrate the future added value of renovation to future building owners at the moment of sale or rent?

Long term path: convince this is a future investment; Energy Performance Certificate; communication: “right thing first”, “sustainable houses”, “this investment is right”; data gathering; governmental subsidies.

Building contractors offer renovation, but clients are hard to be convinced. How to convince the client?

Government should do more focused on the long term. Ask as much as possible the persons to speak who have experienced the renovation. A book token is more effective than subsidy. Demonstrate the effect by means of congresses, share the experience, and create value. Create more value by connecting all lines in the network: 1+1=3: there is a lot of knowledge.

Offer the best solution; don’t offer the best solution for the building contractor. The renovation is not (only) for the interest of the contractor, but for the interest of everybody. Complete unburdening.

How can the basic principles of sustainable building and living be implemented in a consistent and non-political way?

Solution is in the quantified final perspective that can be realized in the present political context. Several ways are possible; however it is not a point on a far horizon, but a point close to now and here. An organization working for sustainability and controlling sustainability should work in parallel to politics. “Governmental Mayors” lay down their ambitions and are mutual concerned. Politicians are needed in order to involve everybody in the debate, in order to have one vision for the next 20 years. The organization should exceed the political term. This should be fixed by law, and politicians should be set responsible for that. We have our financial matters shipshape; now the sustainability!

How to motivate first moving companies (SMEs)?

Visualize (including labelling) the market for the suppliers. Challenge the companies through public transparent innovation procurement.

Pioneers to make packages where they can involve/include others.

How can companies

sensibilize public authorities to establish incentives for sustainable renovation to the private market?

Solve some municipality problems (school, social housing); The public market may be used to build trust, by offering solutions best for society – where the municipality is the customer. Look for synergy with governmental goals (climate change, CO2 free city, transition arena). Focus on green city arena.

Demonstration project by companies.

How can we reach and convince individual home owners to renovate? What info do we need to give them?

Prepacked solutions & clear communication. Good information. Modular, open renovation packages that can cover multifaceted requirements (each owner asks something else). A credible party to convince the home owner.

Strong legislation that forces people to do it. The approach towards the client should be building typology based – knowledge on owners needed.

How to develop a business model that clearly defines roles of different parties (ensuring financial benefits and avoiding competence overlapping)?

Define clearly common goal as doing the building team that can go beyond one project and have possibilities and interest in doing more work together on the market. The architect should be the coordinator and create a natural partnership with others. Subsidies for owners who have overall renovation plan. New buildings are good driver for clustering companies (observed in new passive house builders in Flanders, Belgium). They look holistically.

Project Team Partnership (PTP experience from the UK), whereby one contract is signed by all parties sign with collective interest.

Where does the money come from when the “market” does not work?

Enforced savings mechanisms. GreenDeal/GreenBanks. “Name and shame” social pressure. Note: CO2 goals cannot be reached without subsidies. Without the presence of a market, this has to be regulated (differences in different states). Society has to step in for the poor.

Deep renovation or demolition/reconstruction?

Clarify by changing EPC’s to energy/renovation plans or replacement

proposals. Look at cities to devise gradual piece-meal change, not demolishing whole neighbourhoods. Adapt local solutions, building by building, perhaps street by street. Key is to choose appropriately based on careful evaluation of each property. Targeted demolition based on understanding when to stock a good thing.

Aim for a database and decision tools, including ‘soft factors’. Decision tree based on inventory and survey including “Google thermal street view”. Add to GIS. Analyse how much space, depth is needed for installations and calculate costs.

Table 2, Selection of questions/ answers during intervision meetings.

Table 2 shows the variety of topics that enterprises can be confronted with when engaging in integrated home renovation and exploring collaboration opportunities to eliminate barriers.

Animal gathering

During the animal gathering process different barriers and opportunities for collaboration between the persons present in each group were reported. Some examples are given below.

Several groups showed difficulties in defining responsibilities and collaboration. A group dealing with a monumental renovation defined an extra actor to coordinate the renovation process as being a network

organization that has already a lot of contacts in the field. In a group dealing with a villa renovation there was at first little focus on involving informing and quality assuring partners. This situation turned when the contractor wanted to involve the architect strongly, who had a very strong focus on the customer’s needs.

Both groups dealing with home extension cases claimed to miss a primarily responsible partner. One group did not include a contractor or designer. Nevertheless, the moderator steered the group towards assuming

responsibility for the extension of a house. The group consisted of two federations and a student who were asked to deliver this service to the client. Since the group missed several animal characters, the participants were forced to look beyond their usual activity and to involve parties that regularly collaborate with them. Two participants (two federations) showed motivation to help a start-up business in providing the needed contacts and contracts for collaboration. The other participant took the opportunity to define an own business, helped by this offer. Remarkable in this group was also that, given the lack of practical expertise, the client started to think together with the supply side. During the negotiation process the client became part of the building team, by expressing own opportunities as opinion leader to promote the renovation service if quality is delivered. In a group dealing with collective housing the customer chose the persuading actor as her partner in charge of the renovation project, because she wanted advice of what to do. The horse was not so keen to ask for

assistance, but in this configuration the other actors were eager to offer their collaboration and assistance. The group learnt that it is important to establish teamwork, and to choose a company in charge of the renovation project that is willing to implement other professions and also to choose an actor with the best network. All professions being present together allowed to detect which areas overlapped and therefore important issues were detected regarding responsibility and way of renovating. The need for information about new products and technologies from universities/R&D institutions also appeared to motivate the group to establish stronger cooperation between actors and research institutions. Quality assurance from independent consultants - at the beginning and during the renovation process - was detected as a need to build trust towards the customer. In a group dealing with a monumental renovation the contractor was a bit laid-back and waited for instructions (in first instance). No one eventually took the lead of working together and interchanging thoughts – no real commuting process was started. An important barrier was formulated as: “We aren’t used to communicate with the client”. The architect showed to need a third party (for quality assurance) before trusting the contractor. There also appeared to be a gap between what the architect prescribes and how the contractor wants to/can execute it.

Architect and engineering office team up as one unity. A three-party system between project manager (= architect + engineering office) – contractor – quality assurer was proposed as a good balance for actions and responsibilities. Quality assurance during the process (not only afterwards) was defined as a need for the configuration to control design and execution, and as feedback and source for learning in practice by the designer.

On the other hand, one specific group was given a very ambitious case study of a villa to be renovated in one week. Because of the specifics in this case (a very fast job) the participants really focused on that idea as a value proposition. In order to do this they proposed working together in lab settings and using lots of prefab. They left the idea of a chain and talked more about a building team. The group talked about three barriers: responsibility, personnel and planning. Responsibility was a basic problem and the group detected that it is difficult to define one sole actor who will talk to the client or who can assume full responsibility. Nobody seemed eager to be the one and only channel for the client because they feared being held responsible in the end. Personnel and planning seemed to be barriers because of the case itself. Not everybody had enough trained and experienced people to pull this off. Related to this they detected the need for a fixed and strict planning. Without it, nobody wanted to take up the case.

Business model generation

The information gathered during the animal gathering session was immediately used on the business model canvas [BM 2012], especially to define the customer segment and the detected customer relationships. Interestingly, the business model generation exercise with the same group, defined different key actors for

different types of renovation. Remarkable is that only in a few groups, a contractor business was directly chosen for business development. For example, for the speedy villa renovation, a prefab oriented actor was chosen key. For the home extension business, a start-up company was modelled. For collective renovation, a consultant was chosen key actor. For a monumental renovation, business was developed for a project manager/architect – allied with a contractor and with informing and persuading actor as secondary information source - as an interface between the client and quality assuring actors. For another renovation with monumental value, a networking actor was chosen as key actor.

As a result of the animal gathering exercise, several groups detected opportunities for improving customer confidence and thus could report opportunities to improve customer relationships.

For example, the prefab oriented group (villa renovation) defined training of actors and testing of supply-side solutions as key to convincing the customer. The client liked the idea that she could go to that lab and see how it would look like. She didn’t consider proposed quality assurance arguments or labels. If she could see and feel everything beforehand, that would be enough.

In a group dealing with home extension, customer confidence was improved during negotiation with the actors around the table, and the expressed cost efficiency wishes were rephrased during the process. For example, actors proposed to make a different kind of home extension than the one the customer suggested. Instead of making a new addition to the building, the open terrace was suggested to be closed and included in the house. This would take less alteration, less materials and result in decreased energy consumption, as the surface of the building will be reduced. Another proposed solution was to make a case study of the renovation, and in that way secure funding and/or discounts.

A group dealing with villa renovation detected that the moderator could act as someone who facilitates issues for the customer, in this case by provoking the involvement of an architect and quality assuring actors, instead of letting the customer solely rely on the contractor. The customer finally saw increased value – but also increased cost - in the collaboration between the architect and the contractor.

A group focussed on the renovation of collective housing detected the importance of quality assurance to convince the customer, in this case exemplified by a holistic approach towards energy performance offered by a consulting company. Trustworthiness could be improved regarding the selection of best product, technical performance and price.

A group dealing with monumental renovation claimed that the client ‘needs help’ and that the architect was the best actor to provide such help, with a main role as ‘project manager’. Similarly, the other group dealing with monumental renovation stressed that customer confidence can be increased when only one contact person is needed; this person’s core business should be coordinating actors for the renovation.

The different groups investigated key issues regarding the nine different building blocks of the business model canvas. Each group detected some novel opportunities in each building block. These results are presented in more detail in another paper [Mlecnik et al. 2012].

Specific experiences in Norway

Inspired by the Business Zoo event in Antwerp in April, the Norwegian researchers designed and tested a four and half hour event on 19th of June in Nordfjordeid, located in Western Norway. This networking event relied heavily on the experiences of the Norwegian company Bolig Enøk (a Norwegian ‘One Stop Shop’ company) which offers energy audits, project management of renovation of single family houses and training programs for energy efficient renovation.

Bolig Enøk is situated in Eastern Norway and its core market area is normally Oslo and south east of the capitol. Before the event Bolig Enøk visited seven houses in the area around Nordfjordeid and made energy audits for each of them. The homeowners and local actors from the supply side in Nordfjordeid were invited to the workshop which had these main points on the agenda:

1. Introduction – setting the scene (plenary session)

2. Two hours introduction course in energy efficient renovation (plenary session)

3. Two hours networking event – very similar to the “animal gathering” session in Antwerp (two groups). From the supply side there were different types of actors present; architects, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, hardware stores, suppliers of heat pumps and window manufacturers. Each craft was represented by two companies. For the networking part, the participants were divided in two groups so that there were no

competitors together in the same group. Two of the cases, of which Bolig Enøk had made an energy audit, were used for discussion. These main steps were followed while guided by two of the moderators from the Antwerp event:

1. The homeowner presented his case. A one page summary of issues related to the house was handed out (made by Bolig Enøk).

2. Each of the supply side actors presented their ideas of how they could contribute to fulfil the

homeowner’s wishes. At this stage Bolig Enøk (which also was represented in both groups) did not comment anything.

3. The homeowner was challenged to choose one of the local actors as main contact person. 4. A free discussion on the supply side was then followed.

5. Bolig Enøk presented their recommendations based on the audit they made the day before of the two houses.

6. A round with questions and answers to the proposed measures then followed. 7. Each participant summarised his/her lesson learned.

The main opportunities and barriers detected in this event were:

 Without the knowledge generated by Bolig Enøk during the home-visit, the homeowner would probably not have been able to discuss different solutions and describe his/her needs to the actors in the

workshops.

 The homeowners became more interested to increase their budgets as they learned more about the issues. In particular the understanding of the need to also install ventilation made a shift in their ideas about the renovation project.

 One of the two homeowners was from the beginning interested in having a single contact point for managing the project, while the other meant initially that he could do the project management by himself. But as he realized the complexity he became more interested in hiring also the project management.

 The local actors were sometimes hesitating to take on the whole responsibility as they were not used to it. Even the architect in one of the groups said he could not do it. He therefore wanted actors as Bolig Enøk to establish similar services also locally in Nordfjordeid.

 The local actors pointed out the importance of tighter cooperation on such projects, and that they start exchange of ideas for optimal solutions earlier in the process than today.

Conclusion

The goal of this research was to detect business opportunities and barriers for integrated energy renovation services from collaboration exercises between different supply side actor categories, and potential clients. Our research explored this issue by systemic group discussions with the ultimate goal of stimulating new business model development.

According to our findings, technical companies are challenged to find the right human relationships. They need to network, reorganize, change and collect the right information. Clients are more demanding nowadays and they need to be convinced to engage in integrated renovation, to create value and to choose for the best solution. Client segmentation and supply side offer based on building typology offers an opportunity for a more

structured market investigation for companies. However, enterprises should be aware of the high importance of unburdening the homeowner, avoiding physical obstruction, offering quality assurance, and helping in obtaining energy-related information, energy labels and financing.

Traditional actors - like contractors - will need to collaborate or team up with independent well-informed credible experts – like quality assurers, EPC advisers, architects - that can assume a broader range of

responsibilities and can act on behalf of the client as trusted actor. Passive house might be the building code of the future – also for home renovation - and all professionals need to be trained to deal with strict energy performance and cost criteria. Governments, non-profit organizations and clients can challenge this market development with innovative procurement to build trust.

The animal gathering exercise that was developed during the Business Zoo showed that current actors can respond to developing integrated home energy renovation services. When teamed up, a variety of different actors can respond to house-owners’ demands and information needs. However, it is important to clearly define responsibilities. The responsibility issue may lead to involving new actors - or even the client – in the building team. Another important barrier is that many companies nowadays do not yet have the habit to clearly

communicate towards the client. Communication, neutral information and physical examples are essential to build up trust. Achieving energy performance requirements within a limited timeframe requires stricter

planning. Client needs for project management thus become obvious, even for single-family homeowners, as experienced in Norway.

A conclusion of the Business Zoo experiment is thus that many possible forms of collaboration may exist. The Norwegian experience shows that this can also be brought into real scenarios. The Business Zoo and animal gathering networking format we developed offer new perspectives to understand barriers and opportunities better. Based on our first experiences, we believe such networking events could even better stimulate collaboration by:

- Providing a more visible link between the topics presented at pitches in the introduction and the intervision sessions on one hand and the animal gathering/business modelling on the other hand;

- Including real actors covering all important functions;

- Presenting real cases where the homeowners are attending to make this more realistic and more interesting for the supply side as they represent real business opportunities.

Further regional events are planned, whereby work is done on real renovation scenarios, involving homeowners with intentions and needs for integral renovation, and supply side actors exploring collaboration opportunities leading possibly to business models generation. Based on the experiences with the Business Zoo, the organizers will improve the event in future editions, and it is a goal to establish similar business collaboration events in several countries and regions.

Acknowledgements

The work carried out by the Belgian and Norwegian authors was funded by respectively IWT-Vlaanderen and Nordic Innovation in the framework of the ERANET-ERACOBUILD project ”One Stop Shop - From

demonstration projects towards volume market: Innovations for sustainable renovation”. Different additional reports about supply chain collaboration have been made available on http://www.one-stop-shop.org.

References

[BM 2011] Osterwalder, A., Pigneur, Y. et al. Business Model Generation, Business Model Foundry (2011)

[BM 2012] Business model generation canvas, http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/canvas, accessed: 1 April 2012.

[IEA SHC 2010] Haavik, T., Rødsjø, A., Mlecnik, E., Prendergast, E., Parker, P. From Demonstration Project to Volume Market. Market Development for Advanced Housing Renovation. final report IEA SHC Task37 Advanced Housing Renovation with Solar and Conservation (2010).

[BZOO 2012] Business Zoo. Innovative Business Models for Integrated Housing Renovation. http://www.b2match.eu/businesszoo, accessed: 30 June 2012.

[Mlecnik et al. 2011-1] Mlecnik, E., Cré, J., Kondratenko, I., Hilderson, W., Innovations in Very Low Energy Retrofit Projects. Experience of Belgian exemplary projects. In: Conference Proceedings of PLEA2011, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (2011).

[Mlecnik et al. 2011-2] Mlecnik, E., Paiho S., Cré, J., Kondratenko, I., Stenlund, O., Vrijders, J., et al. Web Platforms Integrating Supply and Demand for Energy Renovations. In: Conference Proceedings of Passivhus Norden 2011, Helsinki (2011).

[Mlecnik et al. 2012] Mlecnik, E., Haavik, T., Kondratenko, I. Business model development for highly energy-efficient housing renovation. In: Conference Proceedings of Passive House 2012, Brussels, Belgium (2012).

[OSS 2012] One Stop Shop - From demonstration projects towards volume market: Innovations for sustainable renovation. http://www.one-stop-shop.org, accessed: 30 June 2012.