From policy to practice: delivering Europe’s energy efficiency transition with R2M #14

In this episode of Mortgages Covered, Richard Kemmish, EMF-ECBC & ISMMA Consultant, is joined by Alessandro Lodgiani Country Manager of R2M Solution in Italy, for a discussion on the practical dimensions of implementing energy-efficiency upgrades.

This Episode of Mortgages Covered explores:

• The integration of new key performance indicators (KPIs) into market frameworks and decision-making processes.
• RTM’s updated decarbonisation strategy at the European level
• Efforts to develop new professional figures capable of effectively utilising emerging technologies.  
• The establishment of testing laboratories to evaluate and integrate innovative technologies in support of sustainability strategies.
• The role of the revised EPBD in promoting harmonised building energy classifications across European countries.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

The practicalities of creating energy efficiency upgrades, of the technology that that involves, the training, the research, linking those things together is something which RTM has been working on for some time now. I spoke to Alessandro Lodiciani about this. So, yeah, Alessandro, if I can just ask you to briefly explain um what you do, uh what you're here for.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Yes, I am Alessandro Lodigiani, and I'm the country manager of Erto M Solution in Italy. We are uh engineering firms that deal in Europe. We are in Italy, France, and Spain. And what we try to do is to bridge the gap between the research world and the market, and we are focusing on the real estate sector. What we usually try to do, uh now we are more than 150 people, is to try to bridge the gap between what we already have available on the market from a technical side and help real estate developers, but also building managers and owners to grow connected to the new challenges that the APBD and decarbonization is asking to the market. Why we are here today? Because in the last uh years we try to work also with the bank world, trying to help to create new mortgages, green mortgages that are able to have enough KPI to demonstrate the risking approach, that a more sustainable approach can work. Right now, here today, in these days, in Norway, we are bringing three European projects that are different and they are trying to connect everything. So the first main topic is that with the new APBD, even if everybody is talking about only on the energy connection of the APBD, it's really interesting because it talks about building digital logbook and passport, but also about decarbonization scenarios and smart readiness indicators. All these topics are crucial because they help to connect new KPIs to the market. And what we are doing here is try to understand how we can help banks to provide a full capacity to develop new buildings or refurbishment that are connected to the new decarbonization strategy that we have. So, right now, here we have these three projects, and I'll be really fast to present them, but I think it's really interesting because we have a project that is called Skill to the Carb that try to create new professional figures that will be able to use all these new technologies. This is connected to another project that is called Meta Building Labs, that is trying to create labs where you can test new technologies together in order to help to achieve new strategies on sustainability. And we have another project that is really interesting because it's is called Stepwise, that is creating new roadmap for energy clean decarbonization scenarios for municipalities. Why are everything connected? Because municipalities usually don't have uh money to make investments also for energy poverty situation. If, as we are trying to do with several projects also with HIPO, we are able to demonstrate that a bank could be available to put money on more on green mortgages with high-level standard building. At the end, we can show to the market that there is a huge market that will be open. Because for the bank, this could help to de-risking their loan. For people, this can help them to have buildings that are sustainable and allow them to live in better houses. And for the market, this helps to not have financial investments only in big cities, because at the end in Europe we have everywhere the same problem. Huge big cities have money because they are attractive for a lot of several reasons, but smaller cities have not investment. Now we are trying to push on this, and we are really happy to be here because at the end we it's always really positive, the approach of people, and we really think in R2M that now is the right moment to try to push new technologies that are already available on the market, but connect dots also with words that we were not discussing until now. So 10 years ago it was impossible to think that at the same event you have uh banks that talk about cover bonds and uh people from the technical uh world of engineering. Now everything is connected because with the KPI that we can put on the market, we can help banks to have their KPI to demonstrate that they can invest in this kind of field.

SPEAKER_00 5:32

You mentioned there um the EPBD, Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, gotta get that right. How significant is that in what you do and how much does it change the environment?

SPEAKER_01 5:43

Is the new EPBD is crucial because uh until now, for example, we have different energy classes in each European country. In this year, where we have work with the European Union defining the new standards, we will arrive to have the same energy class for each building in each country of Europe.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

So at the moment, an A in Portugal is different from an A in Finland.

SPEAKER_01 6:08

Yes, and the problem is that right now who have a multi-stakeholder uh portfolio, have the problem that they have to say that they have an A class in Italy that is different from France or Germany. Tomorrow, this will help to talk the same language. But the other important thing is that in this directive, you talk about indoor air quality, that is crucial for the quality of life of people. Um, the capacity to have smart buildings that work also not only in usage of energy, but also the capacity to create energy communities or sell to other buildings the energy that you are not using. And this is for Europe crucial right now that we are discussing a lot about the fact that we don't have enough clean energy in Europe. Everything is connected. And the important thing is that we are following all the same rules, and this can help us to take advantage of each other. So, for a lot of banks that are working in more than one country, know that in each country they will have to follow the same rules, can help to make strategies of decarbonization scenarios that are really interesting. And the important thing is that with thanks to technology but also to AI, we don't have to need afraid that we will lose capacity. We will start to be able to analyze millions of data that right now nobody's taking care of because we don't have enough time, and we can use these numbers to make more robust the carbonization strategy at the European level.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

I know a lot of banks that I speak to talk about the EPBD, but with very little understanding and the practicalities is a major, major problem. It's not just as easy as bonds.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

Yeah, because as usual, the problem is making also a lot of training. When I'm saying that we don't have to reinvent in the wheels, but connect all the players of the market. So it until a few years ago, when you make a loan, you were just interested in how much does it cost and where you were located. Now there are a lot of other KPIs that can be put all together. So it's a matter where in the near future we need to start to talk much more together. And because at the end, everyone needs to be expert in their part. So I will never be the best uh um mortgage or green bond expert in the world. But I need to understand something and I'm studying, and at the same time, we need to connect with banks to explain them that we can help with technologies to create a racing approach that at the end is a win-win approach. Because thanks to this strategy, Europe can achieve their sustainability goals, but at the same time, growth and not but not least, also allow Europe to come back to be a premium player on a lot of technology that can be selled around the world. Because the strategy that we are in place right now in Europe are a super high-level standard. So even if we are in a world where someone is starting to say that we don't have uh climate risk scenarios and so on, probably this could help us to show that we can make great things. But it's crucial to work together.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

In the true spirit of the ECBC Pavilion. Thank you so much for joining us today.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

Thank you all.