Towards zero-energy cities

R2CITIES - 2 webinars to sidestep the pitfalls of residential district retrofitting

On the first day of this year’s EU Sustainable Energy Week, experts from the R2CITIES project will be offering 2 free webinars on how to navigate the pitfalls of residential district retrofitting. Drawing on their first-hand experience of renovating three districts in three different countries, our team will shine the spotlight on retrofitting design methodology and then on data management.

Many pitfalls lie in wait for the unwitting district renovator, especially if the retrofitting design methodology is skewed from the start. Not only is it crucial to be cost-effective and environmentally sustainable, but you have to involve stakeholders and take on board social aspects too. Many variables. Many wrong turns possible. You therefore need to plan carefully and then adjust your heading throughout the project.

To help you design and align your strategy, we’re putting on a 45-minute webinar on Monday 19 at 11 am (CET) all about retrofitting design methodology. The webinar will be of interest not only to construction companies but also to housing authorities, energy management agencies and technology providers. Drawing on the concrete experience of three districts currently being renovated under the R2CITIES project, experts from Acciona, Cartif and Steinbeis 2i will shine the spotlight on how to avoid the major pitfalls and reduce risk, to keep track of data and overcome the technical and social barriers using a flexible methodology design.

At 4 pm (CET) on the same Monday, we will offer a second webinar, this time about helping you get a handle on all the data involved in large-scale district renovation. Data visualisation and decision-support tools do exist and real-time monitoring is, well, real. But how do you make all this come together seamlessly to deliver on the retrofitting objectives which include sustainability and cost-effectiveness?

Using our own examples from the three R2CITIES demo districts, we’ll discuss how to leverage smart data collection and mining, real-time energy consumption control and a district monitoring platform to make district-scale retrofitting less of a headache. This webinar, delivered by experts from ABB, D’Appolonia, Cartif and Steinbeis 2i, will be of particular interest to large-scale building owners, housing authorities, energy management agencies and building construction companies.

To participate to the webinars, simply register here: http://eepurl.com/cQZ8Hr

Related link: cordis.europa.eu