Project overview
Smart Management and Green Financing for Sustainable and Climate Neutral Buildings in Central Europe
A climate-neutral central Europe requires a drastically reduced energy consumption of buildings. However, renovation is often costly and complex. The MESTRI-CE project introduces a new investment model to finance more climate-friendly buildings that guarantee sustainability. The model covers both the supply and demand side of the renovation market and builds on data collected and tools and green standards developed by the project.
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2,49m €
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Project Budget
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80%
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of the Budget is funded by ERDF
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6
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Countries
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7
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Regions
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10
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Partners
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4
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Pilots
Duration
Start date
End date
Project progress
Project partnership
Project partners
Lead partner
North-West Croatia Regional Energy and Climate Agency
Project partner
Research&Development
Energy Efficiency Centre
00-107 Warsaw
Roadmap
Challenge
The central Europe region faces several key challenges in its energy tranistion: - Economic and technological disparities: uneven economic development and distribution of technology and financial resources. - High energy consumption: Average energy consumption remains higher than the EU average. - Investment needs: Energy efficiency investments need to more than double to meet EU climate and energy targets. - Low awareness levels: particularly at local and regional levels in less developed central european countries. - Technical barriers: Poor building stock management due to insufficient capacities of stock managers, lack of quality baseline data and comprehensive data management tools. - Data managment: Need for integrated data collection on energy management, interoperability through digital tools and coordinated methodologies and regulatory aspects. - Common methodologies: Lack of common methodology for assessing and reporting the sustainability performance of buildings.
Starting idea
To meet new climate and energy targets, energy efficiency investments must more than double, a task complicated by low awareness levels, especially in less developed areas. The project aims to address these issues, focusing on improving energy efficiency in the worst-performing buildings, public buildings, social infrastructure and decarbonizing heating and cooling systems. The project will tackle technical, policy and financing barriers, emphasizing better building stock management, integrated data collection, and the creation of a common methodology for assessing building sustainability.
Main goal
The project aims to achieve standardization in the technical and financial transformation of markets for retrofitting public and private buildings, aiming for climate neutrality. This will be accomplished through intensive transnational cooperation, leveraging the expertise and best practices of partners across pilot regions. The project focuses on combining strengths, enhancing research capacity and engaging key stakeholders to become leaders in sustainable building practices. Additionally, it aims to widely disseminate project results to ensure broader adoption across Central Europe.
Proposed solutions
The MESTRI Smart Management and Green Financing for Sustainable and Climate Neutral Buildings project introduces several innovative solutions: - MESTRI-CE Smart Data Hub: Aggregates all relevant building data, including energy and water consumption, project documentation and key documents like a Vision and Action Plan for long-term building utilization, addressing the lack of management tools for building owners. - Sustainable Building Methodology: Guides the design and renovation of buildings based on sustainability and climate-neutrality criteria, including a Life Cycle Assessment to project environmental impacts. Integrates existing standards with Level(s), the new European framework for sustainable buildings. - MESTRI-CE Evaluation Toolbox: Offers tools for technical, financial, and economic analysis to estimate renovation costs and benefits. Helps public authorities prioritize societally optimal energy efficiency investments by highlighting both energy and non-energy benefits. - Green Financing Methodology: Aligns with EU taxonomy and green standards, providing transparent documentation for investors. Developed with financial institutions and crowdinvesting platforms to ensure wide market acceptance. Includes a project pipeline in pilot countries and activities to raise capacity and awareness among citizens and investors, reinforcing the role of market aggregators.
Transnational cooperation
The collaboration will enable project partners to combine complementary strengths, get the necessary research capacity and reach the wider public through high-visibility events. Associated partners who present key stakeholders will benefit from the project by learning from top experts in the sustainability of buildings. The project leverages the expertise of ten institutions from six different countries to drive positive changes in pilot regions across Central Europe. Despite their diverse backgrounds and legal forms, all partners are united by the vision of achieving long-term climate neutrality in the buildings sector and economies. The consortium includes energy agencies. These agencies are deeply embedded in their regional communities, maintaining strong relationships with policy and decision-makers. They will implement major activities and pilot actions, collaborating closely with key stakeholders from both private and public sectors. As experts in the building sector, these agencies develop local and regional policies, execute energy renovation programs and facilitate market interactions between public authorities, investors, and financial institutions.
News
P2 Green
NEWS
27.06.2024
Discussing financing of energy renovations in Slovenia
On Wednesday, June 12, 2024, a national round table on financing energy renovations of buildings in Slovenia was held in Ljubljana. The event was organized in cooperation with the Ministry of the Environment, Climate and Energy (MOPE), Climate and Energy within the EU LIFE project SMAFIN Expanded LIFE22-CET and ...
P2 Green
NEWS
10.06.2024
Technology partner Scandens selected
Scandens, a swiss-based leader in software for building energy renovations, is selected as a technology partner in the MESTRI-CE project. With this collaboration, the project aims to translate EU guidelines into actionable measures, driving the transformation of the Central European building sector further towards enhanced sustainability.
P2 Green
NEWS
03.06.2024
Discussing green financing with stakeholders in Croatia
The 2nd National Roundtable (NRT) session took place on May 15, 2024, at the Hotel Esplanade in Zagreb, Croatia. The session focused on financial instruments and standards for energy efficiency projects, with participants from local authorities, commercial banks, financing consultancies, stock exchanges and other finance industry stakeholders.
P2 Green
NEWS
31.05.2024
Assessing Renovation Strategies: A Deep Dive into Central European Energy Policies
The MESTRI project has undertaken a comprehensive analysis of current renovation strategies across Central Europe, aiming to assess the legislative and policy frameworks that shape energy transition and sustainability in the building sector. This analysis, conducted by regional partners in Austria, Croatia, Germany, Italy, and Poland, compares national policies ...
P2 Green
NEWS
27.05.2024
Analyzing Current Systems for Building Management: A Step Towards the Smart Data Hub
In preparation for developing a Smart Data Hub, it is crucial to evaluate the existing building management systems used by participating countries and institutions in the MESTRI-CE project. This comprehensive analysis aims to identify the tools currently in use and the parameters considered relevant when analyzing building portfolios.
P2 Green
NEWS
23.05.2024
Drive Climate Action: the polish Pioneers at the Climate Neutrality Conference!
This year's Climate Neutrality Conference was full of inspiring discussions and practical conclusions on achieving climate neutrality in cities. We focused on: - Effective use of EU funds - Energy transformation - Sustainable solutions in urban transport and construction - Readiness of Polish cities to implement ambitious climate goals One of the most important ...
P2 Green
NEWS
13.05.2024
Pioneering Building Renovation and Green Financing Across Central Europe
The MESTRI-CE project is making significant strides in the field of building renovation and sustainable development. Central to this initiative is the development of a Smart Data Hub, a comprehensive repository for all relevant building data. This hub is designed to facilitate detailed analyses and inform renovation plans across ...
P2 Green
NEWS
06.05.2024
Successful Start of the Workshop “Renovation Roadmaps for Public Building Portfolios” in Austria
On April 23rd, the first part of the workshop "Renovation Roadmaps for Public Building Portfolios" took place, organized by the Energy Agency of Styria in collaboration with e7 energy innovation & engineering. The event provided an exciting platform for discussing sustainable building and financing standards.
P2 Green
NEWS
28.02.2024
Empowering Sustainable Finance & Building Renovation at the National Roundtable Croatia
The Feb 28, 2024, national roundtable at Zagreb Stock Exchange brought together diverse stakeholders to enhance energy efficiency in buildings. Discussions tackled sustainable financing, challenges in renovations, and the need for data transparency and holistic solutions. Plans for future collaboration underscored the event's significance in achieving climate goals.
Events
P2 Green
EVENT
Slovenia
12.06.2024
National Roundtable Session Green Financing – Slowenia
The Institute "Jožef Stefan," Energy Efficiency Centre (JSI), is organizing a national roundtable event in collaboration with the Ministry of the Environment, Climate, and Energy (MOPE). The national roundtable session will bring together key stakeholders from Slovenia, including representatives from the European Commission, ministries, local governments, public and commercial ...
P2 Green
EVENT
Poland
21.05.2024
National Round Table Session for thermodernisation – Poland
Join us for this year's Climate Neutrality Conference, where we'll delve into the critical topics shaping our journey towards climate neutrality in cities. Our focus will be on: Effective use of EU funds Energy transformation Sustainable solutions in urban transport and construction Readiness of Polish cities to implement ambitious climate goals A highlight of ...
P2 Green
EVENT
Croatia
15.05.2024
2nd Roundtable Session Green Financing – Croatia
The 2nd National Roundtable Session will take place on May 15th at the Hotel Esplanade in Zagreb. The session will focus on financial instruments and standards related to energy efficiency projects. The session will explore the financial gap identified in the national energy and climate plan (NECP), the investments ...
P2 Green
EVENT
Croatia
15.05.2024
2nd Roundtable Session Green Financing – Croatia
The 2nd National Roundtable Session will take place on May 15th at the Hotel Esplanade in Zagreb. The session will focus on financial instruments and standards related to energy efficiency projects. The session will explore the financial gap identified in the national energy and climate plan (NECP), the investments ...
P2 Green
EVENT
Austria
23.04.2024
Renovation roadmaps for public building portfolios – Austria
We are pleased to invite you to the first event in our workshop series ‘Renovation roadmaps for public building portfolios’. We look forward to your participation on 23th of April 2024! The topic of the first event will be further deepened here and experience reports, work steps and special ...
P2 Green
EVENT
Germany
08.03.2024
Launch Conference Germany
First, the work packages and goals of MESTRI-CE were presented in order to explain the three work packages and the rough project direction. In the input presentation by Richard Weller, several key questions of the MESTRI project were mentioned. He did for example explain the problem, that some sustainable best ...
P2 Green
EVENT
Austria
01.02.2024
Launch Conference Austria
On February 1st, the hybrid event "Strategic renovation roadmaps for public building portfolios" took place at Lendhafen in Graz (held in german). The event was intended to provide a platform for exchange on the operation, maintenance and financing of sustainable and climate-neutral buildings, with a focus on refurbishment roadmaps ...
P2 Green
EVENT
Poland
14 - 15.11.2023
Launch Conference Poland
For two days, the 13th edition of the Mazovia Development Forum took place at the Legia Warszawa Conference Center .The organizer of this cyclical event is the Masovian Unit for the Implementation of EU Programs, and the honorary patronage over the event is provided by: the European Commission in ...
P2 Green
EVENT
Italy
26.10.2023
Launch Conference Italy
The MESTRI-CE Launch Conference in Italy took place on 26 October in the city of Bolzano and was organised at the NOI Techpark, home to various public and private research institutes and numerous start-up companies. The event was used to present the main objectives and activities of the MESTRI-CE ...
P2 Green
EVENT
Croatia
18 - 28.09.2023
Launch Conference Croatia
The launch conference in Croatia was held in two parts. The first part took place in the City of Zagreb on 18 September 2023 and was organised primarily for financial experts and project developers since building specialists were engaged through a separate Launch event, Arhibau conference, on 27 September ...
Pilot actions
Outputs
Jointly developed strategy for transition towards climate neutral buildings
Piloting of MESTRI-CE Tools for smart and sustainable management of public and private buildings
Piloting of MESTRI-CE Sustainable Building Methodology for (re)construction of buildings
Established transnational cooperation between project partners
MESTRI-CE Sustainable Building Methodology for (re)construction of buildings
Jointly developed strategy for enhancement of regional building standards in Central Europe countries
Testing of Advisory Hubs for project and policy developers in pilot regions
Advisory Hubs for project and policy developers
Piloting and promotion of MESTRI-CE Green Financing Methodology, Tools and Financing models
Jointly developed strategy for enhancement of innovative green standards, financing models and schemes
MESTRI-CE Green Financing Methodology, Tools and Financing models
- D.3.1.1. Baseline On Financing Models And Instruments Austria
- D.3.1.1. Baseline On Financing Models And Instruments Croatia
- D.3.1.1. Baseline On Financing Models And Instruments Germany
- D.3.1.1. Baseline On Financing Models And Instruments Italy
- D.3.1.1. Baseline On Financing Models And Instruments Poland
- D.3.1.1. Baseline On Financing Models And Instruments Slovenia
Project images
MESTRI-CE
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