About the DistrictEES project

1. WDW has ensured that more than 19 million euros have been invested. These investments were invested in measures for energy efficiency and sustainable energy production.
2. WDW signed contracts with three different Districts. These are the Overstegen district, the Oranjebuurt district, and Dieren-West district. In total more than 500 homes have been renovated and energetically improved. This involves between 1000 and 2000 residents.
3. The total investments led to a CO2 decrease of 462.960 Kg/y.
4. WDW has been successful in developing a district approach that brings the theoretical approach to a practical approach that leads to execution of measures in energetic renovation. It is seen as a significant initiative within Van Wijnen and could be scaled up nationally to provide district approaches across the country. This brings the climate goals of the Netherlands one big step closer. Because of the district level approach projects and propositions can accelerate. This way districts will get to be gas-free much faster.
5. The Viewer built by WDW makes the work of analysing and making plans for entire city districts much easier and therefore the step from planning to execution will go much faster.
6. Job creation was not a specific topic in the targets of the DistrictEES project but it is nice to announce that an average of 70 fte were (directly) employed in the Overstegen project. And about 10 people with a labour disadvantage worked in the project. This average is our goal to achieve within our other projects. This aim helps the building industry in the growing burden in recruiting technical employees.

Lessons learned

1. Suitable Geographical Focus: The Dutch government’s climate agreement is translated into a district-centric policy aligning with sustainability efforts. More and more parties see that the district is a suitable geographical focus, because of scale and policy. The scale of a district is big enough to make an impact by volume, and small enough to stay manageable. Additionally a district is a recognizable area by geographical and natural bordering and the sense and feel of a neighbourhood. A district is common practice in the Netherlands. The next phase will be to scale up from municipality to district level plans and vice versa. At this moment WDW can show the effectiveness of the District Level Approach.

2. Importance of Data: Comprehensive data on housing conditions and social aspects are vital for developing effective gas-free district strategies. Especially the data of housing associations is important for analysing and developing a plan to make the houses in a district gas-free. These data sets include the energy performance labels, energy consumption, installation and materialisation of the real estate.

3. Online and offline communication is important: With online communication tools we can make the transition to a gas-free district much more tangible for residents. However, tailored solutions and direct communication are still necessary to address individual needs within the district approach.

4. Varied Financing Paces Pose Challenges: There are two main investment paces in a district: This is the slow and small-scale pace of private homeowners and the quicker, large-scale investments by housing associations. The private homeowners tend to invest a small amount of money over a long period of time. And there doesn’t seem to be a predefined long term investment plan. The housing corporation tend to invest a large amount of money in a short period of time based on a long term investment and maintenance plan. This makes forecasting and planning much more predictable. Which is a key element in the District level approach in order to connect and involve other real estate owners. Private home owners are not used to budgeting renovation and maintenance. So the long term planning is non-existent. Therefore activating the renovation needs combined with a financing offer is essential to boost the renovation ambition.

5. There is a difference between analysing and sum-up heat alternatives and really choosing a heat alternative: A real choice must be made and elaborated before measures in energetic renovation can be implemented. It often occurs that there has been made a choice for a heat alternative, but at the same time this choice is still subject to debate and thus put on hold. Because of this debate the effort for making further plans towards implementation are set on hold. This is detrimental for making the step towards implementation. On the other hand, non-regret measures such as isolation are growing in acceptance. because these measures are relatively cheap, easy to execute, effective and don’t stand the risk of divestment in the way.

6. Commercial Objectives Drive Implementation: Van Wijnen’s focus on practical implementation of energy measures enhances the feasibility of district-level sustainability, contrasting with the research focus of academic institutions or consultancy firms. The creating of a practical model would not be possible without EU funding.