Good practice:

FEASIBLE- Fostering sustainable living

In the territory of Parma, 40% of the buildings were built between, the 60s and 80s. In order to cut down the CO2 emissions (eq.) coming from the energy sector, the improvement of the energy performance of these buildings is required.
To tackle this problem, the municipality of Parma created a plan to renovate public and private buildings in urban areas. Thanks to the H2020 project FEASIBLE, the municipality set the goal to improve the energy performance of 100 condominiums in its territory.
FEASIBLE set up a comprehensive mechanism to support homeowners to fully use the national subsidies for energy efficiency and renewables (e.g. 110% ecobonus). For this purpose, a One-Stop shop energy info point was created and started its services in October 2020 in Parma. Its services are free. This structure assists citizens in substantially improving the energy efficiency of multifamily buildings through interventions of “deep renovation”. The One-Stop shop assists citizens with consultancy services, communication activities, orientation, consensus building, support for the implementation of energy renovation work.
Among the main beneficiaries, there are not only citizens but also professional orders, such as architects and engineers, that are in contact with the info point personnel to keep updated about laws and bonus technicalities.

The one-stop shop aims at catalyzing 16 million euros investments for energy renovation. Two technicians and four facilitators are currently part of the staff. The overall budget for the personnel is equal to 70.000 euros annually.

After nine months, in June 2021, 41 private buildings (690 apartments) in the city of Parma joined the project by signing a project membership contract declaring their willingness to be assisted by the OSS.
Concerning the public social housing interventions, they were completed in the first months of 2021: 17.400 square meters for a total of 470 beds of the buildings managed by the Parma ASP have been refourbished with an equivalent, global, investment of 2,4 Million of Euro,

Attracting citizens was an initial challenge. Effective communication is necessary to start this type of structure. However, it is hard to define the best communication strategy to attract customers in the short term.

the city of Parma together with its energy and territorial agency (ATES) created a team of facilitators to build consensus among homeowners in condominiums. Facilitators take part in condominium meetings and help home renters or owners to fully evaluate the energy efficiency interventions by analyzing the pros and cons. This activity is particularly necessary for Italy, where energy subsidies are now a complex administrative procedure, and many people are reluctant to consider them due to their complexity.
Additionally, two technicians are able to conduct a preliminary energy performance diagnosis to quickly screen which are buildings eligible for energy subsidies. This can be done also with photos of the common spaces in the building.

This practice is indicated to those who want to create an energy info point addressing big condominiums in their city.