PadovaFIT Expanded is a Horizon2020 funded European project for the energy refurbishment of homes. The Municipality of Padua leads a partnership that includes among others the Bocconi University of Milan, the Forum for Sustainable Finance, Sinloc, SOGESCA, the city of Timisoara (Romania), the Climate Alliance and the energy agency of Plovdiv (Bulgaria).
All the actors involved are present in Padua for the first meeting that officially kicks off the project. The deputy mayor Arturo Lorenzoni, who brought the opening greetings to the meeting, underlines: “This new project, which stems from the experience of the previous one PadovaFIT!, places our city among the most active and innovative in Europe in the experimentation of organizational and economic models for the energy refurbishment of private buildings, focusing on the systematic aggregation of demand (owners) and strategic supply chain (the construction sector and suppliers) gathered in a local one-stop shop.”
The Aim
The aim of the project, which takes up and expands the Padova FIT experience achieved by the City of Padova between 2013 and 2017 always on European funding, is to create and then replicate innovative services for energy renovation and refurbishment in the residential sector.
To achieve this goal, a local one-stop-shop will be set up to provide citizens with information, technical assistance, availability of financial support, contractual instruments and monitoring of the savings obtained through the interventions decided.
PadovaFIT Expanded will not directly finance the redevelopment of the buildings but will create a local network to facilitate the implementation of the interventions by creating a pool of companies and proposing financial solutions. These activities will be carried out with the involvement of local stakeholders: builders, condominium administrators, trade associations, lenders.
Environment Councillor Chiara Gallani recalls: "Buildings contribute about 40% of total CO2 emissions. The PadovaFIT Expanded project is therefore a decisive turning point in reducing climate emissions and local pollutants in our city, such as PM10, increasing the resilience of our territories. This brings us closer to meeting the commitments signed with the new Covenant of Mayors and the actions also required by the Po Valley Agreement for improving air quality."