POV | CoachCopro: Key to Energy Renovation Collaboration

Improving energy efficiency is one of the main challenges of the coming years. Residential energy consumption in France accounts for around 30% of total national consumption. Major pitfalls still exist when it comes to supporting energy renovation. The benefits of energy renovation are not immediate, but are felt over time, both economically and in terms of improving health. The involvement of renovation companies varies from one area to another and deserves particular attention. Finally, reassuring co-owners that renovation is possible, even in their own building, however specific and unique it may be, is a priority. Acting effectively on these matters requires tools to support the entire sector and CoachCopro is at the heart of this system.  

CoachCopro is a web platform created by the Paris Climate Agency in 2013 with the support of City of Paris and ADEME, the environment and energy management national agency. The main objective of CoachCopro is to simplify and multiply energy renovation projects in condominium. Initially limited to Paris ‘condominiums, it has grown to become a national service linked to France Renov’, the national platform to connect owners and advisors for energy renovation. Over its years of service, CoachCopro has accumulated resources and knowledge about the retrofit of condominiums and is now making them available to all.

CoachCopro is at the heart of the renovation process. It accompanies co-owners and trustees by raising awareness, informing about regulatory developments, and providing feedback from previous projects. It provides a clear vision for the local authorities of the dynamism of renovation within their region, by compiling figures on renovation projects, their location and the number of associated services and grants. It eases the contact between professionals and condominium to concretize and optimize the success of retrofit projects by publishing the names of partner professionals on the website and promoting exchanges between them.

To have a platform as efficient as CoachCopro, it requires funds. For the French version, this corresponds to an investment of €200,000 followed by €80,000 each subsequent year. The capacities of CoachCopro are based on the use of data, clean and up-to-date data. Identifying the right data, the correct interlocutors are inherent to a good use and dissemination. It also requires time, social connections, and an ongoing monitoring. Last but not least, CoachCopro would not be as effective without the collaboration of its users. This means new ways of working, a lot of time dedicated to training as well as patient and continuous communication at various levels of the supporting structure.

At the time of writing, we are proud to say that we are at the second iteration of this platform. It has evolved and will continue to. This work is not one that is done once and for all. Yet, once done it has proven times and again to be a more than useful tool for accomplishing the missions assigned to it.

Lucas Sittler

The author works at the Paris Climate Agency.