The platform on energy renovation of Bordeaux Metropole “Ma Rénov”

By project VIOLET

Published on 04 December 2018

France

About this good practice

One of the objectives of the Bordeaux Metropole (BM) Climate Plan is to renovate 2000 private and 1000 social housing units per year.
To create a critical mass of renovation projects, BM decided to focus on the owner-occupied residential buildings, taking a holistic approach to renovation work and providing financial and technical support to homeowners while coordinating all key stakeholders.
Since January 2017, independent energy advisors help homeowners from the beginning to the end of their renovation project:
– Auto-diagnostic of their energy consumptions through an online tool
– Renovation plan
– Financial plan, help to obtain public financial supports and loans (the national 0% Eco-loan; BM established partnerships with a limited number of banks, official partners of the platform that provide specific “energy renovation loans” with lower interest rates)
– Help with selection of craftsmen: the platform provides a list of craftsmen certified within the national quality certification scheme “RGE” or a quality charter developed by BM. The advisors propose technical solutions and quotes.
– Supervision and post-renovation monitoring.

Main stakeholders are:BM, local craftsmen, banks.
The beneficiaries are homeowners who live in Bordeaux Metropole and want to renovate their houses/apartments, built before 1990:
-If they are interested to take out a loan, they sign a contract with a bank
-They sign a contract with craftsmen
-They pay for renovation works

Resources needed

Launch costs for 2016-2017: 400000 € (included operational and communication costs)
Platform set-up: 1.5 FTE: project manager, technical experts, 2 experts on financial, legal and admin issues
Staff costs:
100 000 €/y for 2 FTE coordinating the platform (in mid-2018: 5 FTE)
17 energy advisors

Evidence of success

Since January ‘17, about 4000 housings are engaged in energy renovation works (these works are still ongoing):
- 520 individual houses
- 40 condominiums, equivalent to 2900 housings
- 300 households who have low or very low incomes and get a special support through the platform. For these housings, the works must enable to achieve min 25% of energy savings.
In the territory, there are 388000 housing units. 42% are individual houses and 58% are condominiums.

Potential for learning or transfer

The platform can be replicated and adapted to different contexts, as it addresses common problems:
-It is a global approach and that is what homeowners need: they receive advice both on technical and financial issues.
-It is a way to control the quality of works in terms of energy efficiency and conservation of architectural aspects.
-The platform promotes local and qualified craftsmen (on top of that, they could have a double expertise: architecture and energy).
-Upfront financing is usually the main problem for homeowners with low to medium incomes; the platform avoids that.
-Thanks to the partnership with some banks, homeowners get advantageous energy renovation loans. These specific offers are a real added value for the territory.
- One specific type of old buildings is already identified on the platform: the typical Bordeaux houses which are called “échoppes”. A video of a renovated one, with an interview of the homeowner and the architect is online.