Integrating Digital Tools in One-Stop-Shop Business Models for Climate-Smart Single Family Home Renovation in the European Union

Abstract

The ageing building stock in the European Union (EU) is not adequately equipped to deal with the changing climate, posing a significant challenge for climate change mitigation and adaptation. This has driven governmental institutions and private firms to expediate their renovation efforts; integration of one-stop-shop (OSS) regimes for encouraging higher rates of renovation could stimulate the rate of renovation by up to 6% annually, the aimed rate for the 2030 Renovation Wave by the European Commission. While OSS solutions present a great opportunity for addressing the challenges posed by climate change by allowing older homes to become better prepared through climate-smart retrofitting, these solutions have had mixed results in the past. Given the urgency of the situation as predicted in various scenarios by the IPCC, it is imperative to assess the effectiveness of OSS solutions in accelerating the rate of renovation. This research aims to investigate how digitalisation of aspects of the customer journey of an end user participating in an OSS home renovation platform can lead to overcoming challenges faced by previously implemented instances of it.

To answer this question, first a systematic literature review of previous OSS schemes implemented in Europe, digital tools commonly applied for renovation, and state-of-the-art strategies and models for the purpose of facilitating customer journeys were studied. Through a characterisation of these mechanisms, opportunities for integration of digital tools were identified and suggested for each stage of the customer journey. It was found that through utilisation of technologies such as application programming interfaces (API), for increased access and real-time updating; blockchain infrastructure for information transparency and symmetry, and urban building energy modelling for predictive assessment, some important pitfalls of OSS implementation can be addressed. This study is expected to contribute to the renovation sector, ultimately leading to improving buildings' adaptive capacity, which is critical for the EU's sustainable development objectives going forward.