The evolution towards sustainable construction is becoming a real challenge for companies in the sector. To deal with this situation, the PROBONO project, financed by the European Horizon 2020 program and in which CARTIF participates, has emerged, whose goal is to convert neighbourhoods and buildings into greener, more sustainable, energy-positive places with zero emissions, establishing and subsequently extending this idea of work to other similar environments.
The ambition of the project, in order to achieve these objectives, is to provide solutions for the different phases of the construction process, through innovations in the design, construction, rehabilitation and operation of both new and existing buildings with the objective in mind to achieve zero emissions and positive energy buildings. All this will be tested and validated in six countries of the European Union through the so-called Living Labs established in each of them.
The Living Labs will be divided into two groups according to their characteristics. One of the groups will have the two large-scale demonstrators, which include the cities of Madrid and Dublin, which cover all the construction phases and have the support of local authorities; instead, the other four Living Labs represent demonstrators on a smaller scale with the promoters being local companies or owners that promote this transition towards green buildings and districts, this second group includes demonstrations in Porto, Brussels, Aarhus and Prague.
Given its extensive experience in the sector, CARTIF will lead the monitoring and evaluation activities of the project’s Living Labs. Among the most outstanding tasks is the definition of the Living Labs Evaluation Framework, the establishment of the monitoring program associated with each one and the evaluation of the impact achieved after the integration of innovative solutions. In addition to this, CARTIF will support the Spanish Living Lab located in Madrid, based on its extensive experience in digitization tools, energy monitoring systems, energy audits, energy simulations, among others.
In order to achieve the objective, PROBONO will provide five enablers for the acceleration of the transition towards green neighbourhoods and buildings related to strategic planning, social commitment and support for innovation, construction and renovation, green energy and digitalization for processes based on data and optimization of resources. Using these enablers in a holistic way and deploying them in the six Living Labs PROBONO will show how technological and social innovations can be applied in the evolution towards sustainable construction. The international PROBONO project will have the participation of 47 partners from 15 different countries, and will last 5 years (2022-2026) to carry out these actions in its six demonstrators.