CONCERTO - Steinbeis Europa Zentrum

Role models for energy efficiency in buildings and communities

More than half of the population lives in cities and produces 70 % of all emissions. It is predicted that by 2050, 70 % of us will live in cities. The use of energy is, therefore, an extremely important issue for cities. Sustainable energy use, the use of renewable energies, energy efficiency and the reduction of CO2 emissions are the current challenges if cities and communities want to achieve the ambitious energy and climate targets of the EU by 2020. Its target is to increase both the use of renewable energies and energy efficiency to 20 %.

There are already many research and pilot projects and good examples for applications throughout Europe, for example in Neckarsulm and Ostfildern. These two German cities received support as two of 58 communities in 23 countries within the CONCERTO initiative of the European Commission to achieve energy policy targets in certain city districts.

The focus of CONCERTO Premium was on knowledge transfer, replication as well as the study of good examples of sustainable energy usage, the use of renewable energies and energy efficiency and CO2 reduction. CONCERTO Premium gathered the experiences of the 22 completed CONCERTO projects strategically. Future building and refurbishment measures in public and private buildings are able to use comparable data and take into account not previously known measures during the planning process. Focus lies on the necessary mix of technologies, energy resources and materials. For the effective integration of this knowledge on energy-efficient buildings, experts of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum (SEZ) from research, knowledge transfer and communication strived for the active dialogue with representatives of cities and towns. The SEZ assumed coordination of CONCERTO Premium and made the findings of the initiative widely known.