Stimulating investment in building renovation, infrastructure and innovation

Source: JCT600

Chaired by the Commission (DG GROW), the meeting gathered several stakeholders from business associations, universities and research centres. The meeting of the TG broke down into three sessions: “Improving affordability and quality of sustainable renovation”, “Digitalisation and innovation” and “The state of transport infrastructure maintenance and possible levers for improvement”.  For each session, three presentations from different speakers were delivered.

By opening the meeting, the Commission shared its broader vision beyond 2020 built on the “People in the built environment”: a common vision on a better quality of the built environment, and readiness of the construction sector, aimed at reducing the use of resources, improving the quality of life and ensuring more business opportunities. 

The conclusion of the first session stressed that energy saving measures have a limited potential for innovation in buildings. Reconciling affordability, sustainability and profitability in buildings requires a joint effort and a holistic policy approach, with the involvement of regional, national and EU authorities.

The conclusion of the second session pointed out that there is a strong potential for innovation in construction. However, this potential is not tapped by the sector. Although the technology is available (BIM, 3D printing, IoT etc.) the construction sector is still an innovation laggard compared to other sectors and the digital uptake remains slow, due to the moderate innovation pace of SMEs. There is little focus on construction in member states’ policies and no harmonisation of construction policies and evaluation of practices in the EU.  A broader scope of policies that support the diffusion of technologies, learning systems and harmonisation between member states could only be tackled with a holistic approach. Against this background, the Commission should play an important role which goes beyond being a simple platform for coordination and discussion.

The conclusion of the latest session stressed that the only way to reduce the gap between infrastructure maintenance and financial allocation is a proper governance of infrastructure and financial incentives to improve resilience of the infrastructure during its lifetime.