Green homes and finance join forces for growth

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The consortium announced the launch of a European centre of excellence to help introduce green home certification throughout Europe, with support for certification bodies, banks, developers, municipalities and the full construction supply chain, as the industry grapples with requirements to decarbonise Europe’s housing stock. To help the finance industry avoid the risk of greenwash and to understand the business case for genuinely green homes, the consortium has also launched tailored green homes training for the finance industry.

Before the conference, Alliance HQE, which has certified over €348bn worth of green homes in France, signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate with the EU LIFE-funded Smarter4EU consortium, which includes green building councils who have certified green homes at scale in countries including Romania, Ireland and Spain, while collaborating with Portuguese and Ukrainian partners to develop new green home certification systems.

Meanwhile green building councils in Poland, Italy, and Bosnia have introduced green home certification in collaboration with the consortium, with other countries set to follow. Project co-ordinator Elena Rastei said the consortium’s work was focused on “Families seeking sustainable homes, businesses investing sustainably and communities building climate resilience,” and emphasized the importance of collaboration and sharing expertise to solve problems and unlock opportunities.

“The collaborative systems we have developed through Smarter Finance for EU aim to help transform the future,” said Rastei. “We have created lasting networks, shared knowledge and organic partnerships that will continue generating impact long after the formal project period ends. Leadership in this context means creating space for expertise to flourish, building bridges between different sectors and sometimes acknowledging that the best solutions emerge from collective intelligence rather than individual vision.”

Smarter4EU is aiming to unlock over €100bn worth of certified green homes across Europe, by aligning green home certification systems to new EU sustainability rules hitting the finance and property sectors.

Policy context

The case for green homes has been transformed by European policy and investor pressure. While in the past the EU buildings policy landscape had tended to focus on the energy use and carbon emissions associated with heating, cooling and lighting buildings, a raft of policy including the EU taxonomy on sustainable economic activities and a 2024 recast of the EU Directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings (EPBD) are widening the net. Keynote speaker and European Greens co-chair Ciarán Cuffe, who was the European Parliament’s rapporteur on the new directive, stressed how the EPBD now requires EU member states to renovate existing buildings en masse – with the ultimate goal of a zero- emission European building stock by 2050.

Cuffe explained how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine added impetus to the argument for decoupling from gas and oil. European-Ukrainian Energy Agency CEO Anastasiia Vereshchynska told delegates that Ukraine was introducing a green home certification system in spite of the country being at war. “Green housing is not just an option,” said Vereshchynska. “It is a practical solution for safe, comfortable and sustainable living in Ukraine. Rotislav Rozsypal of the EU Directorate-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services, and Capital Markets Union (DG FISMA) said the work of Smarter Finance for EU was proving key in helping to ensure housing projects meet the requirements of the EU taxonomy on sustainable economic activities.

Addressing the impact of plans announced by the EU in February under the Omnibus package to simplify sustainability reporting rules for businesses, Rozsypal explained that the commission was working to avoid moving backwards on sustainability while lessening the reporting burden on businesses.

“We would like to keep the ambition while simplifying the rules”, he says. The impact of the omnibus on the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) was discussed in a panel chaired by industry expert Peter Sweatman, including World Green Building Council sustainable finance lead Julie Emmrich; UCI ESG and corporate sustainability expert Pilar Campuzano López; Cairn Homes head of sustainable construction Stephen O’Shea and Enersave Capital managing partner Alex Hedesiu. In spite of the prospect of reduced reporting obligations under the CSRD, O’Shea spoke of Cairn’s commitment to delivering green homes. The leading Irish house builder is currently on site with over 1,750 homes that are set to be certified to the world-renowned Passive House low energy building standard and the Irish Green Building Council’s Home Performance Index green home certification system, while also meeting a biodiversity net gain target. Alex Hedesiu shared details on the Green Homes Accredited Finance Professional training courses developed by Smarter4EU to give the finance industry the tools to profit from the burgeoning green homes sector – and reduce the risk of greenwash. Smarter4EU chair Hanane El Hayek explained how Smarter’s European Centre of Excellence was helping to reduce confusion in a complex industry, while helping support new partners to introduce EU taxonomy-aligned green home certification schemes and tailored finance products across Europe.

For more information on Smarter4EU, including the Green Homes Accredited Finance Professional training courses, visit www.smarterfinance4.eu.