Our beloved cities are one of the greatest sources of pollution. Despite accounting for less than 2% of the Earth’s surface, urban areas are responsible for more than 60% of greenhouse emissions and its building stock plays a critical role.

The European Green Deal considers positive energy districts and nearly energy-zero buildings a key priority. But investments for such a transformation are high, and experts wonder how socially vulnerable people, who are dependent on affordable housing, can become part of this transformation process.

The project ProLight, which is co-founded by the EU, investigates in six neighbourhoods in Austria, Finland, Italy, Greece, Spain and Portugal on how to bring together both innovative retrofitting technologies, new sustainable business models and the participation of local citizens.

“Our aim is to empower the citizens of our demonstration districts to become active and responsible partners for the necessary low-carbon transition”, says Momir Tabakovic, Coordinator of the ProLight project and Professor at the Viennese University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien. The individual districts have different approaches and will work with community managers, develop digital apps or adapt other participatory activities to improve the energy literacy of its inhabitants. The different sites will share their experiences and inspire each other, so that eventually also other districts and cities will be able to learn and benefit from the outcomes of this research.

Ultimately, the goal of ProLight is to investigate how we can accelerate the implementation of these remodelling measures while ensuring that all relevant socio-economic, environmental and cultural aspects are considered along the way. With this innovative approach, the project hopes to increase the percentage of renewable energy consumed in the housing sector as well as to reduce energy consumption per capita, expecting to save up to 190 GWh annually. “Our long-term goal is to facilitate social housing building stocks of over 1.100 dwellings”, says Tabakovic at the project’s kick-off meeting in Vienna earlier this month.

ProLight has kicked off the last 13 and 14 October in Vienna, and will run for 48 months. 16 partners from 10 European countries are participating in this joint effort. The European Health and Digital Executive Agency of the European Union co-funds this initiative with up to 2,67 Million Euros. The progress of ProLight can be followed on Twitter and LinkedIn, a dedicated website will be launched in January 2023.