Author: Merijn

Integrating residents’ heating practices into energy retrofit decision-making: a sufficiency-oriented approach

In the energy retrofit decision-making process, standardized assumptions about thermal comfort overlook the diversity of residents’ heating practices, promoting a one-size-fits-all approach. This can lead to resource-intensive interventions that fail to deliver proportional energy savings, cost-efficiency, and carbon emissions reductions. In our recent publication, co-authored with Carolina Recart, Lenneke Kuijer and Roel Loonen, we integrate residents’ heating practices into the decision-making process to rethink the scale of envelope retrofits through a sufficiency approach. By aligning retrofit strategies with residents’ heating practices, we identified more suitable solutions, such as moderate retrofits or targeted measures, that deliver higher cost-effectiveness and environmental benefits.

Effective and fair renovation in Rotterdam BoTu

In many places across the country, efforts to disconnect enough homes from the gas grid are proving unsuccessful. However, in the Rotterdam neighbourhood of Bospolder Tussendijken (BoTu), plans are on track. That is why part of the Just Prepare research will focus on BoTu for several years. We want to investigate what it takes to achieve goals effectively and whether this can be combined with a fair approach.