From collective to individual decision-making

barriers and opportunities to improve the success rate of the energy retrofits in the Dutch owner-occupied sector

Abstract

The building sector can contribute considerably to reducing global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In the Netherlands, the GHG emissions must be mitigated by 95% by 2050 relative to the 1990 baseline. Various factors, such as low renovation rates cause uncertainties in reaching these targets. The current study aims for investigating the barriers and opportunities regarding the energy efficiency renovations (EER) and programs offered by the cities in the Netherlands. Homeowners encounter individually and collectively different forms of barriers during their journeys of EERs. By collective decision-making, we mean when an individual
homeowner cannot make the final decision on EER by themselves. Homeowners may have to decide together with other homeowners or even tenants in case of living in a multi-family dwelling. The local authorities sometimes offer the energy efficiency programs at neighbourhood levels and the agreement of most households is essential for the continuation of the energy efficiency programs. The literature review, semi-structured interviews and focus groups are conducted with experts from the largest cities in the Netherlands. The focus groups and interviews are used to examine the barriers and opportunities especially at neighbourhood and street levels. Our main initial findings include the barriers of (a) Individual homeowners: difficulties in making them interested to conduct EER, lack of knowledge for the starting point of renovation, additional barriers of following many steps in conducting EERs for the old dwellings;
(b) Homeowner associations: difficulties in reaching agreement by 70% of homeowners, timeconsuming process for agreement, and not well-organised meetings by all the homeowners' associations; (c) Neighbourhood level: cultural diversities, difficulties in finding solutions for different groups of people, etc.