What’s behind an energy efficient renovated building? On the 15th of October 2015, @RenovateEurope organised its annual high-level conference #REDay2015, entitled “It’s More than Renovation…”. Sponsored by its partners Knauf Insulation and Eurima, the event emphasised the multiple benefits that deep energy renovation of the existing building stock can deliver in different fields, at different levels and in different countries. The multiple benefits presented at #REDay2015 also resonated on the Twitter wall, where multiple followers did not miss the chance to tweet and retweet about the day. In order of speakers the Twitter World gave a good overview of #REDay2015 speakers and sub-themes.

Few moments before the conference and @RenovateEurope with its 37 partners was ready to give an official start to #REDay2015, as underlined by @Myllis67

The attendees received their packs, as shown by @IngridReumert …

What about the sponsors? They were ready as well! @knaufinsulation with its multi-functional gadget and @eurima with press releases and postcards:

Lights, camera, action! #REDay2015 officially started.

Who better than the Director Campaign  could give an overview of  ? Noone, especially with the support of the MEP :

Time for the first speakers arrived: Jacek Truszczynski from the   knows the current barriers to a more ambitious regulation on energy efficiency; but he also knows the primary focus of the @EUCouncil

Financing for building renovation is needed, because of all the positive returnes it can bring.  ,second speaker of #REDay2015 perfectly expressed the concept of the conference “It’s more than #renovation”. It’s indeed fuel richness, healthy families, warm homes, cleaner air. In two words? It’s the “first fuel”.

Building renovation has multiple benefits and they are real! Vice-Presidents   and Commissioner  , part of  the #REDay2015 video agree.

The opening session was closed, the lectern was moved: time to give the word to the moderator @JamesCrisp who introduced the multiple benefits of building renovation, the six subthemes of #REDay2015, and the speaker presenting It’s Energy Security, Michael Ruehle from @NATO. Energy waste is an issue not only for the civilian side, but also for the military one. Why? @Celine77 tells us something about it:

“Every soldier is an energy manager” because everyone can do his little for energy efficiency improvements: this is the last message from Michael Ruehle, who well explained the returns renovation can give in terms of security. Time to set the spotlight on @daivamatoniene , Acting Vice-Minister for Energy in Lithuania. Good successful projects exist: she gave the Lithuanian example. The involvement of the Lithuanian municipality, good financial models and and direct communication with the residents are the key facts explaining the success of the programme, which indeed permitted to make the heating costs affordable, as @ConstrcA showed:

Just long enough to have a coffee and the @RenovateEurope music brought everyone back into the multiple benefits of #Renovation! Another benefit, another country: turn of Simone Raskob to present the German case of Essen! The incredible success of its mission from grey to green showed the potential the city level can have. Reason why Essen is also the 2017 winner of the Green Capital Award, as @AndreaVoigt2305 reminded us:

It is better not to forget that building renovation means also health and well-being. @AndreaVoigt2305 posed a very good question:

An the answer is Yes! Ian Watson from the @BREGroup told us why presenting the Liverpool Healthy Homes Programme.

When cold homes cost £848m/year , it is really time to renovate buildings (and for doctors to prescribe renovation to their patients)! And when the right financing schemes are put in place, successful building renovations become the reality. It is how the case presented by José Lopez from  becomes a great example to be exported from France to other EU countries. @EBC_SMEs knows why:

 is the first project for energy efficiency financed by the EU Fund for Strategic Investments and, @RenovateEurope hopes, many others will follow. In the mean time, the #REDay2015 approached to an end with the last speaker:

 presented the Urgenda case, which succeded in ordering the Dutch government to to make its CO2 concentration below 450 ppm. What’s better than energy efficiency improvements in buildings to reduce CO2 emissions? Especially when the COP21 is so close…

The #REDay2015 seemed to be arrived to the end. However, before the official closing, the spotlight were on @adrian_joyce giving the conclusions of the day:

What’s missing? @RenovateEurope hopes you didn’t forget to take a picture with the photo boot, as  and  did!

More than 1360 followers, high-level speakers, successful best practices from all over Europe, political support from three Commissioners made #REDay2015 a successful conference on the Twitter wall as well. By tweeting and retweeting out loud the multiple benefits of energy efficient renovation, #REDay2015 helped to raise the awareness on the possible solutions to make the best out of our building stock also in the Twitter World.

Tip for next year: be sure to mark on the @RenovateEurope calendar the day for the #REDay2016!