Educational Buildings Campaign

Many schools and universities across Europe are in poor condition – overheating in summer, too cold in winter, and often providing unhealthy and unsafe learning environments for students and teachers. Educational buildings account for 17% of the EU’s non-residential stock, most built between the 1950s and 1980s. Every day, 93.3 million students learn in them. We call on all EU member states to make these buildings the front-runners in achieving a zero-emission building stock by 2050 and to commit to their deep renovation by 2035.

#RenovateEducationSpaces

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Benefits of the Educational Buildings Campaign:

Deep renovation of EU educational buildings is crucial, as good thermal, acoustic, and visual comfort, together with healthy indoor environmental quality, enhances students’ attention, well-being, and development. Find below some key data:

Healthy, more efficient schools for 93.3 million European students

Every 100 ppm reduction in indoor CO₂ is linked to a 0.1–1% drop in illness-related absences.

Better spaces, better learning, better teaching

Improved indoor climate helps students achieve the same results up to two weeks faster each year (3–8% performance gain). Better acoustics can improve student accuracy by over 35%.

Boosting EU business and jobs

Building renovation investments can create up to 30 jobs per €1 million invested.

Lowering energy bills

Renovations can reduce energy use by up to 80% across 2 million buildings.

Our Asks:

Member States are already required under the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) and Minimum Energy Performance Standards in the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) to renovate public and non-residential buildings. Educational buildings, such as schools and universities, offer a key opportunity to lead by example in energy renovation. The Renovate Europe Campaign calls on EU member states to commit to deep energy renovation of all educational buildings by 2035 by:

Including a chapter in their National Building Renovation Plans that is fully dedicated to educational buildings – both public and private.

Committing to bringing all existing educational buildings, through deep renovation, to the highest energy rating (zero-emission standard as defined in the EPBD) in their country by 2035 at the latest.

Encouraging innovative technical approaches that take account of the special nature of educational buildings, allowing them to be renovated during holiday periods so as not to disrupt educational outcomes for pupils and students alike.

Renovate All Educational Buildings by 2035