As part of the R2CITIES training activities, members of the Valladolid demo site team held a workshop on June 21^st entitled "Experiences from the R2CITIES project: what we have learnt from retrofitting the Cuatro de Marzo district"

Join us for two webinars based on the lessons learnt from two of R2CITIES' energy-retrofitted districts

Members of R2CITIES Italian demo team took part in this year’s Genoa Smart Week in November.

In late October, the R2CITIES team met in Kartal, Turkey, for its second-to-last project meeting. As we look ahead to the final months of the project, our attention is on the monitoring of the works. This will allow us to build a picture of the energy savings and the overall sustainability of the endeavours over the last four years.

Many pitfalls lie in wait for the unwitting district renovator. Not only is it crucial to be cost-effective and environmentally sustainable, but you have to involve stakeholders and take on board social aspects too. Many variables. Many wrong turns possible. You therefore need to plan carefully and then adjust your heading throughout the project. Getting your design methodology right and managing your data are therefore key to successful retrofitting. 

On 17 May, Cecilia Sanz of Cartif who is leading R2CITIES attended the annual Impact Workshop that brings together project coordinators and selected partners from the same project calls to share ideas, discuss challenges and assess the real impact of their endeavours

What does it mean to be a smart city? This was the question set for the EU-GUGLE project workshop held in the Basque capital Bilbao on 19 May

R2CITIES - 2 webinars to sidestep the pitfalls of residential district retrofitting - Monday 19 June

For the second time since our project’s inception in 2013, the city of Genoa has hosted a R2CITIES periodic meeting. And again, it was all designed to coincide with the city’s Smart Week – a series of meetings, workshops and debates on energy-related topics at various venues throughout Genoa.

R2CITIES is a proud member of My Smart City District (MSCD), a group of like-minded European Smart Cities projects representing 8 projects, 25 cities across 13 countries. Together, we’re putting on a series of short online seminars – the Lunch Academy – set to take place 11:30-12:15 CET every day of the European Sustainable Energy Week 13-17 June. 

Energy efficient buildings ─ it’s all about mid- to long-term impact. On our environment, on our relationship with our environment, on the way we live, on the way we work.

The fifth edition of the EeB PPP Project Review, published in March 2016, gives an overview of 110 co-funded projects within the Energy-efficient Buildings Public Private Partnership (EeB PPP) under the 7th Framework Programme (FP7) as well as 17 new co-funded projects under the Horizon 2020 programme. The selection criteria means a number of My Smart City District partners feature – as well as being able to discover new resources and expertise. 

After completion of the tender procedure of renovation, construction works have now started at the Nursing Home, one of three demo buildings earmarked under R2CITIES for renovation in Kartal’s Yakacık district. 

Leveraging local business and political ecosystems is a key component of projects like R2CITIES. Without the knock-on effect produced by ongoing engagement with localities, our core aim of replicability would be difficult to reach. Furthermore, the focus of R2CITIES is renovating residential districts, and it is therefore important to ensure these end-users are able to learn about our work and how it will be beneficial in the longer term.

International discussions and frameworks on environmental policy can occasionally seem just as stratospheric as the atmosphere they are trying to protect

The European Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW) took place from 15-19 June and provided the backdrop for the MySmartCityDistrict initiative to hold a series of events dubbed OpenHouse from across four member projects - R2CITIES, ZenN, EU-GUGLE and CITyFiED. 

Valladolid-based Fundación CARTIF played host to the R2CITIES consortium on 21-22 May when the project’s 4^th periodic meeting was held. 

January saw the R2CITIES consortium convene in Kartal, Turkey, for its 3^rd periodic meeting. It was the opportunity to engage all the partners in four key work sessions on integrated project delivery, lifecycle analysis and costing, refinement of district sustainability indicators, and the ICT platform for information management.

The R2CITIES consortium convened in Kartal for its 3rd periodic meeting welcome by the Mayor, Dr. Altınok Öz. The visit to the demo site in the Yakacık district, an exploitation workshop and four parallel work sessions turned the meeting into a very interactive occasion for the partners to stock of the project’s progress and lay the basis for future milestones.

This progress meeting, led by coordinator Rubén García from Fundación CARTIF, and hosted by Genoa Municipality, marked the end of the first year of R2CITIES.

Between 16 and 20 June, R2CITIES partner, Genoa Municipality played host to over ten events, not including several satellite events, designed to pave the way forward for green urban policy

R2CITIES partner, Genoa Municipality, is gearing up to stage its Smart Week from 16 to 20 June this year. The week’s agenda will feature a series of high-level events bringing together experts, stakeholders, and authorities from across Europe.

As project coordinator, Rubén García from Fundación CARTIF, represented R2CITIES at the European Commission’s 4th EeB PPP impact workshop in Brussels on 1-2 April. Margherita Scotto from R2CITIES partner D’Appolonia was also present.

Three projects, EU-GUGLE, R2CITIES and ZenN, involving 15 municipalities have decided to join forces for greater leverage in sharing and promoting energy efficient renovation solutions for cities and communities EU-wide. 

The R2CITIES Consortium met for three days at the premises of partner Acciona in Madrid to assess achievements to date and plan the coming project period. 

More than 300 stakeholders attended the Action Clusters Kick-off Event of the Marketplace of the European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities (EIP-SCC) in Brussels.

One of Europe’s flagship initiatives for building and district energy efficiency innovation, CONCERTO, held its final conference on 22 and 23 October in Brussels. 

The aim is to achieve a nearly zero energy city. Turkish stakeholders part of a project consortium at the cutting edge of energy efficiency

A project at the cutting edge of energy efficiency in the built and district environment. Coordinator Fundación CARTIF hosts the first meeting in Valladolid with the 16 partners of this project which is co-funded by the EU.