Bulgaria Workshops

On 13.11.2023, the energy community Izgrei and the Citizen-led renovation initiative jointly organised two workshops on Citizen-led renovation in Sofia, Bulgaria.

The first workshop brought together 12 actors working in the field of energy efficiency, renovation, community energy and sustainable housing. The aim was to strengthen cooperation between different organisations and projects working on energy-efficient renovation and to discuss ideas and perspectives for supporting citizens in carrying out collective energy renovations. The workshops consisted of an "initiative market" and world-café inspired discussion rounds. The workshop generated important ideas on how to initiate collective renovation actions, the importance of communication and financial instruments. A summary of the workshop is available here:

The second workshop was aimed at homeowners and aimed to discuss motivations and barriers to collective renovation efforts, as well as strategies to overcome challenges. It became clear that citizens lack incentives to carry out renovations and that interested citizens start with individual actions rather than initiating renovations of a whole apartment building. Citizens often lack information on how to get started and on funding opportunities.

Over the next months, Izgrei aims to initiative energy-efficient home renovations in a multi-family house.