Upscaling of Community Based Energy Efficiency Retrofitting

ongoing

"This proposal scales the results of the recently concluded SUPER-HEERO project (LC-SC3-EE-9-2018-2019 - Innovative financing for energy efficiency investments) which developed an innovative financing scheme that engaged shoppers, citizens and communities in the EE retrofitting of supermarkets via crowdlending and reward campaigns. This new submission works with a new set of partners to sharpen the model and process, to further ignite the multi-sided platform business model and ecosystem, to gain further traction in the supermarket community and to bring the approach beyond super markets to commercial shopping centers, retailers, schools and energy communities. The core value proposition of SUPER-HEERO is captured in the tag ""#HappyShoppers"" which embodies brand-loyalty, community engagement and social impact. The approach gives communities an additional tool for actioning energy action/transition plans. For project developers - the approach gives the ability to trigger new projects, activate dormant projects and to attach to planned projects competing on new value delivered and not only on energy savings / lowest price. For crowdvestors, the approach yields direct financial benefit, is a tool for teaching / learning about sustainability and investing and provides a sense of community. While exceptionally promising, the approach is nascent, relatively unknown and fragile. All actors in the ecosystem have to do something new. Capacity building, training, establishing trust, and an increasing number of completed projects are needed to demonstrate to brands and organizations that the approach resonates within communities and to clientele. Attaining critical mass unlocks system efficiencies lowering costs and widening impact. The crowdlending platform and approach is available to any organization and project developer. Scaling SUPER-HEERO is about getting more of them to do it. "