By 2029, the Sonderborg, Denmark area should be 100% carbon neutral. An important step in this major transformation is the energy renovation of social housing association buildings. Housing associations in Sonderborg account for approx. 20% of the total housing stock in the municipality. The EU-funded HAPPI project “Social Housing Association’s Energy Efficiency Process Planning and Investments” increases the energy renovation rate within the social housing sector via an exemplary action bringing together six social housing associations in the Danish municipality of Sonderborg to tackle the complex interplay of non-technological barriers (organizational, legal, financial) through process organization and capacity building leading ultimately to an aggregated 16.1 million Euro investment program for sustainable energy measures in their existing building stock.

DEM (Danish Energy Management) has been awarded the role of energy efficiency and energy management expert. DEM has carried out energy audits in 57 different departments of the six social housing organizations’ building stock, and proposed prioritized energy saving measures, investment needs and savings in terms of energy and costs for the project. A set of tools and standardized procedures has been developed to ensure a smooth project implementation including tools for planning and executing energy optimization, sources of financial support for the execution of energy optimization and training and workshops.

To ensure the sustainability and visibility of energy performance in the Housing Association buildings, procedures for determining baselines, monitoring procedures and performance indicators for the buildings’ energy consumption are developed and automatic data monitoring is established. The project handles use and dissemination of results, and communication and capacity building among building operators and users.

DEM is assessing current Energy Management practices in each of the Housing Associations and developing an Energy Strategy in order to state the management team’s commitment to continuously improve energy efficiency within the organization, comply with requirements, communicate with the public, raise energy awareness and facilitate trainings.
The HAPPI consortium consists of 9 innovative partners – six housing associations (SAB, NAB, DANBO, B42, SØBO and Gråsten), the educational institution EUC Syd, Project Zero and DEM.

SUSTAINABILITY MEASUREMENT