A new, free multilingual website now helps homeowners in France, Italy, Ireland and Germany choose the right natural insulation for their house, compare real products available in their market, and learn how to renovate alongside their neighbours – in clear, everyday terms and in their own language. The Renovate with Nature Knowledge Hub is now live at naturalbuild.energiesprong.org.
One place for bio-based solutions
Hemp and wood fibre are examples of materials that already exist on the European market. But information about bio-based insulation materials has been scattered, technical and hard to trust. The Renovate with Nature Knowledge Hub brings it all together in one place. Developed by ShiftUp and hosted by the Energiesprong Global Alliance as part of the EU-funded Arec Reno project, the Knowledge Hub includes a catalogue of solutions with 40 ready-to-use products, each with a direct link to the supplier.
Available in four local versions
The Knowledge Hub is organised around the parts of a home people already recognise – roof, facade, floor and windows – rather than by technical categories. From there, a reader moves to a clear material profile and on to a filterable catalogue of integrated building systems. These systems combine multiple building components or functions into a single, coordinated solution – such as prefabricated wall or roof elements. The information is local: each material page shows how mature its supply chain is in a specific country – straw, for example, is “mature” in France, Italy and Germany but “emerging” in Ireland. Versions of the catalogue each showing the products and suppliers relevant to that specific market.
“Many homeowners would like to renovate with natural materials but don’t know where to start. With the knowledge hub, they can see at a glance what suits their home and what is actually available in their country.”
— Florian Bonert, Managing Director of ShiftUp
Focus on collective renovation
Renovation is often cheaper and easier when neighbours act together, and a special Community Initiatives section in the Knowledge Hub shows how. It sets out, in six steps, how a group of residents can move from an idea to installed measures:
- Neighbours show interest, and a local partner brings in a project coordinator.
- The coordinator surveys the buildings, informs the street, and collects non-binding sign-ups.
- Installers are chosen and the work is carried out.
About Arec Reno
The Renovate with Nature Knowledge Hub is developed within project Arec Reno, co-funded by the European Union under the LIFE programme. Arec Reno unites 12 partners across France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Belgium and Ireland to take district-wide home retrofit to the next level — facilitating collective buy-in schemes and improving market conditions for bio-based deep renovation through tools and models that strengthen both supply and demand. Pilot projects in France, Germany, Italy and Ireland will test the approach in real-world conditions.