• It has been included in the Commission Notice C/2025/6438 for its comprehensive neighbourhood and housing support model.

Commission Notice C/2025/6438 from the European Commission, released last December, provides guidance to Member States on how to implement the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) and improve the efficiency of the residential building stock. In this context, the Opengela project is mentioned as an example of inspiring practice. It states that ‘the Opengela pilot project in the Basque Country offers neighbourhoods advice and support on the administrative, technical and financial aspects of energy-related issues, but also on other relevant topics, such as accessibility for people with disabilities’.

In addition to the one-stop shop service, the document states that Opengela has developed ‘an online tool with an energy map of all buildings in the Basque Country’, which provides ‘an integrated framework to support the development of renovation plans, complemented by estimates of the financial implications at multiple levels: national, regional, neighbourhood and individual housing’. This tool also makes it possible to ‘detect needs, including the identification of the least efficient buildings’ and serves as a starting point for each building to determine its energy renovation needs.

The European Commission includes this experience in a section on household advisory practices, recognising Opengela as an inspiring model for other European regions seeking to accelerate the energy renovation of their buildings.

Full document here.

Since September 2023, the European BIRTUOSS project has been developing the Opengela model, created in a previous project (HIROSS4all, funded by the Horizon 2020 programme), which delves deeper into social, economic and environmental aspects. It also explores ways to scale up building renovation to urban regeneration in each neighbourhood.

In fact, in recent years, this model, led by the Basque Government’s Department of Housing and Urban Agenda, has grown to be implemented in 25 neighbourhoods in 21 municipalities in the Basque Country and is enabling the improvement of up to 2,800 homes. And, at the same time as the network of offices is being extended to municipalities throughout the autonomous community, BIRTUOSS is developing a “living lab” in TorreUrizar, in Bilbao, which is being used as a pilot site to experiment with the advances of this European project.

This new video, led by journalist Gonzalo Loza, shows the progress of the works in the neighbourhood and in the homes, as well as the value of the one-stop shop for the neighbourhood. It also features testimonials from a TorreUrizar resident; the head of the neighbourhood’s one-stop shop, Marina Hornazabal; Bilbao City Council’s Councillor for Housing, Yolanda Díez; and the Basque Government’s Director of Neighbourhood Regeneration and Urban Agenda, Ana Telleria.

Together with the Basque Government, the EU-funded project is being promoted by a public-private consortium made up of the Basque Energy Agency (EVE), Bilbao Municipal Housing (VVMM), the Environment (Aclima), Construction (Build:Inn) and Knowledge and Technology (GAIA) clusters, the CAVIAR research group at the University of the Basque Country (EHU), EDE Fundazioa, Ciclica cooperative (specialising in decarbonisation strategies), as well as companies with expertise in financing (GNE Finance), communication (Gabineteseis) and European affairs (Zabala Innovation), and also two European bodies such as Fedarene (European Federation of Agencies and Regions for Energy and Environment) and the Spanish Green Building Council (GBCe).

Great news for Opengela!

Our project appears in the European Commission’s publication ‘Giving LIFE to Europe’s clean energy transition’ and is one of three examples highlighted in the section on ‘One-Stop Shops for Building Renovation’.

The document was launched during the 2nd Round Table of the European Energy Efficiency Financing Coalition, presented by Commissioner Dan Jørgensen.

We are proud to see how our work is contributing to the clean energy transition in Europe!

On Friday, 12 December, as part of the Annual Conference of the Urban Rehabilitation, Renovation and Regeneration Group (3R) organised by AVS and AVS Euskadi, held in Vitoria-Gasteiz, a panel discussion was held on “Innovation projects in the field of urban rehabilitation and regeneration”. Participants included Ana Telleria, director of Neighbourhood Regeneration and Urban Agenda for the Basque Government and leader of the European BIRTUOSS project (operating under the Opengela brand), and Miguel Segovia, Policy Coordinator for GBCE (Green Building Council Spain) and partner in the project.

Telleria emphasised that the central focus of the Opengela programme is neighbourhood offices, designed as local spaces where citizens are supported in making decisions about the renovation of their buildings and surroundings. She highlighted the importance of the Urban Vulnerability Inventory, which will take on even greater prominence as it becomes the basis for future subsidy programmes. Telleria stressed that multi-level governance is essential to address current challenges, based on collaboration between local, regional, national and European administrations, as well as on trust, a comprehensive diagnosis and a non-institutional approach that brings public policies closer to neighbourhoods.

During the Q&A session, Telleria focused on the challenge of integrating all rehabilitation tools into a single coherent system, where the one-stop shop acts as a clear reference point for citizens. A space that offers diverse information, but with a clear and consistent message, facilitating informed decision-making and strengthening neighbourhood and community awareness, which is key to raising awareness, building trust and reducing fears.

On his part, Miguel Segovia highlighted the role of GBCE as an ally for the transformation of the building sector and emphasised its work in developing tools to assess the sustainability of buildings, creating technical solutions and disseminating information through talks, conferences and courses. He also stressed the importance of initiatives such as the EU Peers community, which aims to integrate and support the various agents involved in the renovation process, with more than 75 organisations in Spain and more than 400 in Europe. In this project, GBCE actively contributes to defining the role of the Renovation Agent, promoting renovation offices and influencing public policies and regulatory frameworks, laying the foundations for an increasingly solid sector at national and European level.

Segovia also addressed one of the major challenges facing the sector: how to raise public awareness about renovation. He pointed out the need for a coordinated effort in terms of messaging, connecting with issues that are important to people, such as comfort, health, quality of life, safety and independence, without forgetting resilience in the face of climate change. ‘We need real communication campaigns, with consistent messages shared across the sector,’ he said.

The panel made it clear that innovation in urban regeneration does not depend solely on technical solutions, but also on new forms of governance, communication and citizen engagement, which are fundamental pillars of projects such as Opengela.

Other BIRTUOSS partners also took part in the conference, such as Cíclica (through Ander Bilbao). The programme included a visit to the Zaramaga neighbourhood in Vitoria-Gasteiz, where a neighbourhood office of the Opengela programme is promoting urban regeneration work. Txari Vallejo, architect at Bilbao Municipal Housing, attended the visit.

GAIA and Bilbao Municipal Housing, partners in the European BIRTUOSS project (Opengela), welcomed several representatives from the INBUILT project, coordinated by Université Côte d’Azur and made up of 16 partners, to the TorreUrizar living lab on the 25th of November. This project is developing innovative construction products and systems designed to significantly reduce the carbon footprint of buildings.

The delegation was able to see first-hand how Basque initiatives associated with Opengela are developing a comprehensive neighbourhood regeneration model in line with INBUILT’s vision: systemic, inclusive and people-centred renewal. During the visit, the delegation was shown how the one-stop shop model applied in the Basque Country works, combining technical, social, legal and financial advice and incorporating financial mechanisms such as MAS Opengela to address situations of economic vulnerability and combat energy poverty.

The evolution of the model was also explained through the Bilbao neighbourhood’s living lab, which broadens the scope of the approach by integrating digitalisation, building passports, industrialised solutions, renewable energies and nature-based solutions (NBS), together with governance frameworks that enable structured intervention at neighbourhood level.

The visit to TorreUrizar allowed INBUILT partners to observe how these principles are applied in a real-world setting: a large-scale intervention combining technical innovation, citizen participation and environmental improvements aimed at strengthening neighbourhood well-being. The experience provided valuable insights for the future implementation of the INBUILT project, particularly in areas such as governance, social inclusion and SBN integration.

The event highlighted the synergies between the projects and reinforced Opengela’s role as a benchmark model in Europe for sustainable, inclusive and neighbourhood-based regeneration.

The BIRTUOSS project, led by the Basque Government’s Department of Housing and Urban Agenda, has implemented an urban regeneration model that is already being applied in 25 neighbourhoods in the Basque Country.