Throughout the summer, discover the projects of the nominees of the 2016 Convergences  Awards. Energy and environment, employment, health… Discover projects built by innovative partners that contribute to the Zero Exclusion, Zero Carbon, Zero Poverty objective. The Awards ceremony will take place on Wednesday, September the 7th at the City Hall of Paris, during the third and final day of the Convergences World Forum.

Competing for the Convergences Europe Award, the DoReMi project ( Operational Device for Housing Energy Renovation) aims at fighting against energy poverty by offering a powerful multi-stacking solution for the energy renovation of housing.

Why the DoRéMi project?

The building sector engulfs nearly a half of all French energy consumption. The heating of individual homes that were constructed before 1975 alone represents about 10% of all the French energy consumption.

These heating bills lead to a significant fuel poverty (5 million families in France), which is a so-called “social time bomb”. The energy bill for the whole territory, which is up to thousands of euros per person (2000-3000 in average), represents a leak of wealth for the country.

What is the  solution to the problem of fuel poverty?

DoRéMi aims at making the complete and effective renovation of housing accessible to all, by transforming heating bills into installment loans of an equivalent amount of money.

To do so, DoRéMi encourages the creation of craftsmen groupings and is based on:

• An action training on real sites, which allows craftsmen to increase their skills on identification, implementation and cost optimization of their work;

A support for local authorities to take the lead on the thermal renovation in their territories. DoRéMi provides technical and financial simplifications, cost control and quality work for thermal performances.

Project‘s impact

The DORéMI systel makes the realization of complete and successful renovation of homes possible for a wide public, including very modest populations.

The impact of DORéMI is globally to transform fuel bills into local jobs, fight against energy poverty and improving comfort. It creates a very buoyant market (several billion Euros per year) and sustainable work (over 20 years) for craftsmen, with gives a positive effect for the territories and the state in general.

The device also allows structuring craftsmen groups and uphill their skills on energy performance and control of costs, simplification for the houses owners, and more efficient use of funds mobilized for thermal renovation.

The DORéMI system is currently deployed at the French level.

Who are DoRéMi’ partners ?

DORéMi is the result of several highly complementary partnerships:

• A partnership between the NégaWatt Institute, an incubator for energy transition who deploys the project, Enertech, an expert in performing renovation, and Biovallée the pilot territory in the Drôme department;
• A partnership between the NégaWatt Institute and the Foundation for Energy Rexel that has contributed to financing the first replication tool of the device and brought the skills sponsorship via its partner Deloitte;
• A partnership between the NégaWatt Institute and the International Network Ashoka, which has provided strong support, especially with the Schneider Electric Foundation which supports the construction of the deployment plan and its implementation.

Other partnerships were crucial, especially the ones between several French regions (Alsace, Centre, Rhône-Alpes …).

An innovative partnership:

The partnership brings together very different public and private structures (inter-communal structures, thermal experts, energy incubator, community networks and corporate foundations), to remove locks from the full and effective renovation. The innovation lies in co-creation, each partner bringing a part of the solution, and collectively participating in its implementation.

Enertech (O.Sidler) provided its expertise to formulate the initial framework, Biovallée brought its legitimacy and knowledge of local actors, the Institute négaWatt delivered its educational expertise and foresight.