SMARTER Finance For Families

Improving the well-being of European citizens by providing opportunities for the financial and construction sectors to create green housing.

Green financing is an important and developing trend aimed at increasing investment in environmentally and socially responsible projects while reducing the financial risk associated with loans for these projects. This concept creates a huge opportunity to positively transform the health and environmental performance, quality, comfort, and financial viability of new and existing homes in Europe.

SMARTER Finance for Families is a European Horizon 2020 project that aims to implement a series of ambitious and practical Green Homes & Green Mortgage programs in 12 European countries, with the participation and collaboration of 17 experts in green building, sustainable energy, research, and other organizations. Organizations from Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Georgia, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Turkey, and Ukraine are participating in this complex project.

The project uses comprehensive certifications for Green Homes to evaluate and recognize top-performing residential projects that incorporate sustainable construction principles. Evidence from financial and technical modeling has shown that investments in energy efficiency and other green building attributes for homes:

Improves the quality of housing
Reduces the total monthly cost of ownership for the homeowner
Helps increase sales prices for the project developer/investor
Substantially reduce the financial risk for the financial institution offering the mortgage

The existing program includes over 44 projects, representing 10,000 certified or in-process housing units.

“Through the SMARTER Finance for Families project, we bring an innovative and systemic solution to a systemic problem. We are creating significant opportunities for the financial sector and construction to deliver the green performance we need for Europe's citizens and their homes." - Steven Borncamp, Project Director, SMARTER

RELEVANT STAKEHOLDERS

In addition to improving the lives of citizens, the program addresses the needs of residential project developers, financial institutions that offer residential mortgages, institutional investors, and companies that provide services, products, materials, technologies, and other solutions that contribute to the construction and proper functioning of the greenest and high-performance residential projects.

Representatives of national and local governments and associations promoting environmental, energy efficiency, and/or better housing are invited to learn more about how this program facilitates the improvement of building standards. This is relevant both for those in the participating countries and for those interested in learning about bringing this initiative to their internal market.