Europe: Knauf Insulation has joined Daikin, Danfoss, Rockwool, Saint-Gobain, Signify and Velux to promote building energy efficiency in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The six companies have signed a memorandum that commits them to work together to encourage cooperation and allocation of ‘personal and financial resources’ on a country level to establish and maintain national associations equipped with the expertise to engage in public debates effectively and the skills to inspire better policies.
Radek Bedrna, Knauf Insulation’s managing director for Eastern Europe and Middle East, said “This memorandum is a powerful commitment to tackle the building and energy challenges facing CEE. It will provide the campaigning initiatives with the needed support to drive the policy changes that will be transformational for building renovation in the region.” He added that the region has five out of seven European Union (EU) countries with the highest gas saving potential arising from insulating residential buildings. Two thirds of the 43.6m homes in single- and multi-family house in the CEE region were reportedly built before 1989 and are energy inefficient.
The companies signed the document at the Central and Eastern European Energy Efficiency Forum (C4E) in late May 2023. The forum, which brought together more than 240 public authority representatives with advocacy groups, non-government organisations (NGO) and private companies, called on policy makers to roll out well-designed subsidy schemes with a long-term outlook.
