The City Hall in Virovitica recently hosted a workshop on building Renovation Roadmaps, held on July 9, 2025, which emphasized the importance of strategic and long-term planning for energy renovation of public buildings. The workshop gathered public administration officials, local decision makers and energy renovation experts and emphasized the importance of a systematic approach to energy renovation to achieve planned energy savings and full decarbonisation of the building sector by 2050.
Despite numerous renovations carried out in recent years, a comprehensive technical analysis has shown that many renovated buildings still fail to reach their full energy-saving potential. The main reason for this is that the implemented measures were often partial and lacked a long-term strategic plan. It was concluded that even buildings considered “renovated” need further improvements, particularly through the integration of renewable energy sources and modern energy and building management systems.
Regional Energy Agency North (REAN) presented specific Renovation Roadmaps for three public buildings, each including a deep renovation plan structured through a logical sequence of measures, adapted to the investor’s financial capacity across different periods. This approach enables a gradual, yet effective transition towards zero-emission buildings (ZEB).
Renovation Roadmaps for public buildings were developed for two facilities in Virovitica: Vladimir Nazor Primary School and Jan Vlasimsky Music School. Each of these buildings was assigned an individual step-by-step renovation plan that includes reducing thermal losses, improving indoor climate quality, transitioning to high-efficiency systems based on renewable energy sources, and ultimately implementing smart building and energy management systems. Such long-term planning ensures not only significant improvements in energy efficiency but also contributes to achieving the European Union’s climate goals.
These Renovation Roadmaps were developed within the framework of the project OUR-CEE (Overcoming Underperforming Renovation in Central and Eastern Europe), which addresses the challenge of underperforming energy renovations in Central and Eastern Europe. The project is supported by the EUKI (European Climate Initiative) funding programme.
Renovation Roadmaps serve as a practical tool that enables more effective management of the renovation process by ensuring a logical sequence of implementation and alignment with available financial resources. As part of the workshop, participants were also introduced to the potential of applying green and innovative public procurement as key instruments for environmental protection. Green public procurement allows contracting authorities to give preference to products, services, and works with lower environmental impact, greater energy efficiency, and the use of renewable energy sources. On the other hand, innovative public procurement involves the acquisition of new or significantly improved products, services, or works, often not yet widely developed or implemented, that contribute to decarbonisation objectives. In the context of energy renovation, such approaches support the implementation of ambitious measures in a sustainable and cost-effective manner while also fostering market development and raising standards in the construction and energy sectors.
