As part of the upcoming European Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW) 2025, the oPEN Lab project will participate in two sessions focused on enabling the transition to Positive Energy Neighbourhoods (PENs). These sessions aim to bring together city representatives, researchers, policymakers, and innovators to share insights and strategies for building climate-neutral and socially inclusive urban environments.
Session 1: “Breaking free from the pilot trap: scaling clean energy solutions in cities“
Date & Time: 12 June 2025 | 14:00–15:30 CET
Location: Hybrid (On-site in Brussels and Online)
Direct Link to Session: click here
Session overview:
Four EU cities present first-hand experiences scaling local energy innovations out of the ‘pilot trap’ of perpetual subsidies. A panel will then identify principles for replicating these methods.
Speakers:
- Magnus Agerström, Manager, Cleantech Scandinavia
- Daisy Visser, Innovative Economy Project Manager, City of Rotterdam
- Søren Winther Lundby, Energy & Climate Project Manager, City of Aarhus
- Pieter Bosmans, Senior Researcher & Project Manager, VITO
- Leyre Iriarte Oyaga, Project and Strategy Officer, City of Pamplona
- Moderated by Dominic Stephen, Local Energy Financing Consultant, Bax Innovation
Session 2: “The missing piece: how sufficiency complements EU energy goals“
Date & Time: 12 June 2025 | 16:00–17:30 CET
Location: Hybrid (On-site in Brussels and Online)
Direct Link to Session: click here
Session overview:
Explore how understanding and applying sufficiency can empower communities, curtail energy demand, and help the EU meet its climate goals of achieving neutrality by 2050. This session aims to inform participants about the importance of understanding sufficiency as a systemic concept, illustrate how sufficiency integrates with energy efficiency and renewable energy targets, and inspire through real-life project examples of sufficiency implementation. Additionally, it will guide policymakers on scaling up sufficiency and embedding it in EU-wide policies to promote broader adoption across member states. Sufficiency is often misunderstood as only a bottom-up approach focused on behaviour change, yet it encompasses various aspects relevant to energy, buildings, and transport. We will emphasise the need to include sufficiency in implementation of regulatory frameworks like the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) and National Building Renovation Plans (NBRPs). By showing how these frameworks can adopt sufficiency, we highlight its role in addressing essential environmental and climatic concerns. When treated as a holistic approach, sufficiency can empower communities, reduce energy poverty, lower overall energy demand, and help the EU meet its climate neutrality targets for 2050. This session will facilitate discussions among policymakers, practitioners, and participants to uncover actionable strategies for integrating sufficiency principles within existing policies, ultimately leading to transformative changes in energy consumption patterns across Europe.
Speakers:
- Emily Bankert, Researcher, Buildings Performance Institute Europe (BPIE)
- Becci Taylor Director, Retrofit at Scale and Housing Business leader, ARUP
- Josefina Lindblom, Senior Policy Officer, Directorate-General for Energy
- Pieter Bosmans, Senior Researcher & Project Manager, VITO
- Zuzana Matlonova, Project Managaer, Habitat for Humanity International – Europe and the Middle East
- Moderated by Agata Meysner, President, Generation Climate Europe (GCE)
Both sessions are open to the public and form part of the wider EUSEW 2025 programme dedicated to advancing the EU’s climate and energy goals.
To learn more about the oPEN Lab initiative, visit: https://interactive.eusew.eu/
