Energy Efficient Mortgages Initiative Introduces New Graphic Identity and Revamped Website

Brussels, 28 September 2021 – For immediate release

The Energy Efficient Mortgages Initiative is delighted to reveal its new graphic identity and revamped website, which has been redesigned to better meet the evolving needs of both policymakers and the Initiative’s 120+ current stakeholders. These changes recognise the leading role that the Initiative is playing in Europe in terms of the foundation of an energy efficient mortgage market ecosystem, and the need to scale-up the Initiative’s geographical coverage to maximise its mitigation potential for housing related climate change risks.

Since its inception in 2015, the EEMI has comprised the EeMAP, EeDaPP and EeMMIP projects, and has sought to design a new, integrated, multi-stakeholder ecosystem, bringing together lending institutions, investors, utilities and public authorities to name but a few – focussed on the development of a global market in energy efficient mortgages.

The redesigned website offers a user-friendly experience and features straightforward message. The design summarises the journey undertaken and the progress achieved by the Initiative over recent years, and presents the project’s objectives and benefits in an intuitive way, based on the user profile. The website also features a new centralised Knowledge Hub, which brings together all of the key information on green mortgages and underlying academic studies which have supported the development of the Initiative.

The new logo better reflects the core aspiration of the EEMI to design a multi-stakeholder and integrated macro-prudential framework, mobilising private capital – comprising ESG best practices of the financial sector – enabling borrowers to invest in energy efficient buildings and/or undertake energy saving renovations. In short, to enable the market to offer citizens access to more sustainable housing.

The concept of global ecosystem around green mortgages underlies in the surrounded house, supported by a hand: against a background where the European building stock accounts for 40% of the final energy consumption and where 75% of them are believed to be energy inefficient, funding housing renovations programmes is a powerful economic driver whereas European Recovery Plans are coming into action.

Besides, the EEM Initiative sees itself a social progress engine too, as it gives citizens the direct opportunity to undertake climate change mitigation actions by retrofitting their home, whose process leads to reduced owners’ payment disruption risk and lowered energy bills, and increased property value, bringing stability to the banking sector.

Pioneer in this field, the EEMI has brought together over the years, a skilled and diversified community of experts and academics, bringing forward policy proposals and concrete solutions to address climate-change related issues. The fashionable graphic chart of the Initiative better reflects its aspiration: Funding the hope for a better future.

Luca Bertalot, Energy Efficient Mortgages Initiative Coordinator, declared:

“The Energy Efficient Mortgages Initiative is building a a multi-stakeholder ecosystem gathering 70 lending institutions, 53 supporting organisations and more than 20 public authorities to work side-by-side in the design of new market and regulatory best practices. The new logo and website are reflecting the aspirations and potential of our Initiative to deliver a comprehensive and integrated solution for citizens and financial institutions.”

Contacts:

Luca Bertalot, Energy Efficient Mortgages Initiative Coordinator

E: lbertalot@hypo.org

Tel: +32 2 285 40 35

Notes to the Editor:

About the Energy Efficient Mortgage (EEM) Initiative

The Energy Efficient Mortgages (EEM) Initiative consists of:

• The Energy Efficient Mortgages Action Plan (EeMAP) Initiative

• The Energy Efficiency Data Protocol & Portal (EeDaPP) Initiative

• The Energy Efficient Mortgages Implementation Plan (EeMMIP)

The Energy Efficient Mortgages Action Plan (EeMAP) Initiative – led by the European Mortgage Federation-European Covered Bond Council (EMF-ECBC), Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, RICS, the Europe Regional Network of the World Green Building Council, E.ON and SAFE Goethe University Frankfurt– aims to create an energy efficient mortgage through which homebuyers are incentivised to improve the energy efficiency of their building or acquire an already energy efficient property by way of favourable conditions linked to the mortgage. The cornerstone of the initiative is the assumption that energy efficiency has a risk mitigation effect for banks as a result of the impact on a borrower’s ability to service his/her loan and on the value of the property, a correlation which the EeMAP Initiative will seek to substantiate.

The Energy Efficiency Data Protocol and Portal (EeDaPP) Initiative – led by European Mortgage Federation-European Covered Bond Council (EMF-ECBC), Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, CRIF, European DataWarehouse, Hypoport, SAFE Goethe University Frankfurt and TXS – aims to design and deliver a market-led protocol, which will enable the large-scale recording of data relating to energy efficient mortgage assets, via a standardised reporting template. The data will be accessed by way of a common, centralised portal, allowing for continuous tracking of the performance of the energy efficient mortgage assets, thereby also facilitating the earmarking of such assets for the purposes of energy efficient bond issuance.

The Energy Efficient Mortgages Implementation Plan (EeMMIP) – led by European Mortgage Federation-European Covered Bond Council (EMF-ECBC), Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, CRIF, E.ON, Scottish Government, Autonomous Province of Trento & Copenhagen Economics started in September 2020. The Project is intended to build on efforts so far to deliver an integrated market in energy efficient mortgages and a blueprint for established and emerging markets around the globe. EeMMIP will therefore deliver: (1) an analysis of the current market systems relevant to the development of an EEM market and the establishment of market demonstrators to support the demonstration of the end-to-end customer journey and EEM life-cycle, (2) an EEM Label to support recognition of and confidence in EEM and facilitate access to quality information for market participants, (3) guidance for the inclusion of energy efficiency in credit risk assessments for lending institutions and supervisors and policy recommendations for the prudential framework in line with the principle of risk sensitivity and promote a well-functioning banking market and finally (4) institutional cooperation.