Renewing and making school buildings more sustainable faster

In addition to the annual emission of 635,000 tons of CO₂, many of the outdated school buildings insufficiently meet the requirements of today's education. Sustainability and renewal are therefore urgently needed. Under the current approach, only about 150 schools are brought up to the desired (sustainability) level each year. To achieve the climate goals for 2030 and 2050, the pace of replacement and transformation must therefore be significantly increased.

Smarter organization and financing of school housing is necessary to meet climate goals

Although solutions and financing options are available on the market, the effort is progressing only slowly. Research (by Invest-NL and third parties) shows that the fragmented approach and funding are the biggest bottlenecks. School boards and municipalities continually have to reinvent the wheel. This leads to long lead times, inefficient processes, little necessity for innovation among market parties, and high (investment) costs. In collaboration with the field and various ministries, Invest-NL, together with substantive expertise from Ruimte-OK and Platform31, is developing a programmatic approach to accelerate the sustainability of school buildings. Thanks to increased efficiency and better financing options, the aim is to make a total of 4,600 schools future-proof between 2024 and 2035 (instead of 1,800 with the current approach).

Standardisation and scale-up as drivers of accelerating the greening of the built environment

Making the energy transition financeable is the top priority for Invest-NL. Developing process and product standards aimed at accelerating, scaling up, and improving the financing of greening plays an important role here. It requires innovation, entrepreneurship, and active involvement from many different parties, including building owners such as school boards, cooperatives, and municipalities, as well as market players offering innovative technical and financial solutions. To accelerate this transition, Invest-NL has already financed and/or made several companies and projects financable.

Learn more about what we do for the energy transition.

Full of innovations in the construction industry aimed at future-proof (re)building

In the Netherlands, the construction industry faces unprecedented challenges. New and established construction companies are therefore actively working with groundbreaking new (construction) technologies and products. Their innovative solutions are often very novel and thus risky. Especially in school construction, where there is complexity in regulations and funding, a lack of (construction) expertise at schools, and the N=1 approach, this hampers the rapid scaling and financing of innovations.