Homes4Life

Certification for ageing in place

Homes4Life is a Coordination and Support Action (CSA) which developed a new European certification scheme for age-friendly living environments. The project was run by a multidisciplinary group of nine partners from five EU countries under the coordination of TECNALIA (Spain). The consortium grasped expertise from: – Four research centers and universities: TECNALIA (Spain), TNO (Netherlands), Utrecht University (Netherlands), Universita Politecnica Delle Marche (Italy) – A certification body: Certiveìa (France) and its subsidiary Cerway, operator of the HQE certification in Europe – An SME focused on innovation and technology transfer: R2M Solution (France) – Three European associations representative of key stakeholders (Belgium): ECTP – the European Construction, built environment and energy efficient buildings Technology Platform, AGE Platform Europe – the voice of older persons in Europe, EUROCARERS – the European Association working for informal carers

Our living environments have a tremendous impact on our health and wellbeing. Ensuring their suitability and adaptability to people’s needs and preferences – including when these needs and preferences evolve over time – is one of the most effective approaches to respond to challenges brought to us by Europe’s ageing demographics. However, a huge share of the building stock is not adapted to permit older persons to age in place. Even today’s new constructions are often not prepared to support health and wellbeing over the life course. As a matter of fact, one in eight of Europeans over 65 declare that their house is not comfortably warm during winter. Demand for age-friendly homes exceeds supply by far: a European study estimates to 10 million the demand for age-friendly homes in the upcoming years across the continent. Homes4Life addressed this challenge by contributing to the development of a new European certification scheme. The scheme is based on an inspirational and realistic long-term vision of people’s needs and requirements in a holistic life-course approach and helps develop better living environments integrating construction and digital solutions where this is beneficial.

In Homes4Life, R2M led external communication aspects and addressed the financing / business models dimension of smart living environments for ageing well, in order to support the future Homes4Life certification scheme widespread development and impact.