CESKA RADA PRO SETRNE BUDOVY

Their core work

The Czech Green Building Council is the national industry association for sustainable construction in the Czech Republic, connecting developers, architects, investors, and policymakers around green building standards and practices. Their H2020 participation shows a consistent focus on building renovation — first through cross-sector policy coordination (BUILD UPON) and then through accessible finance mechanisms for households (SMARTER). As a Coordination and Support Action partner, their value is not technical research but mobilisation: they bring the Czech construction ecosystem to the table and translate EU-level green building agenda into Czech market reality. They function as the national node in broader European networks on sustainable buildings, a role held by their identity as the Czech chapter of the World Green Building Council.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their early H2020 engagement (2015–2017), the Czech Green Building Council focused on the policy and governance layer of building renovation — helping define national renovation roadmaps through the BUILD UPON cross-sector network. By 2019–2021, their participation shifted downstream toward the financial and citizen-facing dimension, with SMARTER targeting household-level barriers to renovation investment. This trajectory suggests a maturing strategy: from shaping policy frameworks to enabling real-world implementation through accessible financing.

They are moving from macro-level policy coordination toward practical implementation tools — green mortgages, renovation loans, citizen-facing finance — suggesting future collaborations in sustainable finance, proptech, or housing energy transition would align well with their current direction.

How they like to work

The Czech Green Building Council participates exclusively as a consortium member, never as project coordinator — consistent with their role as a national industry body that brings sector reach rather than research leadership. Despite only two projects, they engaged with 25 partners across 21 countries, indicating they operate within large, pan-European CSA consortia where each national council covers its home market. Their collaboration model is one of geographic representation: they are the Czech voice in European-scale coordination efforts, not a recurring bilateral partner.

Despite a small H2020 footprint of two projects, they engaged with 25 unique consortium partners spanning 21 countries — a wide European network consistent with pan-European CSA projects that recruit one national body per member state. Their reach is broad by design, covering most of the EU, though bilateral ties are unlikely to run deep.

What sets them apart

As the Czech national chapter of the World Green Building Council, they are the single authoritative voice of the sustainable construction industry in the Czech Republic — a position no research institute or consultancy can replicate. For any EU project that needs a credible national presence in the Czech construction sector (developers, architects, facility managers, investors), they are the natural first contact. Their combination of industry membership, policy access, and existing European network connections makes them a high-value CSA partner for projects targeting market transformation in Central Europe.

Highlights from their portfolio

• BUILD UPON
  The larger and earlier of the two projects (EUR 124,656), BUILD UPON was a flagship EU initiative to build cross-sector renovation roadmaps in every member state — placing them at the centre of Czech national renovation strategy development at a critical moment for EU energy policy.
• SMARTER
  Focused on the underserved demand-side problem of renovation finance, SMARTER addressed why households fail to renovate even when they want to — a commercially relevant and practically grounded challenge distinct from purely technical or policy projects.