DwarsDoorSnede Street

From September 2022 to the end of 2023, Duurzaam Duinoord carried out a street approach, aimed at residents of Voltastraat in The Hague. The main goal was to involve residents in the energy transition and find ways to make homes more sustainable.

The approach

Many residents want to make their homes more sustainable. Some get to work themselves, others call in the help of, for example, a contractor or a volunteer energy coach. However, there is also a large group of people who do not know where to start. This individual approach means there is little knowledge exchange and possible price benefits from joint purchasing are missed. With the street approach of the Dwarsdoorsection Street, the energy coaches from The Hague wanted to tackle an entire street in one go, regardless of whether it concerns a purchasing, rental or housing association. This way we can implement small measures in the short term and focus on insulation measures and sustainable energy generation in the long term. Funds and subsidies with which exports could be financed were also examined.

The result

Although we fell far short of our 30% CO2 emissions reduction target, this process provided valuable insights that can be useful in future processes. For example, we discovered that almost 100 residents of a housing association's apartments have no insight into energy consumption and that saving has no influence on the amount of the energy bill. How do you deal with that? We also saw how difficult it is to get private landlords to become more sustainable. Even if you offer to supervise the entire process, from finding contractors to applying for subsidies, the 10 landlords of the 19 apartments did not respond. What steps can you take as a tenant? On the positive side, we also saw that homeowners do want to take steps and that the street approach gave them just that push to actually get started. We also received a lot of positive feedback on the Groen Heiligeman campaign and our presence with our Warm Living Room Car, in which we entered into discussions with residents about opportunities and possibilities to live more comfortably, sustainably and cheaply.

Download the report of this street approach for free below

This project was realized through the CLLD (Community Led Local Development) and was financed by the European Union, applied for through LAG Scheveningen.