The Innosprint - how can design thinking help accelerate renovation processes

Surfing the Renovation Wave

The Renovation Wave (as part of the Green Deal of the European Union) aims to renovate 35 million energetically inefficient buildings by 2030. The ambitions are high, and not without reason - the possible positive environmental, economic and social spillovers of renovation go far beyond reducing energy bills and emissions. By renovating the outdated existing building stock, buildings, neighbourhoods, and communities can become more resilient to environmental and economic uncertainties, and the overall quality of life of inhabitants can be improved while providing more opportunities for increasing biodiversity and preserving nature.¹

Estonia has embraced the stated ambitions of the Renovation Wave, with the government approving in 2020 a Long-Term Reconstruction Strategy, aiming at renovating by 2050 all buildings realised before 2000.² The context in which the renovation needs to take place is exceptional, with more than half of Estonia's building stock completed during the Soviet era and beyond its average lifespan. Furthermore, the renovation process is slowed down by various barriers, such as complex bureaucratic procedures, lack of awareness and motivation among residents to initiate renovations, scattered information, the availability of skilled consultants and contractors, and, not least notably, the financial capacity of individuals and housing associations.  

The SOFTacademy project in Tallinn seeks to remove some of these barriers by providing the needed tools, procedures and knowledge to those willing to renovate their buildings. One crucial component of the innovative solution of the project is the streamlining and the acceleration of the renovation process by creating a new municipal service or a 'one-stop-shop' at the city level – the Renovation Accelerator (read more about the other innovative components of the project here).

The Innosprint. How does it work?

What barriers slow down renovation from the citizens' point of view? Why do people not take the initiative to renovate? Where is the information and knowledge gap?

Further, what should this Renovation Accelerator provide—which services would create the greatest value for people who want to renovate their buildings? How should it work, look, and feel?

There were still a lot of questions that needed to be answered quickly to progress with this activity. To open up the discussions on this topic and increase their innovation capacity, the team reverted to a so-called InnoSprint. This methodology works like a pressure cooker for innovation in the public sector. The foundation is the design thinking double diamond, resulting in creating a prototype for a specific problem – in this case, the municipal Renovation Accelerator. The Innosprint is a well-thought-out methodology consisting of preset co-creation exercises and canvases, making design thinking accessible to public authorities all over Estonia, no matter the capacity or the size of the organisation. Therefore, innovation is open up to everybody. The process is facilitated by a so-called 'sherpa’ that guides the participants through the different steps.

The Renovation Accelerator Innosprint took place over five days spread over approximately two months. This process differed from a traditional sprint since all participants were given time between days 1 and 2 to conduct research through interviews and, if possible, other kinds of fieldwork. This important step challenged the participants' thinking and helped them understand the problem from the user's point of view. Further, it allowed time to crystallise and narrow down the formulated topic and goals to what was feasible to solve in the given time.

The participating team, consisting of Kadri Auväärt – SOFTacademy project coordinator, Murel Truu – researcher at Tallinn University of Technology, Airi Andresson - Head of the Green Transition Department at the City of Tallinn, Aare Vabamägi - energy efficiency expert and external consultant, together with external stakeholders from the Ministry of Climate, started the sprint by formulating the main research questions. Step two consisted of conducting interviews with different stakeholders, including citizens, representatives of housing associations, contractors, designers and other experts in the renovation field, gathering as much information as possible from multiple perspectives.

The next step was processing and reflecting on the gathered information to map out the existing challenges and barriers that slow down or block renovation. The proposed Renovation Accelerator should solve or mitigate (some of) these issues.

The findings provided valuable insights to the team. The barriers identified could be clustered under particular themes (information, financial, legal, permitting and competencies) and be coupled to a specific stage in the renovation process, such as considering renovation, deciding to undertake renovation, applying for financial support and permits, and construction works. One surprising finding was that many barriers are encountered in the early stages (deciding to renovate, for example), during which citizens and experts get familiarised with the process and the needed steps. The lack of clustered and precise information and the lack of motivation and awareness of the need for renovation (beyond reducing energy bills) are some of the main barriers to the uptake of renovation in Tallinn.  

This step provided enough information to proceed to the last stage of the Innosprint—solution development and prototyping. For this, the problem was narrowed down even further, and the prototyping focused on creating the components and interface of a comprehensive website that would become the basis of the Renovation Accelerator. One aspect consistently mentioned during the stakeholder interviews was the need for a comprehensive website where information is easy to find.  

Reflection on the Innosprint and its results

'The Innosprint is not the end of the process, but the beginning. It does not provide a ready-made solution; it forces you to start looking for one', mentions Kadri Auväärt. Therefore, managing expectations and knowing what you will get from this process is crucial if you want to engage in an innovation sprint. 'The imposed time limit is very important', Kadri adds. This helps the participants to be critical of what they want to research and achieve at the end of the spint.

'It is important to understand what such an Innosprint is useful for since it is not suitable for all topics and challenges', says Murel Truu. In this situation, the organisation facilitating the process has an essential role in thinking along with the team. Further, the problem needs to be narrowed down to a 'digestible' piece of the problem; otherwise, the discussion will remain too broad. It is crucial to zoom in and out multiple times to identify the focus topic and make it specific enough.

'The Innosprint has provided us with good results and insights into the project', continues Murel. 'It is also fun, and you get to know your colleagues better; it supports team building.' Kadri agrees that this process is essential in improving cooperation between different stakeholders. 'The cooperation with the Climate Ministry on this topic is now closer; we are on the same page and understand the challenges we need to tackle together better.'

The project team will continue to work on the Renovation Accelerator's components, now having a sound basis and a wealth of information for the next steps.

References

¹ European Commission, "Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions: A Renovation Wave for Europe - greening our buildings, creating jobs, improving lives (COM(2020) 662 final), Brussels, 2020.

²Ministry of Climate, Republic of Estonia. “Renovation Wave,” n.d. https://kliimaministeerium.ee/en/renovation-wave.

The author would like to thank Kadri Auväärt (City of Tallinn) and Murel Truu (Tallinn University of Technology) for contributing to this article.

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