One-stop shops as leverage points for renovation sufficiency

The decarbonisation of existing building stocks increasingly depends on renovation, with one-stop shops (OSS) emerging as prominent delivery models designed to reduce complexity and accelerate uptake. However, prevailing renovation strategies remain dominated by performance-oriented paradigms that prioritise modelled energy performance targets and efficiency ratios, understood in energy use per unit of floor area, while often overlooking absolute energy demand, material use and life-cycle emissions. This paper argues that renovation OSS are not neutral facilitators but decision frameworks that institutionalise specific assumptions about renovation ambition, energy demand and system design at early stages of the renovation process. Drawing on a structured synthesis of literature on OSS models and sufficiency, a conceptual framework is developed that links key sufficiency dimensions, space, material, technical and performance sufficiency, to distinct renovation decision stages. Existing OSS practices tend to favour comprehensive renovation scopes, overestimated demand assumptions and performance maximisation, potentially reinforcing system oversizing and unnecessary material intervention. An alternative of embedding sufficiency principles in early-stage assessment, scenario development, system sizing and evaluation criteria can reorient renovation pathways toward proportional and context-sensitive strategies. OSS can be an institutional leverage point for operationalising sufficiency in renovation governance.

POLICY RELEVANCE

OSSs are driving Europe’s Renovation Wave by turning renovation plans into action. They have evolved from local experiments into structured policy instruments embedded in national renovation strategies and European Union (EU) implementation frameworks. At the same time, sufficiency in building renovations has been recognised within the EU’s 2025 policy framework as a key strategy to reduce emissions, address housing shortages and optimise resource use by making better use of existing buildings rather than constructing new ones. The revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) now requires member states to integrate sufficiency measures into their national building renovation plans. As OSS increasingly shape renovation pathways in practice, their advisory logics and evaluation criteria become critical for translating this mandate into action. Entry points for embedding sufficiency are identified within OSS processes to align renovation delivery with emerging EU policy requirements.