Belgium
The Buildings Performance Institute Europe (BPIE) is a not-for-profit think-tank with a focus on independent analysis and knowledge dissemination, supporting evidence-based policy-making in the field of energy performance in buildings, throughout Europe and beyond. BPIE has a multifaceted approach to achieving efficiency improvements in buildings, and promotes policy support to further improve regulatory measures, financial incentives and market conditions that lead to the construction and retrofit of buildings with a high energy performance. The focus is on ensuring the vigorous implementation of the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) and the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) across EU Member States, as well as to enhance financing of deep energy renovation of the existing buildings. BPIE provides open-source research, analysis, knowledge-sharing and advisory activities to the European Institutions, policy-makers in EU Member States and neighbouring countries, the scientific community as well as private sector stakeholders and the civil society. In Germany, Poland and Romania, BPIE has established country programmes to support the implementation of the EU buildings policies and related efforts to capacity building. In addition, BPIE has a large network of organisations in all European countries with which it collaborates regularly.
Senior Researcher
In the previous six years, Victoria has been researching policies to promote energy efficiency in the residential sector. In 2019 she received a PhD at the Faculty of Architecture and Arts, Hasselt University. Her research focused on evidence-based, behaviourally-informed policies to encourage energy renovation. Using insights from behavioural economics, she analysed the efficacy of the Flemish energy label for dwellings and investigated private homeowners’ decision-making regarding energy renovation. During the postdoc, Victoria worked on the RETAX Project, which aimed at reforming the property tax in Belgium to contribute to energy efficiency and sustainable land use. She has experience collaborating with public agencies and stakeholders in elaborating evidence-based policies; and is advocating for tighter collaboration between policymakers and researchers.
Victoria holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Sustainable Architecture from the Polytechnic University of Turin.
In syn.ikia, Victoria contributes to the development of a methodology for the measurement of multiple benefits of plus energy buildings and neighbourhoods; and a tool to support decision-making of policymakers, investors and developers.
Senior Communications Associate
Margaux is Senior Communications Associate, where she works on a range of outreach campaigns and activities related to EU-funded and BPIE initiatives.
Prior to joining BPIE, Margaux worked as a research and communication assistant at the European Urban Knowledge Network (EUKN), a multilevel governmental network providing expertise on urban issues, based in The Hague. There, she was in charge of organising events, conducting background research and writing articles for the network. Additionally, she was involved in the communication activities of the Urban Agenda for the EU, a multilevel partnership programme supported by the European Commission.
Her previous experience has also taken her to Vietnam, where she spent some months conducting research on the new urban areas in Hanoi and their integration in the built environment.
She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Geography and a Master’s degree in European Studies for Urban and Territorial Development from Lille University. She also had the opportunity to broaden her curriculum by spending a year in Sweden to study sustainable development.
In syn.ikia, Margaux supports the communication activities and writes the project’s newsletter.
Senior Communications Manager
As Senior Communications Manager at BPIE, Caroline develops and deploys BPIE’s long-term communications strategy, and manages communications campaigns across a wide range of projects focusing on the energy performance of buildings. Caroline holds a BA in Political Science and French from the University of Victoria, Canada, and a MSc of Political Science from the Université libre de Bruxelles, where she specialized in institutional evolution in the context of EU electricity market.
In syn.ikia, Caroline will contribute to the deployment of the communications strategy and development of tools and messaging to stakeholders, to ensure maximum impact of syn.ikia results.
Senior Project Manager
As a Senior Project Manager at BPIE, Zsolt leads research projects and policy work on a range of issue areas including sustainable finance, investment decision-making, sustainability assessment, whole life carbon as well as building logbooks and information management. Before joining BPIE, Zsolt was working in the financial and real estate sectors responsible for driving public affairs activity and delivering EU policy in the built environment. Zsolt holds a PhD in Political Theory and MA in International Relations.
In syn.ikia, Zsolt will coordinate the work area dealing with policy matters and the capturing of multiple benefits related to plus energy buildings and neighbourhoods.
Senior Project Manager
Jelena is as a Senior Project Manager who brought to BPIE more than 15 years of global work experience in energy efficiency, renewable energy, electricity & carbon markets, and clean technology fields. Prior to joining BPIE Jelena was with RWE Renewables, where she was working on renewable market development in the US and Asia. Besides working on corporate business development, Jelena’s experiences include advocacy (Transport & Environment), project management (Global CCS Institute); market analytics & strategy development (Refinitiv), as well as policy, technical and market analytics for numerous clients in Europe, United States and Asia such as the California Attorney General’s Office, the World Bank, the Hoover Institution, and many others. In her country of birth, Serbia, Jelena worked with the Alliance to Save Energy, where she implemented the first national energy-efficiency curriculum in schools and worked with local municipalities on energy efficiency improvements in public buildings.
Jelena earned a Master of Public Policy (MPP) and Master of Science (MS) in Energy & Resources degrees at the University of California, Berkeley. There, at the Haas School of Business and the School of Engineering she also specialized at Engineering and Business for Sustainability, and for Management of Technology. At Chuo University in Tokyo, Jelena studied Japanese medieval history, while her bachelor’s in Japanese Language and Culture she earned at University of Belgrade. She is a published author fluent in four languages.
In Syn.ikia Jelena is coordinating and managing the overall work on policy, the WP5.
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