The project aims to support awareness raising among key stakeholders on sustainable ways to mitigate climate change and transition risks in the construction sector. The project envisages the development of skills and competences in the green sector and sustainable building materials. This will be achieved through the introduction of forward-looking and innovative curricula and learning practises that are tailored to the needs of learners and enable sustainable behaviour change in line with the new European approach to construction. 

Raise awareness of the need for key green skills and competences related to the use of building materials and better prepare VET providers to a dapt their training offer to changing skills needs, green and digital transformation and economic cycles. 

The project will modernise VET by integrating green sector provision and promote local, national and transnational sustainable alliances to enable knowledge transfer and joint actions.

Objectives:

• the stakeholders of the ecosystem should reorient their mindsets, operations, business models and capacities towards the environmental friendly trends.
• to create regional, local, national and transnational sustainable building materials’ alliances through facilitating knowledge transfer, stronger cooperation and joint actions between all key stakeholders
• to explore sustainable solutions in building materials as a response to the emerging material and prices crises faced within the sector
• to promote the adoption of sustainable mindsets, behaviours and approaches, for mitigating climate change transition risks of the construction sector
• to develop training activities to build green competences in sustainable decision making in building projects, and in implementing materials strategies that reduce lifecycle carbon emissions, which together will drive down both energy demand and emissions
• to help in modernizing the VET sector to accommodate the aforementioned trends and green sectoral competence needs resulted from the labour market
• to facilitate access to high quality learning opportunities by involving the provision of virtual, digital and blended learning opportunities, fostering the sharing of information, mutual learning and experience from each other
• to enable peer to peer by involving the provision of virtual, digital and blended learning opportunities, fostering the sharing of information, mutual learning and experience from each other.
• to produce a new model of doing business in the construction ecosystem by cultivating sustainable mindsets and enabling the efficient adoption of sustainable tools, approaches, and practices 

Added value:

• to create new generation of key stakeholders who positively contribute to the energy and climate change targets
• to remedy the general lack of awareness on the building materials environmental impact along with sustainable products coming from recycled and secondary raw materials
• to encourage a holistic approach that introduces innovative features and components in all its implementation phases
• to provide innovative training approaches and materials in the novel thematic area of sustainable building materials
• available and accessible free of charge training materials in dynamic e-learning environments
• to create the Building Matters training program, uploaded on the web platform
• to raise awareness and enable behavioural changes and capacity building of all direct and indirect stakeholders, target groups, end users and the general public.

Target group:

• direct beneficiaries/end users of the training programs
  • design team members in the construction industry, contractors of construction/ building works, construction professionals,
  • building designers and design practitioners,
  • construction entrepreneurs, young and women construction entrepreneurs, individual contractors
  • construction professionals
  • procurement professionals & public procurement practitioners
• other beneficiaries
  • VET, training and the educational sector, including researchers / trainers / experts/ training providers, as well as the academia
• key stakeholders
  • key Stakeholders in sustainability-relevant sectors, with first priority those representing the construction and the building sector and then those from the energy efficiency, the environmental and the recycling sector
  • professional associations, chambers of commerce, business representatives in the construction industry
  • building material manufacturers/ suppliers/producers
  • policy and decision makers, institutional actors

Expected impact at local/regional/ national and EU level:

• Contribution to the achievement of the new European Green Deal and the EU Bauhause initiative
• Raised awareness of a growing number of key stakeholders in the construction sector in sustainable decision making in building projects, engaging them with Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) approaches, and with EU key tools stimulating sustainable building material use.
• Raised awareness in carbon, energy and ecological footprint of Building Materials and environmental aspects of building materials, in order to mobilise the construction industry to sustainable solutions.
• Developed sustainability competences of VET learners and support the planned approaches of the participating organisations regarding environmental sustainability, in line with the New European Bauhaus initiative.
• Raised awareness of the general public and potential clients of building projects to change their preferences by choosing sustainable products and materials and therefore adopt green consumption habits and mindsets upon a sustainable pathway.
• Enable behavioural changes by becoming true factors of change towards climate resilient, environmental resource efficient and green economy.
• Awareness raising in EU key tools stimulating sustainable building material use (i.e. Level(s), ECO-Labelling).
• Awareness raising in using novel sustainable building materials, with focus on recycled and secondary raw materials
• Cultivation of the environmental friendly culture and green consciousness
• Increased attractiveness and competitiveness of the construction sector in national and EU level.
• High quality of educational and training practices in Europe and beyond and promotion of construction sector attractiveness with increased opportunities for all
• Increased synergies, links, networking and cooperation in transnational level boosting environmental, sustainability, climate change and energy transition performances.
• Increased capacity to operate at EU/international level and improved transnational cooperation, as well as towards the target groups.
• Increased mobilisation of communities towards a green and climate resilient pathway