KeepCool: Promoting the Market Penetration of Sustainable Summer Comfort

Recent studies predict a dramatic increase of cooling energy demand in Europe, despite the availableknowledge and technologies of passive cooling. The international project KeepCool addressed thisgap, searching for intelligent ways to promote the market penetration of passive cooling technologiesand a new definition of sustainable summer comfort based on the adaptive comfort model. The projecttailored the available information into a toolkit for building owners, planners and building users. In theeight participating countries, KeepCool explored various marketing strategies to reach these targetgroups. In addition, the project successfully influenced the development of a European norm on indoorthermal environment, and made first attempts to include sustainable summer comfort intonational/regional energy policies. The experience within the eight countries revealed three successfactors for the dissemination: National awareness on energy efficiency, a balanced and flexiblemarketing strategy, and access to already existing networks. In conclusion, KeepCool provided a goodbase for the further market implementation of sustainable summer comfort, which can be used byfuture dissemination-oriented projects in this field.