52nd Breakfast @ Sustainability's | 24 November 2026, 10:00–12:00 CET | Online (Microsoft Teams)
How can Europe renovate historic buildings to meet climate targets while safeguarding their cultural value and identity? What trade-offs arise between energy efficiency, accessibility, and heritage conservation? How can policy frameworks better support integrated, place-based solutions?
ICLEI Europe and
Europa Nostra join forces for the next edition of ICLEI’s flagship
Breakfast at Sustainability’s series, which will take place online on
24 November 2026 from
10:00-12:00 CET. This policy dialogue will bring together representatives of EU institutions, cultural heritage organisations, energy-efficiency experts and local practitioners to examine how current policy frameworks support - or hinder- the achievement of the dual objective of heritage preservation and climate neutrality at local, regional and European levels.
Confirmed speakers:
Moderator:
Stephania Xydia, Expert in Socio-cultural Transformations, ICLEI Europe
Registrations are now open via
TEAMS
As European cities and regions strive to balance place identity, social cohesion, energy performance and resource efficiency, this event comes at a critical moment to reflect on how policy frameworks can better enable the sustainable transformation of the built environment. Discussions will explore how cultural heritage can serve as a resource to address multiple crises within the broader EU policy landscape including the
Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD),
National Renovation plans, the
New European Bauhaus, the
Culture Compass and the recently published
Joint Declaration "Europe for Culture – Culture for Europe". The discussion will highlight practical challenges faced on the ground - from regulatory constraints to financing and skills gaps - while also identifying opportunities for more integrated, place-based and heritage-sensitive approaches.
This edition is jointly organised by ICLEI Europe and Europa Nostra in the framework of two EU-funded initiatives:
INHERIT, a Horizon Europe project developing integrated solutions for the sustainable, inclusive, resource-efficient and resilient renovation of cultural heritage, and the
European Heritage Hub, a Preparatory Action led by Europa Nostra that brings together key heritage actors and networks across Europe to support the green, digital and social transformation of society. The event will serve as a platform to discuss, validate and refine key policy insights emerging from both initiatives, contributing to the development of a joint Policy Brief with actionable recommendations.
For further information on this event, please contact Stephania Xydia at
stephania.xydia@iclei.org
The INHERIT project
INHERIT is an EU-funded project that addresses the challenges concerning the preservation, restoration, and management of cultural heritage buildings. It aims to foster their environmental and social sustainability while preserving their cultural heritage value.
The overall vision of INHERIT is to develop and demonstrate next-generation solutions to improve historic buildings’ energy and resource consumption, climate resilience, accessibility, and inclusiveness. The project will provide 11 services for the management of such buildings, driven by information and communication technologies (ICTs), and associated with social and behavioural practices.
8 European cultural heritage sites, located in Croatia, France, Greece, Latvia, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and Türkiye, will serve as testbeds for the solutions. The variety of locations and buildings will help verify the scalability and exploitation of INHERIT’s results in different socioeconomic, cultural, and political contexts.
INHERIT’s ambition is to have a strong social impact too: the project will create a capacity-building programme for cultural heritage operators and stakeholders, including citizens.