Sustainable renovation in urban environment: current situation in Finnish case study buildings Mihkel Kiviste Tampere University of Technology Finland mihkel.kiviste@tut.fi Virpi Leivo, Tampere University of Technology, Finland, virpi.leivo@tut.fi Ulla Haverinen-Shaughnessy, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland, ulla.haverinen-shaughnessy@thl.fi Anu Aaltonen, Tampere University of Technology, Finland, anu.aaltonen@tut.fi Dainius Martuzevicius, Kaunas University of Technology, daimart@ktu.lt Summary This paper addresses the collaboration work within EU co-financed project INSULAtE (Improving Energy Efficiency of Housing Stock: Impacts on Indoor Environmental Quality and Public Health in Europe). The main aim of the project is to develop a common protocol for assessment of the impacts of building energy efficiency on indoor environmental quality and health. By employing the assessment protocol it is expected to demonstrate and quantify differences in the situations between before and after renovation. In this paper, only the current (pre-renovation) situation of recruited Finnish case study buildings was described and discussed. In the heating season 2011 - 2012 six multi-apartment buildings (22 apartments) for pre-renovation measurements were recruited in Finland. As a common feature, indoor environmental quality (based on measured indoor temperature, relative humidity, thermal index, particulate matter, and carbon dioxide concentrations) were on the verge of good level in most of the studied Finnish case buildings, which undergo renovation. Therefore it’s quite challenging to keep that l evel also after renovations. Any possible information of the new scheduled renovations in Finnish multi-family buildings is valuable and very welcome. Keywords: Indoor environmental quality, pre-renovation, multi-family buildings. 1. Introduction 1.1 Background of the project This paper addresses the collaboration work within EU Life + co-financed project INSULAtE - Improving Energy Efficiency of Housing Stock: Impacts on Indoor Environmental Quality and Public Health in Europe. INSULAtE is coordinated by the National Institute for Health and Welfare (Finland) and has two partners: Kaunas University of Technology (KTU, Lithuania) and Tampere University of Technology (TUT, Finland). Project objectives are: 1) to develop a common protocol for assessment of the impacts of building energy efficiency (EE) on indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and health; 2) to demonstrate the effects (both positive and negative) of EE on IEQ and health in 2-3 European countries; 3) to develop guidance and support the implementation of the related policies; transnational networking and dissemination of information. The project focuses on assessment of national programs targeting to improve EE of the existing housing stock, such as government supported improvement in thermal insulation, which is seen as a cost-effective EU- wide appropriate and proven EE measure.