The Power of Co-Creation in the Energy Transition—DART Model in Citizen Energy Communities Projects

Successful energy transformation is interconnected with greater citizenry participation as prosumers. The search for novel solutions to implement the transition to renewable energy that will neutralize the barriers to this process, e.g., the reluctance of citizens to get involved, lack of trust in decision-makers and lack of co-ownership of energy projects, is inevitable as a part of the bottom-up process. Energy communities have vast potential to scale up Renewable Energy projects. Due to the fact that in Poland, establishing citizen energy communities in the cities is not allowed, the key success factor of energy transformation is to engage housing cooperatives and other housing communities in this process. A similar legal framework prevents communities from establishing themselves in the Czech Republic and Hungary. The research problem of this paper is to identify determinants of the co-creation process in Renewable Energy project activation at the housing cooperative level. The aim is to identify key conditions that housing cooperatives should establish in order to successfully undertake Renewable Energy project implementation using a co-creation approach. The literature study shows that the term “co-creation” is not often used in energy transition projects, although many local energy transitions are indeed co-created, unfortunately not in a structured methodical manner. In the research, we apply the DART (Dialogue, Access, Risk, Transparency) model as the framework to conduct the analysis. The study has been carried out using quantitative and qualitative research methods and based on primary and secondary data. Our findings indicate that considering the different areas of the DART model, co-creation was most visible in the area of dialogue-communication between cooperative authorities and its members, while it was least visible in the area of transparency. Based on the results pertaining to the implemented project, the researchers postulate the inclusion of factors beyond the DART model that further shape the co-creation process.

FINANCING OF HOUSING THROUGH REAL ESTATE FUNDS: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LEGAL, TAX AND ACCOUNTING ASPECTS

The article examines the processes of housing construction financing through the mechanism of creating funds for real estate transactions from the standpoint of legal and scientific-theoretical justification. The interrelation of legal, tax, and accounting aspects in the process of housing financing through real estate funds and the impact of the issuance of property certificates as equity instruments on the activities of managers of real estate funds are determined. In the context of providing the housing with financial resources, the dynamics of the index of capital investment in housing construction and the commissioned area of residential real estate as indicators of housing development are analyzed in recent years in Ukraine. It is determined that the current Ukrainian legislation provides five mechanisms of financing of housing construction: construction financing funds, housing cooperatives, real estate funds, mutual investment institutions, issuance of interest-free (target) bonds. However, not all of them are widely used. In the course of the research, it was established that real estate funds are created for the owners of certificates of this fund to receive income from real estate transactions. Certificates of the real estate fund, which the manager issues when creating such a fund, are securities that certify the right of its owner to receive income from investing in real estate transactions and are in their economic essence equity securities. Emphasis is placed on the accounting aspect of such financing as the main source of financial information for managing the activities of the real estate fund. To improve the accounting and analytical support for the management of such a fund, the correspondence of accounts is proposed to reflect the typical business transactions related to the management of the property of the real estate fund. Based on a critical analysis of the current domestic legislation, the tax consequences of the processes of housing construction financing through the mechanism of creating funds for real estate transactions are substantiated. Keywords: financing, housing construction, real estate fund, objects of accounting, taxation. JEL Classification G23, H25, L74, M41, R21 Formulas: 0; fig.: 2; tabl.: 1; bibl.: 22.

The Degree of Dissemination of the Idea of Sustainable Development in Polish Housing Cooperatives in the Light of Empirical Research

The cooperative movement was, in a way, the forerunner of the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR), which is due to the fact that they operate on the basis of cooperative values such as democracy, equality, solidarity, membership and social responsibility, concern for the local community. An integral part of the implementation of corporate social responsibility is the publication of sustainability reports which are currently not published by Polish housing cooperatives. The aim of this article has been defined as the identification and assessment of the idea of sustainable development implemented on the basis of General Standard Disclosures and Specific Standard Disclosures indicators presented in the reporting of housing cooperatives compliant with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G4 Guidelines on Sustainability Reporting. The research used the method of literature analysis and the method of observation, as well as a comparative analysis of the information disclosures presented by the housing cooperatives studied. The obtained research results confirmed the cognitive value of non-financial reports and disclosures of information on websites in the assessment of the implementation of the sustainable development strategy. The findings have signaled the need to disseminate the idea of CSR reports among housing cooperatives and to make their preparation mandatory.

The Building as a Home: Housing Cooperatives in Barcelona

The recent growth of cooperative housing in Spain questions existing design standards and regulations as well as cultural norms of ownership, management and current housing typologies. This paper analyzes the design opportunities and challenges emerging from this. It studies the transformative capacity of housing cooperatives and how the realization of new social, spatial and economic demands is restricted by regulatory and administrative frameworks that limit collective ownership and use. Based on a case study analysis of recent projects in Barcelona, the paper discusses how regulations condition housing design, but also why changing ideas of ownership, household and dwelling structures require a review of how regulations are formulated and implemented. It examines this in the context of designing with housing cooperatives and their ethos defined by engagement in and responsibility for all decision-making processes and self-management. In cooperative housing, architecture is a process, not a product, one that extends beyond the completion of a building. This gives credibility to the claim of cooperative housing not just as a grassroots response to housing failures, but also as a political project of democratization and social transformation.

Vivienda social: necesidades comunes, caminos comunes y dificultades comunes. La experiencia uruguaya.

This paper attempts to describe a particularly successful model of social production of habitat, that of Uruguayan housing cooperatives, which has already been developed for more than half a century, linking it with the conclusions of studies on the management of common goods by the people own selves by the Elinor Ostrom. Uruguayan housing cooperative´s characteristics and central aspects are analysed. Main singularities of the system are self-management, direct involvement of future users throughout their work or savings, and collective ownership of the houses, granting the right to use and enjoy to households. Subsequently, it is made a brief presentation of Ostrom’s work on commons and the Uruguayan cooperative model is taken up considering these concepts. This paper concludes that this social housing model would have great potential if had the support of the governments, currently oriented to free market, throughout development of an adequate legal framework, public funding, and access to land.

State Housing Policy: European Funding Practices and Realities of Ukraine

The problem of citizen housing providing as a key prerequisite for sustainable development of Ukrainian cities has become especially relevant in the last decade, given a number of factors and objective circumstances. Such circumstances include both the global trend of urbanization and the challenges of today, which are the result of military aggression in the east of the country and the COVID-19 pandemic. All this raises the question of the need to intensify the state housing policy and finding non-standard models and additional reserves and funding sources for housing construction in Ukraine. The authors analysed the main approaches of European countries in the field of social housing. The existence of national peculiarities of the implementation of the state housing policy has been established, as well as the common features of the relevant public service provision by the governments of the EU member states to their citizens have been determined. The authors found that European countries, as a result of a long evolutionary path of development, mostly rely on the model of social housing sector support, which provides subsidies to both the developer during the construction of such housing and the citizens who find themselves in difficult circumstances. At the same time, social housing for the needy is not sold, but rented on preferential terms. The authors of the article on the basis of the Ukraine legislation analysis, according to the results of the proposed funding schemes effect assessment of social housing construction identified the main areas of optimization and further research. It is clearly illustrated that one of the ways to ensure the availability of such housing for those who need it is to reduce the cost of construction through the use of tax privilege for housing cooperatives, the benefits of small business taxation preferences and innovative methods of combining original organizational legal forms of doing business in combination with the use of modern financial instruments, such as derivatives.

Housing Question for Scholars: From a Communal House to a Cooperative

This article examines the transition from the principle of abolishing the way of life structured around the individual (communal house) to socially stratified comfortable housing (a cooperative) in the second half of the 1920s and mid-1930s. Traditionally, housing cooperatives are interpreted as an instrument of proletarian social stratification. The author studies industrial housing cooperatives of scholars, characterising the specifics of their interaction with the local authorities, clarifying their social composition, and reconstructing the peculiarities underlying the functioning and financial discipline. Using the documentation of the State Archives of the Russian Federation, the author explores the history of several Moscow, Leningrad, and regional scholarly cooperatives. Also, the author separately considers the project of the House for academic staff in Omsk illustrating the publication with an architectural drawing of a typical layout of elite accommodation. The author concludes that a short period of housing cooperation, which unfolded during the first five-year plan, could contribute to the strengthening of social stratification (scholars were taken out of the framework of general civil norms for housing), stratification within the academic community (financially successful categories of scholars were singled out), reducing the severity of the housing problem in the provinces (due to the resettlement of visiting specialists). On the other hand, the brief period cannot be considered successful due to the instability of cooperatives for researchers in the system of working housing, the small number of cooperatives and efforts to increase their administrative enlargement, the vagueness of the boundaries between municipal and cooperative housing, and, finally, the financial burden of cooperatives for scholars (with high state credit costs).