As a member of the HORIS advisory board and Director of the Spanish National Confederation of Installers (CNI), Blanca Gómez García-Verdugo shares her insights on making the home renovation journey easier for consumers and the role that one-stop shops like HORIS can have.
What is your role in CNI and what are the topics you deal with?
As Director General of CNI, the Spanish National Confederation of Installers, I lead the organisation’s strategic, technical, and institutional representation at both national and European levels. CNI brings together and represents installation companies operating in HVAC, refrigeration, plumbing, electricity, and fire protection across residential, industrial, commercial, and service sectors.
My responsibilities include:
- Strategic leadership and advocacy: Representing CNI before Spanish ministries, public authorities, and European institutions, particularly in the transposition and implementation of EU directives on energy efficiency, sustainability, and refrigerants.
- Sector coordination: Ensuring that our member companies – from microenterprises to SMEs – have access to up-to-date technical, regulatory, and market information to deliver high-quality, compliant, and sustainable installations.
- European cooperation: Acting as CNI’s representative within European trade associations and stakeholder groups, building partnerships to influence policy, share best practices, and align national initiatives with EU climate and energy goals.
- Innovation and training promotion: Supporting the uptake of emerging technologies, digitalisation, and skills development in the installation sector, enabling companies to adapt to evolving market demands and regulatory frameworks.
Through this role, I ensure that the voice of Spanish installers is heard and considered in policy-making processes, while fostering collaboration and innovation to strengthen the sector’s competitiveness and environmental contribution across Europe.
You agreed to join the project as an Advisory Board member, can you tell us why? Where does the project work connect with yours?
As the Spanish National Confederation of Installers (CNI), we represent installation companies working in HVAC, refrigeration, plumbing, electricity, and fire protection across the residential, commercial, industrial, and services sectors.
We agreed to join HORIS as Advisory Board members because the project directly addresses a key challenge we face every day: empowering the end user to make informed decisions about energy renovation. In our view, the homeowner or building owner is the ultimate decision-maker — if they don’t have clear, independent, and trustworthy information, the renovation simply doesn’t happen.
HORIS connects perfectly with our mission by:
- Providing accessible technical, financial, and legal information in a way that homeowners can understand and act upon.
- Helping them identify qualified, up-to-date installation professionals, which ensures compliance with legislation, safety standards, and sustainability targets.
- Building trust between the demand side (users) and the supply side (installers), which is essential for increasing the renovation rate in Spain and across Europe.
For us, the value of HORIS lies in bridging the gap between motivation and action — turning interest in energy renovation into real projects carried out by competent professionals. That is exactly where our work as CNI and the goals of HORIS meet.
In the recent years, we’ve seen various formats of OSSs, especially in Spain where some of the first projects developing OSSs were launched (Opengela, etc.). What is your view on this development?
In Spain, we have seen an increasing number of One-Stop-Shop (OSS) initiatives over the past years, from early pilots like Opengela to more recent digital platforms. This is a very positive development because it reflects a growing recognition that the renovation journey needs to be made easier for the end user.
However, our experience shows that the effectiveness of an OSS depends on two critical factors:
- Clarity and independence of the information provided — homeowners need to feel they can trust the advice without fear of hidden commercial interests.
- Strong links with qualified professionals — the OSS must not only inform but also connect users with competent, up-to-date installers who can deliver the promised results in line with regulations and energy efficiency standards.
In our view, the next step for OSSs in Spain is to ensure they are permanently maintained, widely known, and integrated into national renovation strategies, so they become a natural reference point for citizens considering energy renovation. This continuity is essential to build trust and ensure that the investment in setting them up translates into long-term impact.
HORIS platforms are hosted on consumer organisations’ websites. For us, it’s a token of trust brought to the users, what do you think about this approach?
Yes, we agree that hosting HORIS platforms on consumer organisations’ websites — in Spain’s case, OCU — is indeed a strong signal of trust for the end user. Consumer organisations have a recognised role in defending citizens’ interests and are perceived as independent and reliable sources of information.
That said, in Spain we face a particular cultural challenge: our tradition of low associationism and a reactive rather than preventive approach. Many homeowners only seek advice or take action once a problem has already appeared, and are less inclined to maintain their equipment proactively to avoid breakdowns.
This makes it even more valuable that HORIS is positioned within a trusted, well-known organisation like OCU — it increases the chances that users will consult the platform early, and ideally, shift towards a more preventive and planned approach to building renovation and maintenance.
• CNI represents installation companies in Spain encompassing heating, air conditioning, refrigeration, ventilation, plumbing, electricity, and fire protection. Many of those professionals are integrated in the HORIS platform, how do you perceive this tool for the professionals you represent? did you already receive feedback from your members?
It is still a bit early to gather concrete feedback from our members, as the HORIS platform has only recently become active. However, we see its potential clearly.
One of the major challenges our sector faces in Spain is the shortage of qualified professionals. Many installation companies are already working at full capacity, and in some cases, they cannot take on additional projects simply because they do not have enough skilled staff available.
For this reason, tools like HORIS can be especially valuable in certain geographical areas or specific fields of activity — helping to better match demand with available, qualified professionals, and to ensure that homeowners connect with trusted installers who can deliver quality work in compliance with regulations and standards.
We look forward to monitoring how the platform develops and to collecting feedback from our members as more users engage with it.
What challenges do you perceive in the sector that HORIS – and such tools bringing homeowners and professionals in touch to support renovation – could help solve?
One of the biggest challenges we see is the disconnect between the end user and the European legislation that directly impacts both their homes and the activities of the companies who must adapt to it. Topics such as decarbonisation, indoor air quality, energy consumption, and energy efficiency are central to EU policy, but often remain abstract for homeowners — they do not see how these regulations translate into tangible benefits or obligations for them.
It is therefore essential that this information reaches the end user with absolute guarantees of accuracy and reliability, free from commercial bias or contradictory messages that can create confusion and mistrust. Only clear, consistent, and independent communication can truly empower homeowners to act.
Finally, we must recognise that renovation — especially energy-related renovation — often requires a significant financial investment. That is why guidance throughout the decision-making process and tailored support to find the right financing options are critical. Tools like HORIS can bridge this gap by accompanying the homeowner from awareness to action, ensuring they make informed, confident, and cost-effective choices.
Any other thoughts to share with us?
Yes – I believe there is a structural gap that still needs to be addressed.
First, there is a wall between the numerous EU-funded projects in the energy field and the unstoppable flow of European legislation that affects so many companies. For many of them, the first and most urgent priority is to adapt internally to these legal changes, which often require significant investment and training. Communication and information exchange between these two spheres — funded projects and legislative implementation — does not flow as it should.
Second, the end user remains isolated in this process. When information finally reaches them, it is often too late for them to process it properly and take advantage of available opportunities.
We believe the EU should actively foster stronger alignment between all actors so that we are rowing in the same direction — creating a coherent flow of information from policy to project to end user — and thereby achieving better, faster, and more lasting results.
