Sika has joined REHLAB, the renovation laboratory launched by Ureka to accelerate the decarbonisation of Spain’s building stock

• REHLAB, launched by Grupo Ureka in collaboration with a network of stakeholders, has been established as a platform that brings together all relevant parties—architects, industry, finance and management—to overcome fragmentation and move towards coordinated and replicable models.
• Experts believe that, beyond the technical aspects, the process requires tackling organisational, financial and social barriers, particularly in decision-making within homeowners’ associations.
• The development of shared solutions, common metrics and tailored financial tools will be essential to driving large-scale energy refurbishment.

Madrid, 23 April 2026. – Sika, alongside an ecosystem of key industry players, has joined REHLAB – Renovation Laboratory, an initiative driven by Grupo Ureka aimed at addressing one of the major challenges currently facing the building sector: the renovation and decarbonisation of over 26 million homes in Spain.

The initiative was recently presented at the Official College of Architects of Madrid (COAM), as part of the conference “Architecture and decarbonisation: the challenge of renovating over 26 million homes and collaborative renovation models”, which brought together architects, industry representatives, financial institutions and sustainability experts to tackle this challenge from a holistic perspective.

REHLAB was established with the aim of becoming a platform for genuine collaboration between the various stakeholders involved in the renovation of the existing building stock: architects, engineering firms, renovation companies, industry, financial institutions, property managers and sectoral organisations. The consortium will include companies such as Sika that wish to be part of this collaborative ecosystem.

Sika wishes to highlight the collaborative approach of this initiative, which addresses a structural need within the sector: to overcome traditional fragmentation and move towards more coordinated, efficient and replicable models.

This was highlighted during the conference held at the COAM by José María Gómez, director of Sika’s Building Envelope division, who emphasised the importance of approaching renovation from a collaborative and interdisciplinary perspective, noting that “renovation is today the concrete response to needs that society can no longer postpone: energy, health, comfort, household finances and urban quality”. He also stressed that the challenge lies not only in incorporating new solutions, but in “connecting the pieces we already have to solve real problems quickly, in a replicable and measurable way”, focusing on the need to generate a common language, integrated solutions and models of collaboration between stakeholders.

REHLAB is conceived as a working environment based on three pillars: community, collaboration and action, where shared solutions can be developed, common metrics established and the implementation of large-scale renovation models accelerated.

A collective response to a structural challenge

The scale of the challenge facing the sector is enormous: the need to transform millions of homes to improve their energy efficiency, reduce emissions and ensure adequate comfort and habitability. Dolores Huerta, director of the Green Building Council Spain (GBCE) and an expert on the European policy framework for sustainable building, believes that, “if we view decarbonisation as an urgent priority, we must regard the regulatory framework as a lever to drive action”. In this regard, Huerta highlights that the new Technical Code for Renovation, currently under review, must help reduce emissions from Spain’s building stock by 55% by 2030 and make it completely carbon-neutral by 2050. “To achieve this, action will need to be taken on the 85 or 90 per cent of buildings that will still be standing by that date and which, at present, are not energy efficient,” she states.

The round table, moderated by Ana Arenas, Sika’s sustainability director, brought together representatives from different sectors — institutional, financial, technical and operational — who provided complementary insights into how to approach this process. Among the participants were Dolores Huerta, Managing Director of GBCE; Rocío Santiago, Commercial Director of Residential Renovation at UCI; Santiago Vela, architect and founder of SVAM Arquitectos; Jorge Gómez, CEO of Grupo Ureka, the driving force behind the initiative; Mariano Corroto, Manager of OTIFA (Integrated Construction Solutions);

Toni Martos, Market Development Manager at Sika; and Pablo Figueruelo, regional director of inmho, which manages more than 5,000 residents’ associations throughout Spain.

Innovation, financing and management: the keys to progress

One of the most significant aspects of the meeting was the identification of the main barriers hindering large-scale renovation, notably the need to adapt financing models, the complexity of decision-making within homeowners’ associations, and the lack of coordination between the various stakeholders involved in the process. Rocío Santiago, commercial director of residential refurbishment at UCI, believes that financial solutions must be tailored to homeowners’ associations. “We need to help the association plan the refurbishment work without relying on a grant or a CAE. We must be specialists in what we’re talking about, how the process is experienced, and how the loan is arranged and repaid by the association.”

The participation of financial institutions, property managers and sustainability experts highlighted the importance of developing new tools and management models to facilitate the implementation of major refurbishment projects. For Pablo Figueruelo, regional director at inmho, “in homeowners’ associations, there is no talk of refurbishment, renovation or decarbonisation… We face many barriers that concern us, such as a lack of information on regulations, the limited training and interest of property managers in building refurbishment, and the lack of funds to carry out energy refurbishment, which is not considered an investment”.

For his part, Jorge Gómez, CEO of Grupo Ureka, believes that successful refurbishment initiatives can be replicated and scaled up to other neighbourhoods or cities. “It’s not about making carbon copies of a project, but rather taking into account that people’s problems are the same and that the initial strategy and methodology are fully transferable.”

Achieving carbon-neutral buildings will be one of the main challenges that all stakeholders in the sector must pursue. This is the view of OTIFA’s manager, Mariano Corroto, “We emit 3.2 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide in Europe in a single year during construction, which rises to 9.1 gigatonnes during the building’s operational phase. We must take all phases into account to achieve carbon neutrality”.

Architect Santiago Vela considers it a priority that refurbishment projects be highly ambitious and that, even at the preliminary design stage, the building to be worked on is thoroughly understood, digital models are created, and a detailed study of the building’s carbon footprint across its entire life cycle is carried out to see how it can be reduced”.

Likewise, the role of innovation in materials and construction systems was highlighted as a key element in improving the efficiency, durability and energy performance of buildings. For Toni Martos, Market Development Manager at Sika, the manufacturer bears a great responsibility, as its actions have a long-term impact. Innovation, although very costly, is absolutely necessary, and even more so in the case of the building envelope.”

Towards a new paradigm in renovation

Through its participation in REHLAB, Sika reinforces its commitment to transforming the construction sector towards more sustainable, collaborative and efficient models. The initiative aims to establish itself as a leading platform for developing solutions that effectively address the renovation of Spain’s building stock.

Collaboration between all stakeholders is emerging as the only way to move towards a more responsible building model that is aligned with society’s current demands.

About SIKA

Sika is a specialty chemicals company with a global leadership position in the development and production of systems and products for bonding, sealing, damping, reinforcing and protecting in the construction and industrial sectors.

The company has subsidiaries in 103 countries worldwide, manufactures in over 400 factories and develops innovative technologies for customers globally. In doing so, it plays a crucial role in transforming the construction and transport industries towards greater environmental sustainability.

Sika employs 33,000 people worldwide and generated sales of €12.376 billion in 2025.