Funded by the European Union’s SWITCH-Asia programme, the SOAP II (Switch Off Air Pollution in Mongolian cities) project ran from 2022 to 2026, helping thousands of Mongolian households cut heating costs, live in warmer homes, and reduce their share of Ulaanbaatar’s winter air pollution.
For many families in Mongolia’s ger areas, winter has long meant cold homes, high heating bills and heavy smog. Simple insulation upgrades and energy-saving fixes have begun to change that, leaving thousands of households warmer while burning less fuel.
Beyond individual homes, SOAP II took a market-wide approach — training installers, expanding green finance, backing insulation businesses, piloting new technologies, and working with government and industry to make retrofitting easier nationwide.
Nearly 200,000 households — almost half of Ulaanbaatar — live in ger areas, according to Mongolia’s National Statistics Office, where heating is one of the city’s biggest sources of winter smog. SOAP II showed that better-insulated homes are among the most effective ways to cut fuel use, ease pollution and lower emissions.
Over four years, the project trained more than 250 insulation brigades, insulated 4,850 detached houses, and helped prevent around 20,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions — laying the groundwork for scaling up energy-efficient housing across Mongolia.
Building a skilled insulation workforce
When SOAP II began, Mongolia had few qualified insulation professionals and no standardized training system for detached-house retrofits. Many households instead tried to solve heating problems with bigger stoves or more fuel, rather than reducing heat loss.
SOAP II built a capacity-development programme to close that gap. More than 250 insulation brigades completed technical training covering insulation techniques, health and safety, waste management, marketing and business development.
Today, those trained professionals deliver standards-compliant insulation work, strengthening Mongolia’s energy-efficiency market and giving construction workers steadier, less seasonal employment.
By participating in the project, I not only learned insulation technology but also gained practical experience and built valuable professional connections. Construction workers now have an opportunity to earn a more stable income that is less dependent on seasonal work – D. Nyamgerel, Insulation Advisor
Empowering households through the “Simple Solutions” campaign
Full home insulation saves substantial energy, but the upfront cost is out of reach for many families. SOAP II’s Simple Solutions Campaign offered a lower-cost alternative: affordable, do-it-yourself insulation measures residents could carry out themselves.
The campaign combined community training, demonstrations, manuals and peer-to-peer learning, teaching residents to spot heat loss and insulate windows, doors, floors, walls, roofs and chimneys with cheap, locally available materials. Trained households then passed on what they learned to neighbours, extending the campaign’s reach.
The project developed 14 low-cost solutions that together can cut household heat loss by up to 16%. In all, 4,481 households adopted energy-saving improvements, and 660 received roof insulation support.
After insulating our windows, chimney and doors, the difference was immediate. Our home became warmer, cleaner and much more comfortable – Resident, Chingeltei District
Demonstrating the future of energy-efficient housing
SOAP II also looked beyond retrofits, building a Nearly Zero Energy Building (nZEB) demonstration house at the Mongolian University of Science and Technology. The house combines high-performance insulation with a heat pump, rooftop solar panels, battery storage and thermal storage to minimise energy demand.
The demonstration house serves as a learning center for homeowners, students, researchers, policymakers, and construction professionals interested in sustainable housing technologies.
During the project, 1,003 visitors toured the facility, and its design has already been replicated once, with a house built in Zavkhan Province using SOAP II’s blueprint.
Testing renewable energy solutions for detached houses
In partnership with private-sector companies (Ureca LLC and Bodi Properties LLC), SOAP II piloted renewable energy systems for detached houses to explore pathways toward low-carbon residential heating. Two fully insulated homes were fitted with rooftop solar panels and heat pumps, and their performance was monitored under Mongolian winter conditions. The pilot confirmed that renewable energy performs far better in well-insulated houses — reinforcing the case for pairing efficiency with clean energy.
Expanding success beyond Ulaanbaatar
Recognizing that air pollution and inefficient housing are challenges across Mongolia, SOAP II expanded its activities to Darkhan-Uul Province, where project approaches were successfully adapted to local conditions.
About 30 insulation brigades were trained and more than 100 households completed insulation upgrades — confirming that SOAP II’s approach can be replicated outside the capital.
To support nationwide scaling, the project produced a Toolbox of technical guidance and best practices for detached-house insulation, now available to local governments and organisations interested in replicating the approach.
SOAP II’s results rest on a broad coalition. The project worked closely with the Ministry of Urban Development, Construction and Housing, the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, the Energy Regulatory Commission, and the governors’ offices of the capital, districts and provinces, and helped establish the “Clean Air” working group.
To make insulation affordable, the project worked with five banks and three non-bank financial institutions to develop green loan products, including loans at 6% annual interest, and trained lender staff through an online course on green financing at dulaalga.mn (here). A study tour to France and Belgium also gave Mongolian policymakers and financiers a firsthand look at European retrofit and financing models.
The project also backed related efforts, including the “Dulaan Baatar” campaign across nine districts of Ulaanbaatar and the Chingeltei District’s “Dulaalya” campaign, which issued energy audit certificates and measured the real-world savings from insulation.
SOAP II’s success rests on many partners. The project received financial support from the European Union’s SWITCH-Asia Programme, Fondation pour le Logement des Défavorisés, the Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action (GAGGA), and the French Development Agency (AFD). The lead implementer GERES and its partners — BEEC (MUST), MNCA, MONES and MGFC — made these results possible through their technical expertise.
Together, these partnerships have laid a strong foundation for scaling up energy-efficient housing retrofits and advancing Mongolia’s green transition.
Watch the video
Learn more about the Project's impact - Download
Related news
