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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2022) | Viewed by 10657

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Ana Teresa Vaz Ferreira

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Guest Editor

Civil Engineering Department, Polytechnic Instituto of Castelo Branco, 6000-084 Castelo Branco, Portugal
Interests: sustainable constructive; sustainability assessment systems; buildings thermal behavior; accessibility; sustainable rehabilitation

Dr. Pedro Miguel Vaz Ferreira

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Guest Editor

Civil Engineering Department, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK
Interests: new technologies; asset management of geotechnical structures; geoltechnical engineering

Prof. Dr. Marco D’Orazio

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Guest Editor

Department of Construction, Civil Engineering and Architecture (DICEA), Università Politecnica delle Marche, 60131 Ancona, Italy
Interests: new building technologies; sustainable construction and rehabilitation; people behaviour

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The “Long-term strategy from the EU” and the “Renovation wave for Europe” define the highlights for the construction and rehabilitation up to 2050. These documents state the need for rehabilitation to improve the energetic behavior of the built environment, as well as to pursue the need for interior comfort and better conditions to users, toward the decarbonization of the built environment.

To achieve these goals, it is necessary to adopt strategies and interventions based on sustainable construction principles: the use of renewable resources, the adoption of sustainable material and solutions, the respect and efficiency in the use of resources, maintenance, recycling or reuse of elements, and a responsible management of residues and its valorization.

This Special Issue will outline key issues and challenges in the areas above. It is intended to show regional and national reality; difficulties in implementing these policies; and examples of good practices and solutions that address the sustainable construction and rehabilitation focused on building performance and interior comfort (not limited to thermal comfort).

We look for research articles that include but are not limited to the following subjects:

The needs of the built environment, its real performance, and the difficulties for interventions addressing interior comfort;
Knowledge about traditional construction practices and its compatibility with rehabilitation techniques;
Characterization of the built environment;
Improvement of building construction based on a sustainable approach;
The use of sustainable assessment systems to assure the sustainability of interventions.

Prof. Dr. Ana Teresa Vaz Ferreira
Dr. Pedro Miguel Vaz Ferreira
Prof. Marco D’Orazio
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

decarbonization of built environment
sustainable rehabilitation
interior comfort
sustainable construction
building characterization
intervention compatibility

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 90176 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Optimization of Architectural Thermal Envelope Parameters in Modern Single-Family House Typologies in Southeastern Spain to Improve Energy Efficiency in a Dry Mediterranean Climate

by Carlos Pérez-Carramiñana, Ángel Benigno González-Avilés, Antonio Galiano-Garrigós and Andrea Lozoya-Peral

Sustainability 2022, 14(7), 3910; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14073910 - 25 Mar 2022

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2070

Abstract

The increasing regulatory requirements for energy efficiency in Europe imply a significant increase in insulation and solar control of buildings, especially in hot and semi-arid climates with high annual insolation such as the Spanish Mediterranean southeast. The consequences in architectural design to optimize compliance with the new technical and regulatory requirements of nearly zero-energy buildings are high. This paper analyzes the energy performance of a modern single-family house on the Spanish Mediterranean coast. The objective is to determine which design parameters most influence the energy improvement of this case study in order to establish design strategies that can be generalized to other new construction or energy retrofit projects, taking into account the specific characteristics of the warm and semi-arid Mediterranean climate. The scientific novelty of the work is to demonstrate that the design criteria of most modern single-family houses built or rehabilitated in the Spanish Mediterranean in the last decade comply with the energy efficiency requirements of Directive 2010/31/EU but are not specifically adapted and optimized for the special characteristics of the dry Mediterranean climate. This is the case of the house studied in this paper. The methodology used consisted of a systematized study of the main construction and geometric parameters that most influence the thermal calculation of this project: the thermal insulation thickness, thermal transmittance of the glazing, solar control of the glazing, total solar energy transmittance of the glazing with the movable shading device activated, size of glazing and the size of façade overhangs. The results obtained show that the use of mobile solar protection devices in summer, such as awnings or blinds, reduces the cooling need in summer up to 44% and the overall annual energy need (Cooling + Heating) up to 20%. This implementation is more efficient than increasing the thermal insulation of facades and glazing, reducing the size of windows or increasing overhangs. The most optimal solution is the simultaneous modification of several parameters. This reduces both heating need in winter and cooling need in summer, achieving an overall reduction in an annual need of 48%. This multiple solution improves the annual energy performance of the house much more than any solution consisting of modifying a single individual parameter. The results determine trends, explanations and deductions that can be extrapolated to other projects. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Construction and Interior Comfort)

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24 pages, 5591 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Software Tool for a Stochastic Life Cycle Assessment and Costing of Buildings’ Energy Efficiency Measures

by Edoardo Baldoni, Silvia Coderoni, Elisa Di Giuseppe, Marco D’Orazio, Roberto Esposti and Gianluca Maracchini

Sustainability 2021, 13(14), 7975; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13147975 - 16 Jul 2021

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2791

Abstract

This article presents a novel software tool for the assessments of life-cycle environmental impacts and costs, which is aimed to support decision-making in the design phase of retrofit interventions in the building sector. By combining Life Cycle Costing (LCC) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) calculations and functionalities, this tool allows evaluating the long-term trade-offs between economic and environmental performance of investment projects in energy efficiency for buildings, while accounting for uncertainties in input parameters and economic scenarios. A major novelty of the software tool is the stochastic nature of both the LCC and LCA dimensions. The LCA is implemented with Monte-Carlo methods, while the LCC accounts for the probabilistic interdependence of macroeconomic variables over time. The software also includes advanced specific tools for parametrization and sensitivity analysis. Exemplary applications are presented in order to illustrate the novelty and the functionalities of the software tool. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Construction and Interior Comfort)

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22 pages, 3344 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Environmental Product Declarations as Data Source for the Environmental Assessment of Buildings in the Context of Level(s) and DGNB: How Feasible Is Their Adoption?

by Pamela Del Rosario, Elisabetta Palumbo and Marzia Traverso

Sustainability 2021, 13(11), 6143; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13116143 - 29 May 2021

Cited by 29 | Viewed by 4714

Abstract

This study aims to examine the feasibility of using environmental product declarations (EPDs) as a data source for life-cycle assessment (LCA) in two sustainable building assessment schemes–the pilot version of the European framework Level(s) and the German system DGNB (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltiges Bauen). An EPD is a standardized and third-party certified label to communicate product-specific environmental data based on LCA. Some green building rating systems consider it a robust LCA data source and encourage its use over generic data. This work evaluates the environmental profile of the envelope of an office building in the context of level(s) and DGNB adopting EPD as a data source. The results indicate that the EPDs did not cover the mandatory scope of the schemes. Furthermore, there was a lack of EPDs appropriate to the geographical context of the case study, leading to the adoption of EPDs of products from places other than the building site and an overestimation of the environmental impacts of transportation. Moreover, the need for EPDs considering suitable and comprehensive scenarios as well as life-cycle stages beyond the product stage is highlighted. This gap, in fact, hinders the performance of a complete LCA within the analyzed building assessment schemes when relying solely on EPDs as a data source. With this paper, we wish to encourage the further development of EPDs related to the integration of more life-cycle modules and more comprehensive scenarios, considering the direction of the latest amendment of the ISO 15804 for EPDs of construction products. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Construction and Interior Comfort)

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