Dear Colleagues,

The new demand deriving from the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda is to build and renovate buildings in an efficient way, reducing energy consumption and waste of resources. For decades, the focus has been on the energy efficiency of buildings during their life, and only lately has the role of embedded energy, linked to the production, transport, use, and end-of-life of materials, received global attention. In this context, it is essential to construct buildings, or improve existing ones, to implement energy efficiency but at the same time ensure that they have the least possible environmental impact throughout their life cycle and also in construction site activities.

These objectives can be achieved by increasing renewables, using intelligent control, and monitoring systems for consumption, using recycled materials that do not involve waste of resources. Increasing attention has also been given to the management phase of buildings, especially thanks to the spread of BIM and similar modeling approaches, and their sustainability from a social, environmental, and economic perspective as assessed through lifecycle analysis. Finally, pandemic events have defined the need for new housing models as well as the need for healthy and green buildings.

In the light of the above, this Special Issue aims to demonstrate the recent Advances in Energy Efficiency in Buildings from a Sustainability Perspective, in order to also understand whether the actions taken by the scientific community are providing significant support to the achievement of the 2030 objectives.

Appropriate topics include but are not limited to:

• Circular and smart materials;
• Smart buildings;
• Energy efficiency;
• Energetic transition;
• Sustainable Development Goals n. 7 and 13;
• Recycling, reuse, regeneration, and recovery of waste;
• LCA and LCCA;
• Digital Twins;
• Facility management;
• Internet of Things;
• Energy transition.

Prof. Dr. Federica Cucchiella
Prof. Dr. Marianna Rotilio
Prof. Pierluigi De Berardinis
Guest Editors

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• energy efficiency
• energy transition
• smart buildings
• circular economy
• SDGs
• Internet of Things