Dear Colleagues,

Globally, buildings are responsible for approximately 36% of the final energy use and 40% of greenhouse gas emissions (IEA, 2017). This is expected to increase, unless actions are taken to improve the efficiency of buildings (IEA, 2017). Literature and industry analyses have shown energy efficiency investments in buildings to be generally low-risk and high-return. Moreover, there is a large potential for energy savings in retrofitting our existing building stock. Despite this, only about 1% of buildings are renovated annually (EU, 2016). In developed countries, at least half of the buildings that will exist in 2050 already exist today (Marnay, et al., 2008; Ramen 2009). Therefore, meeting the Paris Climate Accord and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals will require much greater ambition and action at community, city, national, regional, and global scales.

This Special Issue will therefore focus on how we can make the transition to a more energy-efficient built environment. Original research papers should address one the following (or related) topics:

(1) how modeled potential and future pathways for retrofitting buildings include social acceptance and how they influence policies for and investments in renovation;

(2) explorative and comparative case studies (e.g. policies, locations, key technologies) which have succeeded or failed in encouraging renovation by overcoming barriers and avoiding the lock-in of inefficient materials, technologies, and design, etc.;

(3) energy efficiency renovation in the context of the socio-technical transition theory.

Papers selected for this Special Issue will undergo a rigorous peer-review process with the aim of rapid and wide dissemination of research results.

References

Artola, Irati, Koen Rademaekers, Rob Williams, Jessica Yearwood, (2016) Boosting Building Renovation: What potential and value for Europe? European Union, Committee on Industry, Research and Energy.
IEA (2017) Energy Technology Perspectives 2017.
Marnay, C and M. Stadler et al. (2008) “A Buildings Module for the Stochastic Energy Deployment System.” Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Report LBNL-291.
Mahadev Raman (2009) “Mitigating Climate Change: What America’s Building Industry Must Do.” Design Intelligence.

Dr. Jay Sterling Gregg
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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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.

• energy efficiency
• socio-technical transitions
• retrofitting building stock
• renovation
• building envelope