Innovating Sustainable Built Environment Integrating Low-Carbon Energy, Energy Efficiency Solutions, and Environmental Considerations

Dear Colleagues,

While progress is being made in decarbonising grid energy, achieving net-zero targets will require a list of actions to decarbonise buildings and communities. Buildings and the built environment, interacting closely with the grid, pose a major challenge to emission reduction. There are a range of interrelated challenges: the imperative for decarbonisation, escalating energy costs, concerns over both indoor and outdoor environmental quality, and the operational complexity of integrating decentralised sustainable systems. This Special Issue aims to address these pressing issues by inviting original research and review papers that explore transformative solutions at both the building and community scale. Topics of interest include energy-efficient and sustainable building technologies, low-carbon heating and cooling systems, energy storage integration, indoor environmental quality and occupant wellbeing, and digital modelling for energy optimisation and decarbonisation. We particularly welcome interdisciplinary contributions that combine engineering innovations, data-driven control strategies, and policy insights to support climate-resilient, occupant-centred transitions in the built environment.

Dr. Cheng Zeng
Dr. Xiaojing Han
Dr. Yuanda Cheng
Dr. Abdur Rehman Mazhar
Prof. Dr. Jun Lu
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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. Buildings 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 2600 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.