Net Zero Carbon Building and Sustainable Built Environment

Dear Colleagues,

The future of our planet hinges on the buildings we design today. The United Nations Environment Programme’s 2020 Global Status Report for Buildings reveals that the building and construction sector is responsible for a staggering 39% of global carbon dioxide emissions and a third of global energy consumption. These figures continue to climb due to rapid urbanization, increased energy access in developing nations, a surge in air conditioning use in tropical regions, the proliferation of energy-hungry appliances, and the swift expansion of the global building floor area. While many countries have rolled out policies and strategies to reduce energy consumption and emissions in buildings, these efforts alone are insufficient. We need a profound cultural shift towards sustainability within the sector. The solution lies in environmentally responsible and resource-efficient buildings throughout their life cycle, from planning and design to construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and demolition, designed to meet the occupant's needs and behaviors through sustainable solutions. Achieving this demands the close collaboration of researchers, architects, engineers, and contractors at every project stage. To truly advance the sustainability agenda in the built environment, we need an interdisciplinary approach to spreading cutting-edge knowledge. Researchers and stakeholders must grasp the full scope of building sustainability, which necessitates more dedicated research on net-zero carbon buildings and sustainable building practices, to create sustainable indoor and outdoor living environments for everyone.

This Special Issue aims to collect innovative solutions, technological advancements, and interdisciplinary methods that can revolutionize the building sector, both in design and management, towards a more sustainable future, enhancing the potential impact of new ideas by sharing knowledge and creating new networks.

We welcome manuscripts that deal with the following topics through both experimental and simulative studies:

• Net zero carbon buildings;
• Zero- and near-zero-energy buildings;
• Sustainable building materials;
• Innovative buildings’ materials and components;
• Innovative buildings’ management and control strategies;
• Building-integrated renewable energy systems;
• Life cycle analysis of innovative components and construction solutions;
• Building retrofitting;
• Solutions to designing sustainable human-centered environments;
• National and international policies to support net-zero-carbon buildings.

Dr. Giovanni Ciampi
Dr. Yorgos Spanodimitriou
Dr. Rosa Francesca De Masi
Dr. Niko Gentile
Dr. Carol Monticelli
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. 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.