Avoid, Shift, Improve: Building Sustainability Measures for Effective Climate Mitigation

Dear Colleagues,

The built environment is a major driver of global environmental pressures, accounting for a significant share of energy demand, greenhouse gas emissions, and material throughput across its life cycle. As buildings and infrastructure systems become increasingly complex, the need for integrated, multi-scalar approaches to sustainability assessment and climate mitigation becomes more urgent.

This Special Issue focuses on advancing the Avoid–Shift–Improve (A–S–I) framework as a structured lens for developing and evaluating mitigation strategies in the built environment. The A–S–I concept distinguishes between three complementary intervention logics: avoiding demand for new construction or resource-intensive practices, shifting towards lower-impact materials, technologies, and spatial configurations, and improving the performance of existing systems through efficiency gains and innovation. These strategies span the entire building life cycle and intersect with design, construction, operation, and end-of-life phases.

We invite contributions that critically engage with the A–S–I framework, either by developing novel methods for assessing life-cycle environmental impacts, quantifying the mitigation potential of specific measures, or advancing the conceptual integration of A–S–I strategies. Submissions may address individual strategies or explore synergies, trade-offs, and system-level implications of combining them in pursuit of deep decarbonization and resource efficiency.

This Special Issue invites original research articles and reviews that critically engage with the Avoid–Shift–Improve (A–S–I) framework within the built environment. Contributions may focus on, but are not limited to, the following key areas:

• New methods for life-cycle environmental impact assessment that integrate or leverage the A–S–I framework.
• The climate change mitigation potential of specific A–S–I strategies across different scales (e.g., building materials and elements, individual buildings, urban districts, regional infrastructure).
• Interdependencies, synergies, and potential trade-offs of A-S-I integration within complex building and infrastructure systems.
• System-level implications of combining A–S–I strategies for achieving deep decarbonization and enhanced resource efficiency in the built environment.
• Exploring limitations/implications of national and transnational methodologies for calculating the carbon footprint of buildings (e.g., system boundaries, inclusion of parking space, benchmarking …).
• Occupant–building interaction, crowdsensing, and other behavioral interventions as tools for implementing and optimizing A–S–I strategies.
• Sustainability and resilience of high-performance buildings, including their capacity to 'Avoid' unnecessary resource use, 'Shift' to renewable energy sources, and 'Improve' operational efficiency.
• Vulnerability and survivability of social housing, examining how A–S–I principles can contribute to equitable and resilient housing solutions.
• Life Cycle Assessment in building renovation projects.
• The evolution of energy and climate adaptation policies related to energy security, affordable housing, and their alignment with A–S–I intervention logics (e.g., EPBD directive).
• Case studies from diverse built environment contexts that demonstrate the application, effectiveness, and challenges of A–S–I strategies.

Dr. Luka Pajek
Dr. David Božiček
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.

• avoid–shift–improve
• life cycle assessment
• whole life-cycle global warming potential
• sufficiency in buildings
• eco-efficient material design
• active and passive energy efficiency measures
• building sustainability
• building design