Special Issue "Sustainable Construction and Interior Comfort"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 January 2022.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Ana Teresa Vaz Ferreira
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Civil Engineering Department, Polytechnic Instituto of Castelo Branco, 6000-084 Castelo Branco, Portugal
Interests: sustainable constructive; sustainability assessment systems; buildings thermal behavior; accessibility; sustainable rehabilitation
Dr. Pedro Miguel Vaz Ferreira
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Civil Engineering Department, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK
Interests: new technologies; asset management of geotechnical structures; geoltechnical engineering
Prof. Dr. Marco D’Orazio
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Construction, Civil Engineering and Architecture (DICEA), Università Politecnica delle Marche, 60131 Ancona, Italy
Interests: new building technologies; sustainable construction and rehabilitation; people behaviour

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The “Long-term strategy from the EU” and the “Renovation wave for Europe” define the highlights for the construction and rehabilitation up to 2050. These documents state the need for rehabilitation to improve the energetic behavior of the built environment, as well as to pursue the need for interior comfort and better conditions to users, toward the decarbonization of the built environment.

To achieve these goals, it is necessary to adopt strategies and interventions based on sustainable construction principles: the use of renewable resources, the adoption of sustainable material and solutions, the respect and efficiency in the use of resources, maintenance, recycling or reuse of elements, and a responsible management of residues and its valorization.

This Special Issue will outline key issues and challenges in the areas above. It is intended to show regional and national reality; difficulties in implementing these policies; and examples of good practices and solutions that address the sustainable construction and rehabilitation focused on building performance and interior comfort (not limited to thermal comfort).

We look for research articles that include but are not limited to the following subjects:

  • The needs of the built environment, its real performance, and the difficulties for interventions addressing interior comfort;
  • Knowledge about traditional construction practices and its compatibility with rehabilitation techniques;
  • Characterization of the built environment;
  • Improvement of building construction based on a sustainable approach;
  • The use of sustainable assessment systems to assure the sustainability of interventions.

Prof. Dr. Ana Teresa Vaz Ferreira
Dr. Pedro Miguel Vaz Ferreira
Prof. Marco D’Orazio
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 papers will be 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 1900 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.

Keywords

  • decarbonization of built environment
  • sustainable rehabilitation
  • interior comfort
  • sustainable construction
  • building characterization
  • intervention compatibility

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

Article
A Software Tool for a Stochastic Life Cycle Assessment and Costing of Buildings’ Energy Efficiency Measures
Sustainability 2021, 13(14), 7975; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13147975 - 16 Jul 2021
Viewed by 474
Abstract
This article presents a novel software tool for the assessments of life-cycle environmental impacts and costs, which is aimed to support decision-making in the design phase of retrofit interventions in the building sector. By combining Life Cycle Costing (LCC) and Life Cycle Assessment [...] Read more.
This article presents a novel software tool for the assessments of life-cycle environmental impacts and costs, which is aimed to support decision-making in the design phase of retrofit interventions in the building sector. By combining Life Cycle Costing (LCC) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) calculations and functionalities, this tool allows evaluating the long-term trade-offs between economic and environmental performance of investment projects in energy efficiency for buildings, while accounting for uncertainties in input parameters and economic scenarios. A major novelty of the software tool is the stochastic nature of both the LCC and LCA dimensions. The LCA is implemented with Monte-Carlo methods, while the LCC accounts for the probabilistic interdependence of macroeconomic variables over time. The software also includes advanced specific tools for parametrization and sensitivity analysis. Exemplary applications are presented in order to illustrate the novelty and the functionalities of the software tool. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Construction and Interior Comfort)
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Article
Environmental Product Declarations as Data Source for the Environmental Assessment of Buildings in the Context of Level(s) and DGNB: How Feasible Is Their Adoption?
Sustainability 2021, 13(11), 6143; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13116143 - 29 May 2021
Viewed by 902
Abstract
This study aims to examine the feasibility of using environmental product declarations (EPDs) as a data source for life-cycle assessment (LCA) in two sustainable building assessment schemes–the pilot version of the European framework Level(s) and the German system DGNB (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltiges [...] Read more.
This study aims to examine the feasibility of using environmental product declarations (EPDs) as a data source for life-cycle assessment (LCA) in two sustainable building assessment schemes–the pilot version of the European framework Level(s) and the German system DGNB (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltiges Bauen). An EPD is a standardized and third-party certified label to communicate product-specific environmental data based on LCA. Some green building rating systems consider it a robust LCA data source and encourage its use over generic data. This work evaluates the environmental profile of the envelope of an office building in the context of level(s) and DGNB adopting EPD as a data source. The results indicate that the EPDs did not cover the mandatory scope of the schemes. Furthermore, there was a lack of EPDs appropriate to the geographical context of the case study, leading to the adoption of EPDs of products from places other than the building site and an overestimation of the environmental impacts of transportation. Moreover, the need for EPDs considering suitable and comprehensive scenarios as well as life-cycle stages beyond the product stage is highlighted. This gap, in fact, hinders the performance of a complete LCA within the analyzed building assessment schemes when relying solely on EPDs as a data source. With this paper, we wish to encourage the further development of EPDs related to the integration of more life-cycle modules and more comprehensive scenarios, considering the direction of the latest amendment of the ISO 15804 for EPDs of construction products. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Construction and Interior Comfort)
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