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Green Materials, Smart BIM and Comfortable Environments: Towards Sustainable Building

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Green Building".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 April 2026 | Viewed by 352

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Patrimony Architecture Urbanism (PAU), Mediterranea University, Viale dell’Università 25, 89124 Reggio Calabria, Italy
Interests: sustainability strategy; appraisal, valuation, economics of sustainability and of projects/plans; green building real estate market price premium assessment; benefit cost analysis; multi-criteria decision system; GIS; database management system
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The Earth is in danger due to global warming and its fatal destructive side effects.

Climate change is the direct consequence of our huge, worldwide, annual consumption of energy, which is largely derived from the burning of fossil fuels (including coal, gas, and oil), wood, and biomass.

The integrated construction/building/civil sectors, throughout the construction process and the consequent thermal management of residential units and non-residential buildings, consume the vast majority of the fossil energy used worldwide each year. Therefore, the “integrated” civil sector, including these settlements, is the world’s largest fossil energy consumer and polluter, and thus the biggest cause of climate change.

Reducing fossil energy consumption in this sector is an exceptional opportunity and one of the most important strategies for reducing our emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs). This reduction can be obtained by carrying out a nature-based ecological transition that includes the bio-ecological improvement of buildings’ energy efficiency, which has already proved to be an excellent investment in the short-to-medium term, as shown by initial available experiences and reports.

The strategy used to achieve this shall be two-fold:

  • the construction of exclusively nature-based new green buildings;
  • the ecological retrofitting of the existing world building stock.

This strategy uses the world’s cheapest and most effective energy: the not-consumed one, i.e., the energy efficiency of buildings and its consequent permanent energy-saving qualities.

This Special Issue aims to contribute to our understanding of the theories and the models involved in this endeavour, the software and the tools used, and the supporting case studies carried out regarding this topic, thereby promoting the completely nature-based ecological transition of the integrated civil sector to a more sustainable form of construction. This is the decisive step needed to find a definitive solution to the dramatic effects and impacts of climate change.

Dr. Domenico Enrico Massimo
Guest Editor

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.

Keywords

  • pollution
  • climate change
  • global warming
  • sustainability
  • ecological transition
  • urban metabolism and post-carbon city strategies
  • pollution from construction sector
  • nature-based ecological transition of global construction sector
  • implementation of nature-based transitions
  • sustainable construction
  • green building
  • brand new green buildings versus new brown buildings
  • green building rating tool (GBRT) and GBRT post-occupancy valuations
  • ecological retrofitting of existing portfolio versus BAS maintenance of stocks
  • energy bio–eco (nature-based)-efficiency
  • energy conservation
  • nature-based energy conservation measures
  • co-benefits of energy conservation measures
  • co-benefit valuations
  • MCA, multi-criteria analysis
  • MCDV, multi-criteria decision valuation
  • energy performance simulation program software, EPSPs
  • thermal comfort
  • life cycle assessment (LCA)
  • LCA of green buildings versus brown buildings
  • benefit–cost valuations and CFA (cash flow analysis) of investments
  • data base management system (DBMS), GIS, BIM, and 3D studio in the strategy and implementation of green buildings
  • cost analysis
  • cost archives
  • cost estimation
  • cost forecast
  • detailed cost estimate of nature-based new constructions and retrofitting of green buildings
  • cost, income, and market value of buildings
  • market price less the total construction cost of a building: value added and profitability creation
  • market price premium for the extra expenses of green buildings
  • spatial and factor analyses of materials, works, and yard sites in green construction
  • material and factor analyses of green buildings versus brown buildings

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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30 pages, 3943 KiB  
Article
Appraisal of Sustainable Retrofitting of Historical Settlements: Less than 60% Unexpected Outcomes
by Mariangela Musolino, Domenico Enrico Massimo, Francesco Calabrò, Pierfrancesco De Paola, Roberta Errigo and Alessandro Malerba
Sustainability 2025, 17(13), 5695; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17135695 - 20 Jun 2025
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Abstract
The present research aims to assess, from both ecological and economic perspectives, a strategic solution applied to the building sector that can contribute to mitigating the planetary tragedy of the overconsumption of global fossil energy (coal, oil, and gas) and, thus, climate change, [...] Read more.
The present research aims to assess, from both ecological and economic perspectives, a strategic solution applied to the building sector that can contribute to mitigating the planetary tragedy of the overconsumption of global fossil energy (coal, oil, and gas) and, thus, climate change, along with its dramatic negative impacts on the planet, humanity, and the world’s economy. Buildings are the largest consumers of fossil fuel energy, significantly contributing to Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions and, consequently, to climate change. Reducing their environmental impact is therefore crucial for achieving global sustainability goals. Existing buildings, mostly the historical ones, represent a significant part of the global building stocks, which, for the most part, consist of buildings built more than 70 years ago, which are aged, in a state of deterioration, and in need of intervention. Recovering, renovating, and redeveloping existing and historical buildings could be a formidable instrument for improving the energy quality of the international and national building stocks. When selecting the type of possible interventions to be applied, there are two choices: simple and unsustainable ordinary maintenance versus ecological retrofitting, i.e., a quality increase in the indoor environment and building energy savings using local bio-natural materials. The success of the “Ecological Retrofitting” Strategy strongly relies on its economic and financial sustainability; therefore, the goal of this research is to underline and demonstrate the economic and ecological benefits of the ecological transition at the building level through an integrated valuation applied in a case study, located in Southern Italy. First, in order to demonstrate the ecological benefits of the proposed strategy, the latter was tested through a new energy assessment tool in an updated BIM platform; subsequently, an economic valuation was conducted, clearly demonstrating the cost-effectiveness of the building’s ecological transition. The real-world experiment through the proposed case study achieved important results and reached the goals of the “Ecological Retrofitting” Strategy in existing (but not preserved) liberty-style constructions. First of all, a significant improvement in the buildings’ thermal performance was achieved after some targeted interventions, resulting in energy savings; most importantly, the economic feasibility of the proposed strategy was demonstrated. Full article
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Review

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29 pages, 1470 KiB  
Review
Thermal Comfort in Classrooms in NSW Australia: Learning from International Practice: A Systematised Review
by Josephine Vaughan, Salah Alghamdi and Waiching Tang
Sustainability 2025, 17(13), 5879; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17135879 - 26 Jun 2025
Abstract
International thermal comfort requirements, such as ASHRAE standards, are used for classroom design in many countries, such as Australia, despite these standards serving thermal preferences for adult office workers in the USA or Europe. Subjected to mismatched thermal guidelines, students can be thermally [...] Read more.
International thermal comfort requirements, such as ASHRAE standards, are used for classroom design in many countries, such as Australia, despite these standards serving thermal preferences for adult office workers in the USA or Europe. Subjected to mismatched thermal guidelines, students can be thermally uncomfortable in classrooms that are not correctly designed for their needs, and education buildings may consume significant energy on heating and cooling that is not appropriate to the location. The objective of this study is to critically examine the appropriateness of ASHRAE thermal comfort standards for classrooms in climates equivalent to New South Wales, Australia. Through a systematised literature review, this paper presents findings in four key areas: the relationship between thermal comfort and (i) local climate areas, (ii) classroom building types, (iii) students’ thermal comfort preferences and (iv) air conditioning. The research finds that international thermal comfort standards do not always provide suitable guidance for classrooms in diverse climate zones. The research identifies that reliance on mechanical heating and cooling can fail to meet students’ thermal comfort needs and undermines global environmental sustainability goals. This paper recommends localised thermal comfort benchmarks tailored to NSW’s climatic and educational contexts, contributing to improved classroom design, student wellbeing and energy-efficient learning environments. Full article
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