Special Issue "Optimal Planning of Sustainable Buildings"

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Adriana Del Borghi
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil, Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Genoa, I-16145 Italy
Interests: Climate Change; Ecodesign; Life Cycle Assessment; Circular Economy; Sustainability
Prof. Luca Moreschi
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil, Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Genoa, I-16145 Italy
Interests: Climate Change; Ecodesign; Life Cycle Assessment; Circular Economy; Sustainability;

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Sustainable buildings are designed to help to reduce the overall impact on the environment and human health along their lifecycle. This is accomplished by preserving and protecting the natural resources that surround the project site, reducing waste, pollution, and degradation of the environment when the building in under construction, using energy, water, and other resources in an efficient way, and protecting the health of residents. In particular, as one of the most important challenges to improving sustainability and to tackling climate change at global level is the reduction of greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions, and given the important role that the building sector will have to play in any low-carbon transformation, this Special Issue aims to attract works of scientific interest to deepen our understanding of these fields with different approaches. Therefore, research activities on different strategies for optimal planning of sustainable buildings are welcome, and a multidisciplinary approach is foreseen in order to address this issue from the viewpoints of decision makers, public bodies, business, cities, universities, and citizens.

The following list, while far from being exhaustive, provides an illustrative set of topics:

  • Planning and design of sustainable building;
  • Sustainable building materials;
  • Building and living environment;
  • Bio and healthy building research;
  • Energy use and climate;
  • Life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC);
  • Sustainable urban development.

And paper types suitable for this Special Issue include:

  • Methodological papers;
  • Conceptual papers;
  • Case studies;
  • Systematic literature reviews.

Prof. Adriana Del Borghi
Prof. Luca Moreschi
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

  • Sustainable buildings
  • Nearly-zero energy buildings
  • Optimization
  • Decision support system
  • Life cycle assessment
  • Carbon footprint and energy efficiency
  • Nearly (or net) zero-energy buildings (nZEBs)
  • Zero carbon buildings (ZCBs), carbon-neutral buildings (CNBs)
  • Energy-related carbon emissions reduction
  • Renewable energy
  • Energy efficiency enhancement

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

Article
Carbon-Neutral-Campus Building: Design Versus Retrofitting of Two University Zero Energy Buildings in Europe and in the United States
Sustainability 2021, 13(16), 9023; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13169023 - 12 Aug 2021
Viewed by 285
Abstract
Carbon-neutral design is pivotal for achieving the future energy performance targets of buildings. This paper shows research projects that promote the environmental sustainability of university campuses at the international level. GHG accounting methods and operational strategies adopted by the University of Genoa (UNIGE), [...] Read more.
Carbon-neutral design is pivotal for achieving the future energy performance targets of buildings. This paper shows research projects that promote the environmental sustainability of university campuses at the international level. GHG accounting methods and operational strategies adopted by the University of Genoa (UNIGE), Italy, and the Florida International University (FIU) in Miami, USA, are compared, with both universities striving to make buildings and campus facilities benchmarked and carbon neutral in the near future. Our comparative research includes analyzing campus buildings at both universities and their attempts to design, retrofit, and transform these buildings into carbon neutral buildings. Two case studies were discussed: the Smart Energy Building (SEB) in the Savona Campus of the UNIGE, and the Paul L. Cejas School of Architecture (PCA) Building of the FIU. The SEB’s construction reduced emissions by about 86 tCO2/y, whereas the PCA’s retrofitting reduced GHG emissions by 30%. Other operational strategies, including energy efficiency and energy generation, allowed the UNIGE to reduce their overall Scope 1 + 2 GHG emissions by 25% from 2013 to 2016. Globally, FIU Scope 1 + 2 GHG emissions per person were found to result in more than three times the UNIGE’s emissions, and 2.4 times if evaluated per square meter. The results were compared with GHG emissions and operational strategies from other universities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optimal Planning of Sustainable Buildings)
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