Special Issue "Advances on Building Performance and Sustainability"

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 October 2021.

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Ahmad Taki
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Leicester School of Architecture, De Montfort University, Leicester LE1 9BH, UK
Interests: building performance and sustainability; energy and indoor climate; computer simulation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Generally, energy usage in buildings is responsible for approximately 45% of carbon dioxide emissions. A significant fraction of this energy is consumed to provide comfortable, habitable, conditions indoors. In many countries, the prevailing climate frequently leads to the use of technological themes that are recognised as energy-intensive solutions for providing such good indoor air quality and thermal comfort. Buildings are the largest contributor to climate change. Fears about climate change/global warming have added urgency to the search for methods not only to improve energy efficiency in buildings but also to satisfy the social–cultural needs of communities in different contexts, ensuring sustainable outcomes.

Among these techniques are the use of computer simulation and the development of research methodologies in the built environment aimed at improving alignment between buildings, contexts, climates, and energy performance.

Considering the importance of building performance and sustainability, Sustainability has decided to dedicate a Special Issue to bringing together manuscripts that focus on this research theme.

For this Special Issue on “Advances on Building Performance and Sustainability” in Sustainability, we are looking for original articles that address the following topics:

  • The approach towards improving energy efficiency in buildings;
  • The impact of retrofit pathways on building performance analysis;
  • Computer simulation to evaluate building performance in terms of lighting, energy consumption, and comfort;
  • Case studies that cover various research methodological approaches with an emphasis on the social–cultural needs of the local community or the social–environmental interface of sustainable development purposes;
  • The impact of research on the quality of life and well-being of buildings’ occupants.

Original papers that address other related topics with evidence of contribution to the state of the art are also welcome.

Prof. Dr. Ahmad Taki
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 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

  • building performance and sustainability
  • energy and indoor climate
  • social sustainability
  • computer simulation
  • case studies
  • research methodology

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

Article
A Framework for Assessing Commitment Indicators in Sustainable Development Decisions
Sustainability 2021, 13(9), 5234; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13095234 - 07 May 2021
Viewed by 431
Abstract
Numerous decision support systems have been developed to address the decision-making process in organizations. However, there are no developed mechanisms to track commitment down the line to the decisions made by corporate leaders. This paper is a portion of a study that establishes [...] Read more.
Numerous decision support systems have been developed to address the decision-making process in organizations. However, there are no developed mechanisms to track commitment down the line to the decisions made by corporate leaders. This paper is a portion of a study that establishes a framework for a comprehensive metric system to assess commitment to Sustainable Development (SD) decisions down the line in capital projects, and sets the groundwork for further development of performance indicators for SD outcomes. This ultimately leads to investigating the relationship between commitment to corporate decisions and better project performance in SD parameters. Hence, this study explores the literature to extract relevant parameters that reflect the degree of the project participants’ commitment to SD decisions and to develop commitment indicators. The study created then validated an index to track this commitment along the project stages: the Sustainable Development Commitment Tracking Tool (SDCTT). The SDCTT was tested on an infrastructure project case study. In this paper, techniques relevant to the first stage of projects (planning and definition) are presented. The SDCTT is the groundwork for the future development of performance indicators for SD outcomes, and within the postulated model should ultimately contribute towards reducing project waste, energy use, and carbon emissions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances on Building Performance and Sustainability)
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