Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
3.4
3.1
Journals
Buildings
Special Issues
Sustainability in the Construction Industry
share announcement

Sustainability in the Construction Industry

A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309). This special issue belongs to the section "Construction Management, and Computers & Digitization".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 September 2024) | Viewed by 3932

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Giacomo Di Ruocco

E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor
Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Università degli Studi di Salerno, Salerno, Italy
Interests: embodied energy; sustainability; green building; refurbishment; low-carbon design; design for disassembly; dry construction design; reversible construction; LCA approach; circular economy
Dr. Andrea di Filippo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Adjunct Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Università degli Studi di Salerno, Salerno, Italy
Interests: building information modelling; parametric modelling; facility management; refurbishment; scan-to-BIM; building lifecycle
Dr. Fulvio Re Cecconi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Associate Professor, Department of Architecture, Built Environment and Construction Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
Interests: digital twin; artificial intelligence; asset management; project and risk management; building information modelling; energy retrofit

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The construction industry is one of the largest consumers of global resources, contributing significantly to global pollution and emissions.

Indeed, the construction industry must equally contribute to building a world that improves the lives of future generations and uses environmentally friendly methods. Working sustainably involves meeting the needs of the expanding population, as well as preserving the environment in the long run. 

Sustainable construction means building with renewable and recyclable resources and materials. Care should be taken to reduce waste and energy consumption within construction projects wherever possible, and steps should be taken to protect natural environments around sites. The end result of a sustainable construction project should be the creation of an environmentally friendly building or environment.

According to the Supply Chain Sustainability School, buildings and construction work in countries that are members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) use:

  • 25–40% of total energy
  • 30% of raw materials
  • 30–40% of global greenhouse gas emissions
  • 30–40% of solid waste generation

The World Green Building Council's (WorldGBC) Annual Report 2021/2 2 outlines the main achievements of the organization and our global network of Green Building Council (GBC) urged systemic changes aimed at:

  • Addressing lifelong carbon emissions from existing and new buildings
  • Enabling resilient, healthy, equitable and inclusive places
  • Creating regenerative infrastructure that is safe, resource-efficient and waste-free

Modern digital technologies can make the process of managing the entire life cycle of a building more sustainable, reducing human error, process time and cost, emissions, and a whole host of other negative factors.

The BIM-LCA approach is recognized as valuable for the control and management of green building assessment standards, particularly when applied to large public buildings, where the traditional management approach is lacking, especially in the operation, maintenance, and end-of-life disposal phases.

Dr. Giacomo Di Ruocco
Dr. Andrea di Filippo
Dr. Fulvio Re Cecconi
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. Buildings is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2600 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

  • sustainability
  • green building
  • embodied energy
  • refurbishment
  • low-carbon design
  • reversible construction
  • LCA approach
  • circular economy
  • end-of-life approach
  • design for disassembly

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (3 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

22 pages, 6449 KiB  
Article
Unlocking Urban Breathability: Investigating the Synergistic Mitigation of PM2.5 and CO2 by Community Park Green Space in the Built Environment Using Simulation
by Xina Ma, Mengyao Wang, Xiaoling She and Jingyuan Zhao
Buildings 2024, 14(11), 3407; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14113407 - 26 Oct 2024
Viewed by 552
Abstract
Reducing carbon emissions and controlling air pollution is a dual challenge for China in addressing climate change. Analyzing the synergistic relationship between PM2.5 and CO2 in urban green spaces has become an important part of promoting pollution control. The study investigated [...] Read more.
Reducing carbon emissions and controlling air pollution is a dual challenge for China in addressing climate change. Analyzing the synergistic relationship between PM2.5 and CO2 in urban green spaces has become an important part of promoting pollution control. The study investigated the influence and synergistic relationship between the spatial pattern of community parks on PM2.5 and CO2 in Xi’an City, Shaanxi Province, through practical measurement and ENVI-met/Open Studio simulation calculations. The results showed that: (1) Within the sphere of influence, community parks exhibit a positive synergy varying with distance, peaking at 400 m and declining as 300 m > 500 m > 200 m > 100 m. (2) The green space rate, total edge (TE), and mean patch shape index (SHAPE_MN) positively influence the synergistic mitigation of PM2.5 and CO2, with a defined maximum impact boundary. The strongest synergistic reduction of PM2.5 and CO2 occurs at a green space rate of 85%, TE1200, and SHAPE1.2, with optimal influence boundaries of 300 m, 200 m, and 100 m, respectively. This conclusion demonstrates the key role of green space in community parks in the synergistic abatement and provides a scientific basis and practical guidance for the planning and design of urban green space under the goal of “dual-carbon”. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability in the Construction Industry)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

24 pages, 16353 KiB  
Article
Renovation Wave in Europe: Low-Carbon Design for the Refurbishment of Social Housing in Southern Italy
by Giacomo Di Ruocco
Buildings 2024, 14(6), 1535; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14061535 - 25 May 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 787
Abstract
The public housing stock, called social housing, in Italy was developed between the 1950s and the 1980s. As of today, the first residential developments are almost nearing their end-of-life age and are in need of urgent and intensive renovation. The European Commission, with [...] Read more.
The public housing stock, called social housing, in Italy was developed between the 1950s and the 1980s. As of today, the first residential developments are almost nearing their end-of-life age and are in need of urgent and intensive renovation. The European Commission, with the Renovation Wave, has set a goal of doubling the rate of building renovation over the next 10 years, reducing emissions, improving energy performance, and promoting decarburization. Renovation interventions, including structural, functional, energy, and plant upgrading interventions, etc., are to be preferred over integral demolition and reconstruction interventions, which have significant repercussions in terms of managerial and social discomfort. The case studies examined concern renovation interventions aimed at energy efficiency, functional adaptation of housing, as well as façade restyling. The design variants analyzed were evaluated in terms of CO2e emissions, according to life cycle inventory (LCI) and Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) approaches. This approach has a twofold purpose: to propose design guidelines, with low CO2e emissions, through hypotheses of variants in the case studies, and to propose, to the economic operators, economically advantageous bidding scenarios in the procurement process. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability in the Construction Industry)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

21 pages, 6753 KiB  
Article
Life Cycle Assessment from Cradle-to-Handover Approach to Greenhouse Gas Emissions Mitigation: Carbon Storage in Timber Buildings
by Giacomo Di Ruocco and Angela Gaita
Buildings 2023, 13(7), 1722; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13071722 - 6 Jul 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1791
Abstract
The issue of environmental sustainability is increasingly topical, and one of the most impactful sectors is the construction industry. As stated in the GlobalABC reports, the building sector is the main sector responsible for GHG emissions, generating about 37% of global CO2e emissions. [...] Read more.
The issue of environmental sustainability is increasingly topical, and one of the most impactful sectors is the construction industry. As stated in the GlobalABC reports, the building sector is the main sector responsible for GHG emissions, generating about 37% of global CO2e emissions. Already during the phases of production and construction of buildings, about 10% of global emissions are produced, while the remaining part comes from using energy for air conditioning and lighting. Reducing emissions in buildings’ pre-use phase is a crucial issue for fighting climate change. This research investigates the potential of timber construction systems due to the carbon storage property of the material. The proposed calculation methodology is structured according to the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach, referring to the C2H phase (from Cradle-to-Handover), and evaluates emissions related to buildings production and construction. In order to identify the timber construction system that minimizes CO2e emissions, the method was applied within the limits of the investigation (A1–A5 phases) to two buildings built with different technologies: an X-Lam panel and a framed structured building. The results were analyzed, compared, and discussed to demonstrate that timber buildings will be the most virtuous solution in the Net Zero Carbon perspective by 2050. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability in the Construction Industry)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-3
Back to TopTop