Heroes of Zero—Implementing the Lessons Learned from Pilot Programs towards Achieving Low-Energy or No Waste in Buildings, Communities, and Cities

Dear Colleagues,

The transition towards a low-carbon energy system has become an important scientific target of future decades. Now that ‘business as usual scenarios’ describe an increase in the average temperature of the globe of around 6 °C, it is time to act towards decarbonization in all sectors. Obviously, doing so in the building sector is paramount, either in terms of building efficiency or resources savings and recovery, since such a sector already accounts for around 40% of primary energy used in the world and 35% of greenhouse gases emissions.

The action in the building sector is usually based on the concept of nearly/net zero energy in buildings, although with several specific definitions worldwide. In the EU, nearly-zero-energy buildings are defined as having very high energy performance, in which the low amount of energy required comes mostly from renewable sources. The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive requires all new buildings to be nearly zero-energy by the end of 2020. All new public buildings must be nearly zero-energy by 2018 [EC, 2014].

According to the definition from the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Net Zero should also focus on water and wastes besides energy, thus consuming only as much energy as produced, achieving a sustainable balance between water availability and demand, and eliminating solid waste sent to landfills [EPA, 2017].

However, progress is slower than expected: Such high performance buildings are not yet ready for mass deployment in the market. Although most technologies that are employed are mature, financial barriers are considered by stakeholders as the main barrier, together with the limited development of innovative retrofitting technologies, lack of ambitious policies and energy plans or scaling up of single pilot projects. Moreover, the substantial gap in reliable data on current market activities and on monitored data related to savings and maintenance costs makes it difficult for policy-makers to evaluate the success of their policies [ZEBRA2020 project, CERtus project].

Specific topical keywords of particular interest for this Special Issue include but are not limited to:

• Nearly/net zero-energy buildings (interventions, etc.);
• Net-zero waste and net-zero water use in buildings;
• Passive and autonomous buildings (strategies, technology);
• Positive energy (blocks of) buildings and communities;
• Self-consumption and off/zero-grid locations and cases;
• Workforce upskilling and legislation towards net-zero;
• Initiatives towards 100% renewable energy sources;
• Cost-benefit analyses and net-zero funding schemes;
• Impact of net-zero in building stock and climate,etc.

This Special Issue of Buildings is open to both public submissions and submissions from the Sustainable Places (SP) 2018 delegates.

Prof. Dr. Francesco Guarino
Dr. Therese E. Peffer
Dr. Luciano De Tommasi
Guest Editors

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• Net zero-energy buildings
• Renewable sources