Smart Solutions and Technologies for Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Buildings—2nd Edition

Dear Colleagues,

Energy-efficient and decarbonized built environments are central to the transition towards a more environmentally and economically sustainable and resilient society, especially within the current and future climate change and energy crisis scenarios. According to the most recent available reports, urban settlements are responsible for 25%–40% of global energy use, corresponding to 17.5%–39% of energy-use-related carbon emissions. Moreover, it should be considered that built areas are subject to a continuous urbanization process (due to both demographic variations and migratory flows) that requires a constant supply of energy, thereby causing significant pollutant emissions. Therefore, to address these needs, the issues concerning buildings and overall urban energy efficiency and carbon neutrality have been increasingly integrated into global policies and regulations (e.g., the UN Sustainable Development Goals—SDGs) aimed at supporting climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies for a clean and sustainable energy transition, both in terms of resource availability and economic and environmental aspects.

However, despite the advances made in scientific research regarding these issues, the currently slow pace of energy-related renovation, rehabilitation, and integration of the built environment mainly appears to be related to the lack of smart, sustainable approaches to addressing the issue of urban energy efficiency in an integrated and comprehensive manner. That is, sustainability must be considered not only from an environmental point of view but economically as well, in order to maximally encourage these practices’ actual implementation.

Starting from these assumptions, this Special Issue aims to collect high-quality research activities and products (original research articles, reviews, and case studies are welcome) focused on smart and sustainable solutions, technologies, and strategies addressing the above-mentioned issues, thereby fostering energy efficiency and the decarbonization of built environments, particularly in the building sector. Within this context, the research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Effective strategies for improving energy efficiency (e.g., implementing sustainable retrofit interventions), reducing the environmental impact, and encouraging the integration of renewable energy sources (RESs) for different types of buildings and users (e.g., residential, public, tertiary sector, etc.);
• Nearly zero energy buildings (NZEBs), positive energy buildings (PEBs), and positive energy districts (PEDs);
• User-centric solutions in the building sector with which to drive the transition towards a sustainable and decarbonized society and economy (i.e., inducing lasting behavioral changes towards sustainable living);
• Smart systems for the flexible management of the energy interconnections between buildings (enabling users to produce, store, convert, and redistribute/transport—not just consume—energy) to promote energy equity and accessibility;
• Efficient and smart urban energy planning at the cluster-of-buildings level in order to identify possible methods, strategies, and overall solutions for the energy upgradation and decarbonization of urban areas.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Gianluca Scaccianoce
Dr. Giorgia Peri
Dr. Laura Cirrincione
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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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.

• building energy optimization
• smart buildings
• climate change resilience
• buildings’ energy efficiency
• smart solutions and technologies
• urban energy planning
• sustainable energy use
• buildings sustainability and resilience
• carbon neutrality in the built environment
• energy efficiency

• Smart Solutions and Technologies for Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Buildings in Sustainability (6 articles)