Sustainable Net-Zero-Energy Building Solutions

Dear Colleagues,

Building use is responsible for a significant share of global carbon emissions, energy consumption, and resource consumption. According to the World Economic Forum, buildings cause 39% of global carbon emissions, including 28% of the operational emissions and 11% of the total building materials and construction. Reducing carbon emissions from buildings is critical to achieving the Paris climate goals and net-zero emissions by 2050. Therefore, Sustainable Net-Zero-Energy Building Solutions are urgently needed as they can offer numerous benefits. This essential to address the urgent environmental challenges of our time, improve building occupants’ quality of life, create economic opportunities, and contribute to a more sustainable and resilient future for communities worldwide.

This Special Issue aims to highlight the latest research and development on Sustainable Net-Zero-Energy Building Solutions, covering topics such as:

• Advanced Building Materials, Technologies, and Construction Solutions to improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions in buildings using a life cycle approach;
• Energy Poverty Mitigation exploring technical, social, and economic strategies at the building and district levels;
• Resilience and Climate Adaptation investigating building designs and technologies to enhance their resilience to extreme weather events and mitigate climate change impacts;
• Renewable Energy Integration to achieve net-zero energy goals;
• Advancements in building energy simulation tools and modelling techniques to predict and optimise energy performance accurately;
• Net-Zero Communities to achieve collective energy sustainability;
• Circular Economy and Building Materials focusing on sustainable sourcing, recycling, and reusing building materials;
• The assessment and valuation of co-benefits and trade-offs associated with net-zero buildings, such as social, economic, health, environmental, and climate benefits and costs, which can help to justify and incentivise the transition to net-zero buildings;
• Data Analytics and Building Performance Monitoring to continuously monitor building performance and identify areas for improvement;
• Regulatory Changes to government policies, incentives, and regulations in promoting net-zero energy building solutions.

By investigating Sustainable Net-Zero-Energy Building Solutions, we can learn from the best practices and experiences of different countries and regions and develop new technologies and policies to support the transition to a low-carbon and sustainably built environment.

We invite researchers from various disciplines to submit original research articles or review articles to this Special Issue. We welcome both theoretical and empirical studies that address the challenges and opportunities of achieving net-zero emissions from buildings. We also encourage interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral approaches that can provide holistic and comprehensive insights into this important topic.

Dr. Manuela Almeida
Dr. Jon Terés-Zubiaga
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. 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.

• net zero energy building
• building energy performance
• carbon emissions
• carbon neutrality
• sustainable solutions
• resource use
• circularity in construction
• renewable energy
• climate change
• energy poverty
• co-benefits and trade-offs
• policy and regulatory frameworks