Sustainable Development of Thermal Comfort and Energy-Savings and Storage of Green Buildings

Dear Colleagues,

The latest IPCC report (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2022) confirms the strong interactions of the natural, social and climate systems, and that human-induced climate change has caused widespread adverse impacts to nature and people.

It is clear that across sectors and regions, the most vulnerable people and systems are disproportionately affected, and climate extremes have led to irreversible impacts. The assessment underscores the importance of limiting global warming to 1.5°C if we are to achieve a fair, equitable and sustainable world. One of the key contributors to increasing worldwide energy consumption is the service sector, which covers all types of buildings with a wide range of HVAC systems. The global energy consumption of the service sector has increased by 295 Mtoe in 2018 compared to 2000 levels, and with this trend, the sector would consume a further 323 Mtoe by 2040.

The increase in the global temperatures and carbon emissions, accompanied by recent geo-political developments, has triggered drastic measures by most governments to reduce the dependency of energy in buildings on fossil fuels.

This Special Issue of Sustainability, “Sustainable Development of Thermal Comfort and Energy-Savings and Storage of Green Buildings”, is focused on new methodologies, low-carbon strategies and technologies, energy storage to reduce the fossil fuel-reliance of heating and cooling in buildings. We invite researchers to contribute original research articles as well as review articles that will stimulate the continuing efforts to understand the recent advances and innovation in these research fields. Manuscripts combining experimental implementation with theoretical calculations and technoeconomic assessment are also welcome. 

Themes and topics for this Special Issue include the following:

• Energy storage to low-carbon heating and cooling in buildings;
• Passive energy transition to reduce demand and fossil fuel dependency in buildings;
• Occupants’ comfort, health and wellbeing in a changing climate;
• Energy flexibility and resilience in the built environment;
• Advanced materials to face with thermal comfort.

Dr. Xin Xiao
Dr. Yousef Golizadeh Akhlaghi
Prof. Dr. Guoqing Yu
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.

• building energy-savings
• thermal energy storage
• thermal comfort
• green building

• thermal management