Explore the vast range of titles available.

Carbon emissions, being hazardous, are triggering social concerns which have led to the creation of international treaties to address climate change. Similarly, the United Kingdom under the Climate Change Act (2008) has committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emission by at least 80% over 1990 levels by 2050. However, being the oldest member of the EU states (before Brexit), the UK has the oldest housing stock, which contributes to 45% of its carbon emissions due to the older dwellings. To address this issue low carbon retrofitting is needed. Therefore, this paper seeks to investigate the barriers and enablers to energy efficiency retrofitting in social housing in London, UK based on the perception of experts employed in National and construction companies with an experience that ranges between 6 to 16 years. Initial literature suggested that the problem of energy efficiency retrofitting in the general building stock has been addressed, however little has been reported on its application to social housing. This paper, therefore, groups the barriers and enablers into seven categories that include: financial matters, Technical, IT, Government policy and regulation, social factors (including awareness of the energy efficiency agenda), quality of workmanship and disruption to residents, using literature review, interviews and surveys with key stakeholders within the housing sector, and draws recommendations to enable effective and efficient retrofitting for social housing projects.

To achieve carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals in China, green retrofitting of traditional residential buildings is the one of the important ways. Therefore, the dynamics process of the change of the resident group intention to retrofit and its impact on the behavior of the tripartite game between the government, investment retrofitting enterprises and residents needs to be analyzed. Firstly, a dissemination model of green retrofitting intentions among resident groups is constructed, and it is coupled with the tripartite game model. Then, through numerical simulation, the dissemination laws of intention for green retrofitting among resident groups and its influence on the evolution process of the tripartite game are analyzed. The results show that: (1) The rate at which the triad of government, investment retrofitting enterprises and residents reaches steady state is influenced by the impact of changes in the level of social climate on the rate of conversion of potential and participating residents to immune residents. When the rate of enterprises investment and residents participation increases, the rate of government choice of incentive strategies decreases; (2) greater government regulation and subsidies will increase the intention of residents and retrofitting enterprises to participate. The ideal steady state without government incentives can be achieved when the group size of participating residents is increased by improving the level of government publicity and education and the technology level of the enterprises; (3) the intention of enterprises to invest is closely related to the cognitive benefits and the level of risk perception of residents. The conclusions of the study can be used as a reference for the government to make green retrofitting policies for traditional residential buildings.

Climate change and energy poverty are two sustainability challenges that can be addressed through deep-energy retrofits for homes. This systematic review identifies which factors influence the achievement of energy retrofits for households vulnerable to energy poverty. It covers both energy-poor households and the landlords or building owners of energy-poor households. The results identify a range of influential factors across several themes: financial, policy and organizational, trust and communication, technical, attitudes and values, and health. Health and quality of life are particularly influential motivating factors among households vulnerable to energy poverty, as is the presence of trust and communication between stakeholders. Multiple financial considerations are also important, such as the availability of no-cost retrofit options and the prospect of lower energy and maintenance costs. Lastly, government requirements to retrofit and minimum energy standards are motivating, particularly in the social housing sector. These findings and the lack of focus on energy poverty within the energy retrofit literature and policies point to a need for further research on this topic, and for retrofit policies specifically targeted to households vulnerable to energy poverty.Policy relevanceEnergy retrofit policies targeting households vulnerable to energy poverty could be more effective if they:* Improve access to low or no-cost retrofit options alongside tenant protection mechanisms* Include requirements for resident consent and engagement* Build capacity to collect, centralize and publicize information about building stocks to align retrofit projects with necessary upgrades* Disseminate knowledge of retrofit programs through trusted communicators* Increase stakeholders’ understanding of retrofit benefits* Take a holistic approach by emphasizing the co-benefits of energy retrofits in energy-poor households* Implement government requirements to pursue energy retrofits aligned with overarching government climate policies, particularly for publicly owned housing.

Australia aims to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, and its building sector needs rapid change. The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) is supported by the Australian Government to expand the current building envelope thermal performance energy star rating to a whole-of-home (WoH) energy rating. The NatHERS Administrator supports CSIRO to develop a benchmark WoH energy rating tool for new and existing housing, respectively. The tool for new housing was released in June 2023. This study presents the tool development for Australian existing housing. A case study was conducted using the tool for the eight capital cities of Australian states and territories. It shows that with a detached house built in the 1900s being updated to six or more stars and replacing old equipment and appliances with high-energy-efficient ones, more than 50% of energy can be saved in all the eight cities. To be zero-energy (carbon) housing, 5 kW solar PV needs be installed in Darwin and Hobart, 4 kW in Melbourne and Canberra, 3.5 kW in Adelaide and Sydney, and 3 kW in Brisbane and Perth. It demonstrates that this tool can be used for housing retrofitting to be low/zero-carbon emissions and low operational cost.

The ongoing global energy crisis in Europe has intensified energy poverty in vulnerable households, prompting a critical examination of passive retrofit strategies for improving the habitability of obsolete social housing in southern Europe from the 1960s. Given the Mediterranean climate’s characteristics (hot summers and mild winters), these buildings possess low thermal resistance envelopes designed for heat dissipation in summer but contribute to elevated heating demands in colder months. In response to the pressing need for solutions that strike a balance between reducing energy demand and ensuring year-round comfort, this research explores diverse approaches. Drawing insights from built prototypes in Colombia and Hungary and utilizing a validated simulation model in Seville, Spain, this study investigates the feasibility of implementing a double-skin envelope on building facades and assesses the impact of thermal insulation in the air chamber. So, the research specifically aims to find an equilibrium between lowering energy demand and maintaining adequate comfort conditions, concentrating on the renovation of obsolete social housing with envelopes featuring low thermal resistance in the Mediterranean climate. Results indicate that, due to the poor thermal envelope, the influence of thermal insulation on comfort conditions and energy savings outweighs that of the double skin. Consequently, the emphasis of renovation projects for this climate should not solely concentrate on passive cooling strategies but should strive to achieve a positive balance in comfort conditions throughout the year, encompassing both warm and cold months.

The impact of climate change is expected to increase in the following decade. Possible effects on the built environment are identified as urban heat stress, air pollution, extreme weather conditions, etc. As a result, there is an increase in disease and mortality specifically in the cities among the vulnerable citizens such as elderly people and children. Moreover, many cities worldwide are in the evolution of urbanization which leads to increased carbon emissions as well as a demand for more material production and waste. Consequently, the construction industry embodies great potential for reaching the energy and carbon mitigation goals. For regeneration of the built environment, the European directives requires for the renovation of existing building stock as quick as possible. In Flemish context, cities stimulate renovation projects on a systematic and planned basis, by defining ‘urban renovation districts’ which received special financial facilities and subsidizing. Consequently, there is a growing demand for affordable housing in combination with a shortage of qualitative and energy efficient housing opportunities. In the last decades, there has been an intensive effort to develop different retrofit strategies, but there is a lack of comprehensive approach that delivers innovative technical solutions such as circular and bio-based construction methods as a solution to the increased housing demand of vulnerable people. For this purpose, this study combines the efforts of two initiatives, (1) Interreg Circular Bio-Based Construction Industry (CBCI) and (2) the innovative financial policy instrument of subsidy retention for low-income groups (refers to citizens living in poor quality houses with insufficient economic means & social skills to renovate). The study has the ambition to explore the coherence between technical, economical, legal, social aspects for circular urban retrofit strategies. Circular building materials and methods were developed and tested in real-life setting with construction of a prototype living lab (LL) in Technology Campus, Ghent. Depending on the results from the LL, an urban renewal strategy for Flemish districts is proposed by using subsidy retention on macro-economic and social level. The scenario is envisaged as a collective approach with the local community in which the vulnerable users also benefit as direct participants to the research.

New approaches are needed to achieve the scale and standard of building retrofit required to meet climate targets. Transition experiments are innovation projects that take a societal challenge as their starting point; they can be both top-down (government led) and bottom-up (civil society led). However, such experiments often remain isolated events that have little impact on delivering systemic change. There is limited knowledge on why this is so and what can be done to increase the success of experiments. The paper therefore compares the top-down approach to piloting Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategies (LHEES) in Scotland with the bottom-up strategy used for the Social Innovation Labs for a Zero Energy Housing Stock (SMILE) in the Netherlands. The different approaches are compared using three mechanisms to characterise systemic change: deepening, broadening and scaling up. Using data from interviews with local authority and citizen actors, the paper shows that neither top-down nor bottom-up experiments are sufficient in themselves to foster the new norms, information-sharing or legislative mechanisms needed to reach climate targets. The paper specifies elements of top-down and bottom-up experiments which can usefully be incorporated for achieving systemic change in energy retrofitting.Policy relevanceDelivering building retrofit at scale is crucial to net zero greenhouse gas emissions targets. Policymakers can benefit from adopting long-term strategic approaches to retrofitting, incorporating leadership from local actors. Central government coordination is essential to providing a clear programme and timetable for local actors to coalesce around. In addition, localised projects need to be shared and supported through centrally coordinated repositories and knowledge exchange. Policymakers must develop complementary policies designed to improve support from both governmental and non-governmental actors. This will include planning and citizen engagement, managed at a local level; this is crucial for retrofitting buildings, which affects everyone directly. Neither top-down nor bottom-up approaches are sufficient in themselves to deliver systemic change in retrofitting. Central coordination, together with local planning and public engagement, will provide more opportunities to deliver retrofit at the speed and scale necessary for meeting climate targets.

Malaysia has made continuous efforts to tackle energy sustainability challenges in recent years. There are significant opportunities to cut energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission (GHG) through retrofitting of existing domestic stocks. Due to the extremely fragmented nature of retrofit practice in the construction industry, there are some challenges among project stakeholders, including home occupants and builders in retrofitting residential buildings. There is a lack of research regarding the client's requirements for housing retrofit priorities and preferences for retrofitting measures and materials. Therefore, the aim of this research is exploring the owner's point of view for housing retrofit and their decision-making factors for choosing retrofit measures. In this study, by using sampling techniques, 400 people staying in Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru were selected for the housing retrofit preference survey. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software (SPSS Version 22) was used as a statistical software to analyze survey data. It was revealed from the questionnaire survey that window/door is the top priority for clients to improve energy efficiency. Furthermore, the most critical factors in improving energy efficiency are initial cost and thermal performance, respectively. Moreover, in decision-making factors for selecting construction materials, owners emphasized on initial cost and payback time as important factors. Therefore, all experts in the construction industry should take into account the interests of customers with technical matters at the same time. In conclusion, this research empowers professionals to know homeowner needs and preferences from the beginning of retrofit projects.

The reduction in energy and emissions from the building sector can come from improved standards for new construction and retrofits to existing buildings. The retrofit viability for single-detached homes in Vancouver, Canada, is examined in terms of the key drivers and barriers involving economic and social forces. Local experts considered the likelihood of retrofits occurring to several archetypal dwellings that were synthesized from local building data and homeowner characteristics. The survey results (n = 56) raised less known but potentially significant issues regarding energy-efficiency retrofits in Vancouver. Domestic fuel switching, from fossil fuel energy services to electricity, is likely the most desirable future mechanism for decarbonizing homes. However, many of the respondents identified that Vancouver’s real estate market has a significant negative influence on retrofitting due to high land values, which results in a high demolition rate of existing homes. Only 46% of responses returned a view that an existing home would remain standing by 2050. In addition, 41% of responses expressed a doubt that the dwelling, whether existing or new, would achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Both issues confront the City of Vancouver’s current emissions reduction planning, which has targeted near-complete decarbonization of the residential building stock by 2050.Policy relevanceNew construction is expected to account for only 30% of the greenhouse gas emissions reduction in Vancouver’s building sector. The potential for deep retrofits of single detached houses appear to be unlikely due to current real estate market conditions involving several perceived disincentives, e.g. low financial payback, poor knowledge, transaction costs, and the opportunity cost of new construction. If the widespread retrofit of single detached houses is a goal for cities that have high land-to-building value ratios, then the alteration of current market conditions is necessary. A basket of coordinated policy measures can be deployed to counter current market forces and reduce the demolition of existing homes. Such measures could include retrofit and planning codes, energy labelling, innovative finance, and public education.

Retrofitting apartments represents an important necessity for Bucharest, as the city's main body of residential construction was built during the communist era. The purpose of this paper is to reiterate the necessity of retrofitting apartments in Bucharest, through an analysis on the residential market on a large data sample of 19.795 transactions with apartments between 2013 and 2017. 19% of the sample consists of retrofitted apartments. Our analysis included spatial references relative to both retrofitted and non-retrofitted apartments, in order to include in the discussion whether there is a random distribution on the decision to retrofit the main constructions. The importance of retrofitting apartments, comes not only from the energy efficiency and cost for owners, but also to how they are transactioned in the market.