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This study evaluates carbon emissions of construction and demolition (C&D) waste generated by building refurbishment, using a life cycle assessment approach through a case study project in China. Three waste management scenarios were developed for a building refurbishment project in the city of Suzhou. Scenario 1 is under the business-as-usual C&D waste management practice in China; scenario 2 is based on the open-ended 3R strategy, which focuses on the downstream impact of waste; and scenario 3 considers both the upstream and downstream impact of waste. The results reveal that the composition of the waste generated from building refurbishment projects is different from construction and demolition projects. In the life cycle of C&D waste management of building refurbishment projects, the refurbishment material stage generates the highest carbon emissions compared to the dismantlement, refurbishment construction, and refurbishment material end of life stages. Scenario 1 produces higher carbon emissions than scenario 2, but the difference is not significant in the whole life cycle of the building refurbishment project, whereas carbon emissions for scenario 3 are significantly less than both scenario 1 and scenario 2. The study finds the reason for this difference is that scenario 1 and scenario 2 are based on a linear economy that relies on unsustainable demand for raw materials, whereas scenario 3 is based on a circular economy that uses upcycled materials to substitute for raw materials and considers waste management from a cradle to cradle perspective. This study fills a research gap by evaluating carbon emissions of different waste management strategies for building refurbishment projects, which are expected to be an increasing portion of overall construction activity in China for the foreseeable future.

This study proposes a stock-level method combining Consequential Replacement LCA (CRLCA) and range-bound analysis to assess the carbon payback time (CPBT) of large-scale construction strategies. Extending CRLCA beyond individual cases enhances representativeness and policy relevance. Leveraging stable stock-level population dynamics, the study introduces a per capita metric alongside the conventional per area approach, highlighting the individual dimension of carbon impact. Against the backdrop of Switzerland’s inward development policy, the study examines 335 residential building replacement (BR) projects in Zurich (2001–2019), compared with two assumed refurbishment-based alternatives. Results show a CPBT of approximately 16 years per area and 21 years per capita for BR under the most optimistic carbon assumptions. Even in this best-case scenario, BR fails to achieve payback for post-2019 decisions, as decarbonization reduces new buildings’ operational advantage. This pattern holds for public buildings, where BR performs even worse. Per capita metrics yield more conservative outcomes than per area metrics under identical conditions, underscoring the importance of metric choice and its role in linking individual accountability to more inclusive, citizen-informed policymaking. Thus, this study supports prioritizing refurbishment over replacement as a climate-conscious urban renewal strategy and stresses that construction strategies are time-sensitive to decarbonization and must be reassessed as conditions evolve.

Sustainable urban planning can be challenging due to the complex and cost-intensive evaluation for multiple building entities. This can be due to the limited calculation tools available for assessing the refurbishment strategies at the city-quarter level. This study addresses this gap by comparing five refurbishment strategies for buildings at the city-quarter level using a life cycle analysis (LCA) approach supported by a prototype calculation tool. The tool combines the program Urbi+ (LCA for technical building equipment) with an LCA database for residential buildings and adds construction material costs. The analysis includes primary energy non-renewable (PENRT), global warming potential (GWP), and costs. The refurbishment strategies evaluated are: status quo (no changes), refurbishment to a nearly zero energy standard, refurbishment to a nearly zero energy standard with two additional stories, and demolition followed by new construction with two extra stories in either timber frame or massive mineral material. The results show that refurbishment strategies generally lead to higher environmental impacts and costs in the product phase due to additional materials, but significantly reduce impacts and costs in the operational phase, resulting in lower overall impacts and costs. The findings highlight the importance of considering the entire life cycle in urban planning and support the promotion of refurbishment solutions to achieve sustainable urban development.

PurposeAny building refurbishment is challenging and school buildings offer no exception. They are increasingly in need of refurbishment due to their age and evolving teaching and learning. The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of literature on sustainable refurbishment so as to identify key lessons from selected successful refurbishment projects. The review findings are expected to contribute to the development of refurbishment plans in an effective and innovative manner that should extend building’s service life, focus on resource efficiency, and comfort their users. It will also contribute to knowledge base of refurbishment and suggest future directions for research.Design/methodology/approachThe paper has undertaken a literature review on the sustainability assessment of buildings and frameworks for sustainable refurbishment. Besides, the work also provides a review of recent successful refurbishment projects to collect and structure systems experiences which can be adopted in developing a sustainable refurbishment strategy for school buildings.FindingsFindings include three groups of lessons in terms of reasons, process and barriers in the selected refurbishment projects that assist stakeholders to prepare a suitable refurbishment plan for their school buildings. The potential of 3D scanners and BIM applications in the refurbishment process will also be reviewed in order to develop a proposed framework of 3D scanner vs BIM for the refurbishment process. Recommendations highlight the role of a national strategy as a driving factor for applying the advantages of information technology to enhance optimal solution selection processes to get better and more sustainable results.Originality/valueThe conceptual framework for 3D scanner and BIM applications within sustainable refurbishment for school buildings is currently under researched, and the findings aimed to address such a gap when considering 3D scanners and BIM applications in the refurbishment process.

The fixed LIDAR system at University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) in Durban was installed in 1999 and operated until 2004. In 2004, the system was relocated and operation closed due to various technical and instrument problems. The restructuring of the LIDAR system was initiated in 2013 and it is now used to measure vertical aerosol profiles in the height range 03-25 km. Here, we describe the present system in detail, including technical specifications and results obtained from a recent LIDAR calibration campaign.

Following the acquisition of two sites from Cazoo, Greenhous Group has reopened these locations as vehicle refurbishment centres. Based in Livingston, Scotland and Cold Meece in the Midlands, this expands the group's national coverage. Ashley Passant, MD of Greenhous Group car anc van operations, said: We are thrilled to bring these two new refurbishment sites into the growing Greenhous network.

Reducing economic risk is a constant concern of companies to survive in the market. In this study, the economic risk was analyzed through the prism of two possible variants: the level of the physical volume of the production or the refurbishment. It was found that it can be reduced in both situations due to the existence of several production options and that economic risk is directly related to operating profit when the change is made only by increasing the quantity of the first product and decreasing the second product. In the case of refurbishment, the connection is reversed, respectively, when the operating profit decreases, the coefficient of the operational leverage increases. The 25% increase in sales revenues produces more favorable effects in the case of refurbishment.

The current policies aimed at promoting the decarbonization of existing buildings under the principles of the circular economy are in need of practical measures tailored to local conditions to increase their effectiveness. The lack of standard practices for assessing buildings’ refurbishment strategies toward energy efficiency and CE principles reflects this reality. To tackle this issue, a new framework for refurbishing circular buildings, is proposed in this paper, based on circular procurement and incorporating a lifecycle perspective. This framework articulates a dialogue between local authorities and private stakeholders through a set of steps that encompass building mapping, selective disassembly, (re)design, and (re)build practices, providing opportunities to implement policy-based incentives. The application of the framework within the Portuguese context demonstrates the potential to identify critical moments within the refurbishment process that can materialize in a new set of CE policy actions to be implemented at the building level. These policies are aligned with local construction permitting procedures and take advantage of the resources and incentives offered by the local administration, such as tax incentives.

SARS-CoV-2, like other coronaviruses, builds a membrane-bound replication organelle to enable RNA replication 1 . The SARS-CoV-2 replication organelle is composed of double-membrane vesicles (DMVs) that are tethered to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) by thin membrane connectors 2 , but the viral proteins and the host factors involved remain unknown. Here we identify the viral non-structural proteins (NSPs) that generate the SARS-CoV-2 replication organelle. NSP3 and NSP4 generate the DMVs, whereas NSP6, through oligomerization and an amphipathic helix, zippers ER membranes and establishes the connectors. The NSP6(ΔSGF) mutant, which arose independently in the Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Eta, Iota and Lambda variants of SARS-CoV-2, behaves as a gain-of-function mutant with a higher ER-zippering activity. We identified three main roles for NSP6: first, to act as a filter in communication between the replication organelle and the ER, by allowing lipid flow but restricting the access of ER luminal proteins to the DMVs; second, to position and organize DMV clusters; and third, to mediate contact with lipid droplets (LDs) through the LD-tethering complex DFCP1–RAB18. NSP6 thus acts as an organizer of DMV clusters and can provide a selective means of refurbishing them with LD-derived lipids. Notably, both properly formed NSP6 connectors and LDs are required for the replication of SARS-CoV-2. Our findings provide insight into the biological activity of NSP6 of SARS-CoV-2 and of other coronaviruses, and have the potential to fuel the search for broad antiviral agents. The non-structural protein NSP6 in SARS-CoV-2 has a key role in viral replication by zippering the endoplasmic reticulum membrane to establish connectors between the double-membrane vesicles of the viral replication organelle and the endoplasmic reticulum.

This study focuses on the optimal pricing and product refurbishing decisions of an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and a retailer in a supply chain. The OEM sells the new product through a retailer, which serves as a reseller or selling agency, and then chooses whether to provide the refurbished product to consumers. By constructing four models, we obtain the following results. First, we show that the OEM and the retailer always prefer to sell a refurbished product as a monopoly. Second, competing refurbishments leads to a prisoner’s dilemma in which both parties suffer greater losses compared to the no refurbishment scenario. This implies that competing refurbishments, except for product cannibalization, hinder the refurbishing industry. Finally, with different refurbishers, the OEM has different preferences for a new product’s selling format. However, when the retailer serves as the sole refurbisher, the OEM always prefers agency mode.