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Healthy, sustainable, energy-efficient buildings are more valuable since the green movement. Air quality, lighting, acoustics, and thermal conditions affect IEQ. Indoor air quality affects resident health. Chemicals or organisms contaminate the air. This work contributes to the goal of renovating and decarbonizing existing public administration buildings in the regional territory by integrating technologies and advanced building-plant systems management policies. This work focuses on building-plant energy diagnosis, its principles, regulations, and application procedures, especially IEQ and thermohygrometric comfort measurement and evaluation protocols. It follows a discussion of LCA for energy diagnosis and smart indoor air quality management and maintenance, such as quantifying human activity's impact on the indoor environment or adapting a modeling methodology to identify critical parameters to be monitored and controlled by buildingplant systems' integrated sensor and actuator architecture. The goal is to find connections between indoor and outdoor air quality, occupant behavior in public buildings (especially schools and universities), and short- and long-term BRI. The study compares smart building diagnostic methods and procedures to European standards. This may improve Public Building Administration Social-LCA standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The journey to sustainability is becoming increasingly crucial in manufacturing, particularly in resource and energy intensive industries. In recent years, the matter of sustainability in industrial contexts has become an important point on the legislative agendas of many governments as well as in public opinion, with the latter becoming increasingly sensitive to enterprises' dedication to this problem. As a result, companies have started to implement sustainable approaches into their manufacturing processes and increased the amount of information about these practices to customers and stakeholders. The purpose of this work is to evaluate manufacturing sustainability using coupled exergetic and life cycle performance indicators, which are used to comprehend the outcomes of the studies as well as to qualitatively and quantitatively evaluate the models developed. The purpose of this study is to first present an overview of the metrics associated with the integrated or combined implementation of Exergetic Analysis and Life Cycle Assessment, their significance, and their application in specific use scenarios. Some illustrative indicators are then compared in an actual industrial case study, and the outcomes are discussed. Among the highlights, it is not yet able to determine a metric that measures the degree of manufacturing sustainability individually and thoroughly owing to the multifaceted character of the manufacturing processes. The overall conclusion is that combining Exergy with Life Cycle Thinking is indeed a beneficial solution for enhancing industrial processes, although the accuracy in measuring environmental, but primarily social and economic, concerns is not obvious. he assessment's interpretation is typically troublesome due to a lack of full and up-to-date data and confidence analysis, as well as a lack of scientific coherence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, the focus on manufacturing-sustainability is not necessarily on energy management, but rather on its intelligent use. An increase in productivity leads to a reduction in costs, but may increase consumptions based on demand elasticity as rebound effect. The article focuses on exergy coupled with Life Cycle Assessment to address manufacturing-sustainability. Indicators are widely adopted in order to better interpret and communicate the results of a hybrid analysis; they are easy to interpret and represent a useful strategy to quickly and intuitively detect changes in the energy efficiency and quality of processes that are subject to change in time. The aim of this work is to firstly provide an overview on the metrics related to the hybrid or coupled use of exergy and Life Cycle Assessment, their meaning, their practice in particular use cases. The most representative indicators are compared within a real case study and discussion of the results is provided. Among the main outcomes, their accuracy in evaluating environmental but especially on social and economic aspects is not yet clear. The lack of complete and up-to-date data and uncertainty analysis is often problematic, such as the lack of scientific consistency in the interpretation of the assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The continuously rising cost of energy and its impact on environmental policy are the primary boost for industry to stay global competitive in terms of maximizing productivity and raising operational costs. The prevailing goal in the height of industry 4.0 is to inspect and optimize manufacturing processes. The challenge is to consider thermodynamics as simulation and modelling solution that enables improve energy production and help efforts to shift towards a smart factory. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that using thermodynamic models as Exergy and Life Cycle thinking provides major benefits since it allows evaluation results more reliable and aims to develop a retrofitting approach that enhances the process to avoid system failures efficiently. Any practitioner may pick suitable sensing networks in line with Industry 4.0, in order to develop a monitoring and control infrastructure and improve any manufacturing system, getting it smarter. In this article, an explanatory case study on the production process of an Italian SME will be presented and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Featured Application: Applications of papercrete as new eco-friendly mortars for masonry panels. The manufacturing of Portland cement is responsible for a big amount of energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission. Therefore, to date, it is imperative to find alternative materials to replace a major part of cement for sustainable concrete constructions. The present study forms a part of an on-going research project on the application of new cementitious matrices produced using different types of recycled materials. In particular, it focuses on the use of pulp and waste paper to partially replace Portland cement at varying percentages for producing a new lightweight mortar, frequently named papercrete. The development of this economical and eco-friendly material may permit of recycling a big amount of waste paper leading to lower housing costs with also ecological benefits. To this scope, an experimental campaign in the laboratory is carried out to characterize this new innovative material from a physical and mechanical point of view. The preliminary results of this on-going experimental campaign are illustrated and commented on in this paper. The obtained results confirm the possibility of applying this partially-recycled material as a possible alternative for strengthening existing panels of masonry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For some years now the regulations in the sustainability field oriented the practitioners towards an increasing restraint concerning energy necessities, to reconsider the weight in terms of energy and environmental impacts associated with different phases of their life cycle. Among the reliable models to carry out the valuation, the Life Cycle Assessment remains a useful tool that determine the most impactful stages of the life cycle of any process and, thus, its environmental performances. This paper aims to develop and complete previous analyses on sustainability led on the historical heritage of the city of Matera, highlighting all the issues that are still unresolved and the possible solutions to be undertaken. Deep considerations on sustainability and its peculiarities are carried out. A reported analysis of literature and a description of the methods and tools used in the case study are shown. The case study consists in performing the LCA using SimaPro software, based on the assumptions aimed to the energetic retrofit for "Palazzo del Sedile", an historical building located in Matera, Italy. In this section, three methods of assessment are largely described, the choice has been made due to their significance in expressing the environmental effects from three very different perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present work is focused on technical feasibility of heating system design of two School District situated in the town of Matera. This paper analyses three different heating system highlighting for each of them advantages and disadvantages respect energy covered and environmental impact. To design heating system we conducted a previous energy audit in dynamic conditions on School District. This previous step is necessary to define energy demand and the best strategies to improve energy efficiency of these structures. Before to design heating system, we applied some envelope improvement on numerical model built with Design Builder software. In Fact, the school building which took part in School District has a high heat loss surface because they were built before the first Italian Law on energy efficiency. The heating system typologies considered in this study are: high temperature absorption heat pump integrated with a solar thermal system, high temperature electrical heat pump and cogeneration system. The first heating system typology has a great advantage in terms of primary energy because the conversion factor from natural gas to primary energy is equal to 1.05. The second one, high temperature electrical heat pump, has a great energy efficiency respect to the first one (2.50 vs 1.65) but, in term of primary energy, this system is not so convenient. In fact, the conversion factor from electricity to primary energy is equal to 1.95. The third one, cogeneration system, has the advantages to cover not only heating request but also electric request of school district. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper a careful energy audit and an energy restoration of some historical buildings was performed. In particular, three cultural heritages buildings situated in the city of Matera in Southern Italy were analysed. To analyse these buildings, an integrated approach based on measurements in situ and on dynamic energy simulations was used. Then, some energy efficiency actions were performed, safeguarding the authenticity value of these structures. The thermal conductance, the indoor temperature and the energy consumption were measured in situ and then the numerical virtual model was created by the Energy Plus code (Energy Plus is free, open-source, and cross-platform developed by the U.S. Department of Energy's and Building Technologies Office) (U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Building Technologies Office (BTO), Washington, DC, USA). The numerical model was validated by using the Inequality Coefficient (IC) and then different parametric energy analyses were performed. The paper analysed different energy improvements and a techno-economic feasibility study was performed for each improvement. This analysis was conducted in dynamic regime by using the Energy-Plus code. In these buildings the thermal system improvements have a better payback time than envelope improvements. Two different thermal system improvements were analysed: the absorption heat pump with thermostatic valves and the compression heat pump with fan coil unit. Moreover, the replacement of present lighting with LED technologies has a payback time near one year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The stone and the clay are the basic elements of the existing architectural heritage in the Mediterranean area, both historical and monumental. The study cases taken into account are the "Sassi of Matera" and the "Trulli of Alberobello." The thermohygrometric performances of the "Tufo of Matera" (commonly denoted as calcarenite sandstone) and the "Stone of Fasano" (commonly denoted as calcareous stone), which are the base materials of the buildings "Sassi" and "Trulli", were quantified through measurements in situ, realized with nondestructive methodology and analyses in laboratory. The behavior of these constructions has finally been better described with dynamic simulations developed by the software EnergyPlus. This study demonstrated that the thermal mass of these structures mainly affect the indoor microclimate, stabilizing the inside temperatures and thus annulling the great thermal daily oscillations of the external temperature. The results of the measurements and numerical simulations confirmed that the seasonal thermal storage of these structures allows comfortable temperatures during the summer season, with values below 26°C, and stabilizes the indoor temperatures during the winter season, through the release of the heat stored during warm season. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sassi of Matera are a very interesting example of a rocky settlement. The limestone walls often present high moisture content which negatively influences the room microclimate. In the first part of this paper, rooms without evident problems of moisture were analyzed for the purpose of carrying out a statistical analysis, to be repeated in analogous situations and to identify the distribution of what we can define as background moisture of the rocky installation. The knowledge of moisture, however, greatly influences the evaluation of heat loss since thermal conductivity of a material increases with an increase in the percentage of water that is contained within it. Consequently, the second part of the paper deals with thermal conductivity and other thermal physical properties related to the moisture of the calcareous sandstone present in the installation of the "Sassi," continuing the analysis initiated in a previous work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sassi of Matera are a very interesting example of a rocky settlement. The limestone walls often present high moisture content which negatively influences the room microclimate. In the first part of this paper, rooms without evident problems of moisture were analyzed for the purpose of carrying out a statistical analysis, to be repeated in analogous situations and to identify the distribution of what we can define as background moisture of the rocky installation. The knowledge of moisture, however, greatly influences the evaluation of heat loss since thermal conductivity of a material increases with an increase in the percentage of water that is contained within it. Consequently, the second part of the paper deals with thermal conductivity and other thermal physical properties related to the moisture of the calcareous sandstone present in the installation of the “Sassi,” continuing the analysis initiated in a previous work. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Today, the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is the most employed tool for assessing the sustainability of products and processes, both from an environmental, social and economic point of view. Exergy is defined by literature as the amount of useful work that can be derived from a real system when it is brought into equilibrium with its environment. In the literature, it is considered an outstanding concept that can be applied to enhance the effectiveness of ordinary evaluation models such as LCA. The literature proposes a variety of hybrid approaches that combine Exergetic Analysis (EA) and LCA with different combination frameworks. The aim of this paper is to describe the potential of each hybrid method and to characterize the degree of interoperability between EA and LCA that each of them can provide. Nevertheless, there are drawbacks that seem to be too challenging to overcome: a variety of inconsistencies in the interpretation of the results due to the difficulty of the inventory phase and the ambiguity in the choice of the correct alternative in the standard databases; the link with old techniques that refers to obsolete approaches in finding data that suit to the updated goals and scopes; the difficulty in conducting an assessment affected by the least possible uncertainty. Following a theoretical overview of the principles of each hybrid method that binds EA and LCA, the authors want to provide a review from a completely different point of view than the state-of-the-art literature, on how effectively EA and LCA can interact with each other in order to provide a more holistic view of the system/process to be assessed. The fascinating circumstance that emerges from the review is that any exergy approach would be more effective if joined (not replaced) to the standard LCA, because it turned out to be complementary. This theory has long been developed by many authors in their case studies as a confirmation of what Gutowski wrote years ago: no single alternative criteria or subsidiary model, independently of how well aggregated, may offer a suitable answer for all conditions. Specifically, through this review, the practitioners would be able to choose the best suited hybrid methodology, according to their aims, join the outcomes together and achieve a transdisciplinary knowledge of the behavior of the study case system, in order to design the best improvement strategies. • A systematic review on hybrid approaches for sustainability assessment is provided. • A summary of the operating procedures of each hybrid approach is given. • A review of case studies applying hybrid approaches is carried out. • Four recurrent integration models between EA and LCA have been discerned. • The EA-LCA interoperation issues are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]