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The study was designed to assess the attitudes, strategic readiness and drivers and barriers to the adoption of sustainable retrofit within the UK social housing sector.

The study was undertaken using a structured questionnaire that was completed by 130 providers of social housing.

The study showed that social housing providers were aware of the sustainable retrofit agenda, but with varying levels of strategic readiness. Immediate benefits to residents were seen as important drivers, as opposed to more remote issues such as climate change. The emerging nature of the sustainable retrofit market was seen as a major potential risk for residents.

The study represents a snap-shot of adoption and effectiveness issues, therefore does not show the trajectory of adoption which should be addressed in a follow-up study.

The social housing sector has been viewed as a market maker for the sustainable retrofit market. The study shows the attitudes of the sector to this role.

The study has implications for the understanding social housing providers’ engagement with the sustainable retrofit market to address fuel poverty and climate change. Social housing's role as market maker has implications for policies such as Green Deal and Energy Company Obligation.

The study covers approximately 20 per cent of the social housing stock under management and gives a robust perspective of current views on adoption and effectiveness of retrofit technologies within the social housing sector. This is useful for both other social housing providers and policy makers.

The built environment has high potential to reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions and with around 1‐2 per cent of new buildings added to the total stock annually, the scope for reductions lies with adaptation of existing stock. Existing buildings comprise a variety of attributes and present challenges and opportunities with regards to adaptation and sustainability, and integrating retrofit measures that lessen energy, water and resource consumption.

Through a quantitative analysis of a Building Adaptation database, this paper addresses the questions; what is the nature of adaptations in relation to Premium quality office building stock in the Central Business District (CBD) and, what is the extent and scope for sustainable retrofits to Premium grade office buildings.

The nature and extent of adaptations to Premium office buildings are identified and quantified in respect of attributes such as adaptation level, building age, location, construction form, envelope, shape and height and operating costs.

The findings provide an insight for policy makers and others in respect of the nature and type of adaptations typically undertaken in Premium office buildings. The research identifies the typical attributes found in buildings undergoing adaptation and specifies the type of sustainable retrofit measures particularly suited to buildings with those attributes.

The research is based on an analysis of “all” office building adaptations from 1998 to 2008, which facilitates a unique study of what has occurred with regards to adaptation practices. From this starting point it is possible to determine where opportunities lie to capitalise on work being undertaken.

The study was designed to assess the knowledge, adoption and perceived effectiveness of sustainable retrofit technologies within the UK social housing sector.

The study was undertaken using a structured questionnaire that was completed by 130 providers of social housing.

The study showed that social housing providers were evenly split in their reliance on internal or external information for sustainable retrofit knowledge. In terms of adoption identified that this was strongly driven by government‐funded programmes, leading to widespread adoption of low technology solutions. The respondents identified that many leading edge technologies were perceived to be less effective.

The study represents a snap‐shot of adoption and effectiveness issues, therefore does not show the trajectory of adoption which should be addressed in a follow‐up study.

The social housing sector has been viewed as a market maker for some of the newer technologies. It indicates that some of the newer technologies, such as heat pumps are viewed as less effective than more established technologies.

The study has implications for the adoption of technology to address fuel poverty and climate change, as well as informing future policy such as Green Deal.

The study includes 130 responses from the social housing stock and gives a perspective of current views on adoption and effectiveness of retrofit technologies within the social housing sector. This is useful for both other social housing providers and policy makers.

Sustainable retrofitting of aged buildings plays a significant role in reducing energy demands and greenhouse gas emissions. This study aims to assess the performance and effectiveness of energy retrofit measures (ERMs) for an archetype of aged multi-storey residential buildings.

The methodology consists of three parts, namely, a desktop study including the selection of a case-study building and identification of ERM options for the building; development of a computer model to simulate the building’s energy use in the baseline scenario and different scenarios of ERMs; and evaluation of the ERMs based on energy-saving rate.

Among the 13 ERMs tested, lighting-related ERMs were found to be optimal measures while window fin is the least suitable option in terms of energy saving. Based on the research findings, a two-level retrofitting framework was developed for aged multi-storey buildings.

Future studies may take a similar approach of this study to develop retrofitting frameworks for other types of buildings, and further research paper can be extended to study retrofitting for buildings in a district or a region.

The findings of this study can serve as a reference for building owners to select effective ERMs for aged multi-storey buildings, which invariably exist in developed cities.

This study presents a pioneering work where an energy model and a building archetype were used to analyze the energy savings of a variety of ERMs that are applicable to aged multi-storey buildings.

Estimates show that close to 90% of the buildings we will need in 2050 are already built and occupied. The increase in the existing building stock has affected energy consumption thereby negatively impacting the environment. The purpose of this paper is to assess determinants of sustainable upgrade of existing buildings through the adoption and application of sustainable technologies. The study also ranks sustainable technologies adopted by the professionals who participated in the survey with an in-built case study.

As part of the overall methodology, a detailed literature review on the nature and characteristics of sustainable upgrade and the sustainable technologies adopted was undertaken. A survey questionnaire with an in-built case study was designed to examine all the sustainable technologies adopted to improve energy consumption in Australia. The survey was administered to sustainability consultants, architects, quantity surveyors, facility managers and engineers in Australia.

The results show a total of 24 technologies which are mostly adopted to improve energy consumption in existing buildings. A factor analysis shows the main components as: lighting and automation, heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HAVC) systems and equipment, envelope, renewable energy and passive technologies.

The findings bridge the gap in the literature on the adoption and application of sustainable technologies to upgrade existing buildings. The technologies can be adopted to reduce the excessive energy consumption patterns in existing buildings.

Proper performance assessment of residential building renovation is crucial to sustainable urban development. However, a comprehensive review of the literature in this research domain is lacking. This study aims to uncover the study trend, research hotspots, prominent contributors, research gaps and directions in this field.

With a hybrid review approach adopted, relevant literature was examined in three stages. In Stage 1, literature retrieved from Scopus was screened for their relevance to the study topic. In Stage 2, bibliographic data of the shortlisted literature underwent scientometric analyses by the VOSviewer software. Finally, an in-depth qualitative review was made on the key literature.

The research hotspots in performance assessment of residential building renovation were found: energy efficiency, sustainability, thermal comfort and life cycle assessment. After the qualitative review, the following research gaps and future directions were unveiled: (1) assessments of retrofits incorporating renewable energy and energy storage systems; (2) evaluation of policy options and financial incentives to overcome financial constraints; (3) establishment of reliable embodied energy and carbon datasets; (4) indoor environment assessment concerning requirements of COVID-19 prevention and involvement of water quality, acoustic insulation and daylighting indicators; and (5) holistic decision-making model concerning residents' intentions and safety, health, well-being and social indicators.

Pioneered in providing the first comprehensive picture of the assessment studies on residential building renovations, this study contributes to offering directions for future studies and insights conducive to making rational decisions for residential building renovations.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a set of affordable retrofit packages that can be applied to existing residential buildings in hot-humid regions to improve occupants’ thermal comfort and reduce energy consumption.

A critical review of relevant literature to identify passive design strategies for improving thermal comfort and reducing energy consumption in hot-humid climates with focus on the building envelope was conducted in addition to a simulation study of an existing building typology in study area.

There is enormous potential to reduce energy costs and improve thermal comfort through building retrofit packages which is a recent concept in developing countries, such as Nigeria. Analysing the results of the retrofit interventions using building energy simulation helped in developing affordable retrofit packages which had optimum effect in improving indoor comfort temperature to the neutral temperature specified for hot humid Nigeria and further down to 3°C less than that of the reference building used. The use of passive design strategies to retrofit the building might help homeowners reduce their annual energy consumption by up to 46.3 per cent just by improving the indoor thermal comfort.

In addition to improving thermal comfort and reducing energy consumption, this research identified affordable retrofit packages and considered its cost implications especially to low-income earners who form a larger population of Lagos, Nigeria, as this was not considered by many previous researchers.

The development of sustainable facilities management (FM) practices requires active and integrated engagement of the FM organization. Building on a three-year research project (2015-2018) within Nordic Built that aims to strengthen FM competencies in the Scandinavian countries, this paper aims to list and document the challenges and barriers of implementing sustainability as identified by the Scandinavian FM practitioners who took part in this research.

The paper builds on the understanding gained from using an interpretive sociological approach and uses qualitative mixed methods to collect data from four workshops, group sessions and expert group discussions with a mix of representatives including owners, property managers, facilities managers, consultants, teachers and academics. Four case studies were completed of refurbishment projects implementing sustainable solutions; these encompassed in-depth interviews with the stakeholders, site visits, observations of meetings and gathering project documentation. The data were complemented by a systematic literature review on a selection of topics focusing on articles referring directly to FM, the sustainability of FM, ends-user and stakeholder involvement, energy performance and sustainability. The challenges and barriers identified in practice were compared to those found in the literature.

The concept of sustainability, and its different dimensions and implications, seems to be well understood now by the practitioners who participated in this study, who claimed they were able to provide the required solutions. What seems to be lacking, though, is the possibility of convincing the end-users, who are expected to operate and maintain the facilities, to act according to the standards that these solutions require. It appears to be easier to focus on the technical aspects than on the end-users’ behaviors. The practitioners reported a shortage of social competencies and tools to deal with the situation, and despite an increasing awareness of smart technology, they lacked solutions to engage the end-users in optimizing the facilities. Besides, not all FM companies were well equipped to face the challenges imposed by the sustainable agenda; the small and medium enterprises in particular seemed to be struggling to implement the different dimensions of sustainability.

The limitation of this research rests in the chosen research approach as it focuses on the FM practitioners. The contribution of the end-users’ perspective is not strongly represented or systematically explored, but is identified as a new topic that needs to be investigated further to provide further insight. This study focuses on refurbishment and/or retrofit of existing buildings and the operation of facilities. The authors do not embrace the design phase or the construction phase of new buildings.

The paper underlines the need for frameworks and concrete tools to help FM practitioners to integrate the social and cultural aspects of sustainability. It identifies end-users, both in housing and in offices, as creating a bottleneck to the implementation of sustainable FM. To gain insight into this bottleneck, the authors suggest implementing a sociologically inspired method using an integrative approach. Highlighting such issues will mean that future research will be able to define further solutions for managing and maintaining existing and future built assets and fulfilling sustainability requirements by engaging end-users. This study also emphasizes the need to introduce these topics as part of the curriculum for FM education.

This paper provides an update on the level of the development of sustainable FM in the three Scandinavian countries. This is highly relevant for Scandinavian practitioners, but the authors consider this relevant for international practitioners, researchers, academics and teachers and developers as well. Practitioners and researchers are invited to join in these efforts to explore how to find practical frameworks, tools, policies and instruments and new services that will improve sustainable FM practices.

This paper aims to examine the concept and practice of green building for office interiors: whether the green intent can be effectively implemented in an interior retrofitting project.

Reviewing green building rating systems for interiors, examining certified interior projects and interviewing occupants working in certified green offices.

The green building credits for interiors fall into three relational layers: the urban context, the host building and interior fit-outs. Most projects under study performed well on credits for interior fit-outs (e.g. low emitting materials, energy efficient equipment and appliances, etc.), while underperformed on credits for its host building (e.g. air-conditioning systems, ventilation, etc.). The latter might more significantly affect working experience. The other important green aspects, such as daylight availability, facilities accessibility, might be subject to its location and urban context.

This article presents a multi-examination of green interiors. The data came from second-hand Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design scorecards and qualitative interviews. More quantitative surveys are expected to be conducted.

Green interior retrofitting should go beyond selecting environmental-friendly finishes and furniture or resource-efficient fixtures and appliances. It should proactively start from assessing the environmental performance of the host building and its urban context.

Most research looked at green building as a whole. Green interiors are actually more practical for tenants who intend to reduce their corporate environmental impacts, whereas they do not have control over whole building design and operations. This article highlights the importance of green interior retrofitting and provides guidance.

This case highlights a recent and important type of new sustainability project for existing buildings commonly referred to as an integrated energy retrofit (IER) project. Anthony Malkin of Malkin Holdings, owner of the Empire State Building (ESB), acknowledged the importance of making the existing building stock, particularly in New York City, more energy efficient, as it comprises a large part of the real estate in most cities. Taking a bold leadership position, Malkin vowed to make the ESB the most energy-efficient, sustainable, “green” pre-war office building through an IER project that examined several facets of the building's systems, operations, and tenant behaviors. In addition to making the ESB a green icon in Manhattan, Malkin also stated the importance of making the project transparent and economical so other pre-war buildings could copy the model. This case study examines in depth the process that Malkin Holdings underwent in attaining its goal of establishing the ESB as a leader in existing building sustainability.

After discussing and analyzing the case, students should be able to: Understand how to balance costs and benefits associated with an IER project Explain the benefits of green retrofitting to owners and tenants Identify risks in high-profile, complex projects and recommend mitigation strategies