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In public buildings located in geographies with extreme and highly variable environmental conditions, such as Sweden, managing lighting systems reliably presents unique challenges. These arise not only from technical concerns like lifespan and energy use, but also from the need to ensure human well-being under seasonal extremes of natural light availability. This paper proposes a novel, context-driven framework for asset diagnostics and performance monitoring using two metrics: Critical Integrative Levels (CIL) — which classify lighting zones based on user activity, exposure time, and age group — and Mean Time of Exposure (MTOE), a newly introduced variable that quantifies user interaction with light in space and time. Three case studies across Swedish public libraries (from Luleå to southern Sweden) were used to validate the approach. The results show that integrating human-centric parameters into lighting diagnostics enables more responsive, context-aware threshold setting, compared to traditional functionality-based criteria (e.g., luminous flux percentage). Practical implications include earlier anomaly detection, prioritization of maintenance, and the ability to tailor lighting reliability metrics to real user needs, particularly under non-stationary environmental conditions. The proposed model provides a scalable structure for use in smart public infrastructure, aligning with Industry 5.0 principles. Future research will focus on extending the framework to automated digital twin environments, as well as exploring generalization across sectors such as healthcare, education, and transportation hubs.

Climate change is considered as one of the biggest threats that humankind is facing nowadays, with environmental, social, and economic consequences. The building sector is facing multiple climate change impacts, which is becoming more and more vulnerable. This is especially true considering that about 35% of the buildings in the European Union (EU) are over 50 years old and the replacement rate of new building in Europe is low. Therefore, it is expected that much of the existing building stock will be affected by several climate change impacts in near future. Specifically, from the building point of view, these impacts can range from a slight rise in the average environmental temperature and humidity levels to extreme and severe events (such as strong wind and floods), changing in most of the cases, the building performance, and thermal behavior. Among the adaptation strategies to climate change, the envelope optimization, whichever climate type, is the most effective way to reduce the building energy dependency and increase the indoor thermal comfort. In this regard, the integration of phase change materials (PCM) into the building envelope can produce a sort of extra thermal capacity to the building, enhancing its overall energy efficiency. Specifically, when PCM is used without any control systems, it means that it is passively contributing to the building thermal comfort, stabilizing the indoor temperature and reducing both cooling and heating demands. Considering that the effectiveness of PCM application over the building envelope is mostly associated with the selection of the appropriate melting temperature and thickness, in the context of climate change, it is expected that the optimal PCM melting point and amount found for the present period will not be optimal for future and vice versa. Therefore, the present book chapter presents a numerical investigation on the effectiveness of PCMs wall implementation as a resilient building refurbishment solution. Specifically, the book chapter aims at proofing the PCM’s capability of being an effective building refurbishment strategy, under historical and future climate conditions. The whole study is based on dynamic building simulations carried out by IDA ICE tool on a typical residential single zone house in Stockholm (Sweden) and Rome (Italy) cities. The results of the simulations highlight that PCM can contribute to a reduction of cooling demand and improve the indoor thermal comfort under both historical and future climate in Stockholm. In addition, PCM results in slight effectiveness in reducing heating loads, and the total annual energy saving is between −1.5% and −2.4% for the historical period and −1.9% and −5.7% for the future one. In Rome, the incorporation of a PCM layer in the building envelope slightly reduces the cooling demand and enhances the indoor thermal comfort, where the total annual energy saving equals to −1.6% for the historical period. Conversely, no beneficial effects in term of annual energy saving have been observed for future climate condition in Rome.

The building provides to the occupants a shelter envelope and comfortable interior climate conditions. Starting from our ancestors, climate directly has great influence on both building design and the corresponding building’s overall energy performance. Nowadays, passive design has been getting popular again for taking advantage of the regional climate to maintain a comfort indoor climate, so as reducing or eliminating the dependence on active systems. Along with the prolonged construction service years, the current appeal of passive design is not only facing historical weather but also the changing future climate. It is undoubted that there is an ever-widening disparity between historical weather patterns and current—not to mention future—climate conditions resulting from anthropogenic changes. Consequently, this chapter focuses on this field and presents a preliminary climate-adaptive design study for urban multifamily buildings at early stage. Special attentions are paid to the indoor thermal comfort and minimum energy use from today to the last part of the twenty-first century. The generated future climate data combined with thermal comfort model assessment has been proposed as a new way of including future climate scenarios in preliminary building design for two representative sites, in Rome, Italy, and Stockholm, Sweden. The existing vulnerability to the expected climate conditions from psychometric analysis indicates that (1) the climate trend in Rome would gradually lead to more failures in the majority of conventional adaptive design measures, as the cooling and dehumidification demands would rise from 5.3% to 23.6%, while the heating and humidification demands would decrease from 27% to 16%, and (2) the climate trend in Stockholm would result in an increased comfort period by exploiting more adaptive design measures, since the heating and humidification demands would be reduced from 67% to 53%. However, the cooling and dehumidification demands would increase slightly from 0% to 1.5%. Accordingly, four main key risks are identified: (1) overheating would become a rising increasing public health threat for buildings in Rome that rely exclusively on natural ventilation; (2) open questions remain for the design team in the area of correct cooling load selection, additional space for the future installation and the effectiveness of current cooling device, etc.; (3) occasional heat waves and gradual rising humidity levels are expected to be a vulnerable topic for conventional lightweight building in Stockholm; and (4) buildings with a heavy heating load would tend to have greater cooling demand, especially those with poor ventilation resources or greater internal gains. In conclusion, it is suggested that envelope optimization, whichever climate type, is one of the most efficient and effective adaptation measures toward future climate conditions. After that, a detailed case study with a new container building is proposed accordingly.

Background and aim. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported in 2019 that the building sector accounts for 21% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with 18% originating from producing construction materials such as cement and steel. This highlights the urgent need to address embodied carbon in construction to align with climate goals. This study examines the potential of reusing structural materials, primarily concrete elements, to significantly reduce embodied emissions in the construction sector, which has increasingly focused on embodied carbon alongside operational energy efficiency.

Methods and Data. A lifecycle analysis compared the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of concrete elements reclaimed from an old building, conventional concrete, and timber construction for the structural frame of a row house.

Findings. Reclaimed concrete demonstrated the lowest GWP, achieving a 77% reduction compared to traditional concrete and surpassing timber. These findings indicate that reclaimed concrete elements can rival timber as a sustainable building material.

Theoretical / Practical / Societal implications. Prioritizing sustainable material choices and resource efficiency is crucial for the construction sector to meet increasingly stringent global climate targets. This study emphasizes the importance of reusing structural materials to lower carbon emissions during construction, contributing to a more sustainable built environment.

Background and aim: The construction industry contributes approximately 19% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and accounts for one-third of worldwide energy consumption, underscoring its pivotal role in addressing climate change. This study evaluates the environmental impact of preserving an existing concrete structure versus constructing a new one with cross-laminated timber (CLT) or virgin concrete.

Methods and data: The effectiveness of environmental comparison in mitigating carbon emissions and reducing resource consumption is investigated through a comparative lifecycle analysis of reuse and replacement scenarios. Utilizing the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) framework, three scenarios were analysed: (1) preserving existing concrete floors on-site and adding two cross-laminated timber (CLT) extensions, (2) demolishing the existing concrete structure to construct an entirely new five story building using CLT, and (3) demolishing and constructing a new five story structure with cast-inplace virgin concrete. The analysis comprehensively quantifies the Global Warming Potential (GWP) across the production, operational, and end-of-life stages.

Findings: Results demonstrate that reusing existing concrete floors reduces approximately 40 kg CO₂e/m² gross floor area compared to a new timber construction and 121 kg CO₂e/m² tons compared to new concrete construction.

Theoretical/practical/societal implications: The results highlight the environmental benefits of implementing circular economy principles into construction practices.

This study proposes a practical manual for community engagement in Positive Energy District (PED) development. It integrates evidence from three European pilot cases (Austria, Sweden, Spain). Using a dual-tier framework, it integrates an engagement framework, the Theory-of-Change (ToC) sequence for dynamic stakeholder roadmaps, with an assessment framework (an eight-aspect PED Matrix). The ToC model clarifies the socio-organizational pathway from urgency to institutionalization while the roadmaps translate these steps into actionable involvement for public, private, civil, and academic actors across top-down, bottom-up, and hybrid approaches. The proposed ToC framework is further supported by the PED Matrix, covering technology, process, environmental, financial, managerial, governance, social, and legal dimensions, which aims to ensure a holistic and target-oriented assessment using a simple 0–3 maturity scale. Guided by the central research question, “How can community engagement be systematically conceptualized, implemented, and tested throughout the PED life cycle using an integrated ToC model, stakeholder roadmap, and multi-aspect evaluation Matrix?”, this study provides practical instruments for stakeholder profiling and adaptive participation design and demonstrates application across contrasting governance, cultural, and climatic contexts. The three use cases show how engagement strategies can be tailored to secure early wins, sustain momentum, and support long-term ownership and replication. The study thus offers decision-makers and practitioners a scalable, evidence-based approach to embed inclusive participation within technical PED delivery and to strengthen the social robustness of district-scale energy transitions.

In an era of rapidly advancing lighting technology and evolving public library roles, this study introduces a groundbreaking strategy for human-centric and integrative lighting asset management. Embracing both visual and non-visual effects, “integrative lighting” aims to enhance users’ physiological and psychological well-being. Despite technological progress, notably with LEDs, current asset management often lags, relying on reactionary measures rather than proactive strategies. As public libraries transform into dynamic learning hubs, the significance of indoor lighting, impacting both physical health and holistic well-being, cannot be understated. Yet, many existing solutions are based on controlled lab tests, bypassing the diverse real-world needs of public libraries. Aiming to explore and develop human-centric and integrative lighting asset management strategies to optimize lighting environments in public libraries, this research offers a cohesive approach encompassing context identification, a management framework, and a maturity assessment model. Additionally, this study highlights the synergy between the role of the lighting asset manager, ISO 55000 principles, and these foundational strategies. This holistic approach not only reinvents lighting in public libraries but also aligns it with the broader Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), advocating for light as a conduit of comprehensive human betterment. The current study is primarily qualitative in nature. While this study is based on public libraries in Nordic countries, the implications and findings can be of interest and value to a broader international audience.

Traditional asset management of lighting systems typically focuses on functionality, cost, and lifespan. In contrast, a human-centric approach prioritizes social sustainability and user well-being by ensuring lighting assets “provide the right light at the right time” for diverse activities. Light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs, known for energy efficiency and longevity, have become a preferred choice, yet public libraries often struggle to manage these assets sustainably, remaining in a reactive “fix/replace when it breaks” stage. Current predictive methods, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, rely on laboratory data that often overlook real-world contexts, leading to performance gaps. This paper presents a context-driven, human-centric methodology for LED prognosis and maintenance strategies in public libraries, employing limited degradation data from LED testing. Advanced analytical techniques, including Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) and Deviance Information Criterion (DIC), support a shift from function-based to performance-based reliability assessment. By incorporating Mean Time of Exposure (MTOE) and Critical Integrated Levels (CILs), the approach defines optimal maintenance inspection intervals. This research enhances sustainable LED lighting management in public libraries, offering a framework adaptable to broader applications and aligned with human-centric goals.

As more companies strive for net-zero emissions, mitigating indirect greenhouse gasemissions embedded in value chains—especially in logistics activities—has become a critical priority.In the European logistics sector, sustainability and energy efficiency are receiving growing attention,given the sector’s intersectional role in both transportation and construction. This transition towardlow-carbon logistics design not only reduces carbon emissions but also yields financial benefits,including operational cost savings and new market opportunities. This study examines the impactof passive design strategies and low-carbon technologies in a Swedish logistics center, assessedusing the low-carbon design criteria from the BREEAM International standard, version 6. Thefindings show that passive energy-efficient measures, such as the installation of 47 skylights fornatural daylighting, reduced light power density in accordance with AHSHARE 90.1-2019 and theintegration of free night flushing, contribute to a 23% reduction in total energy consumption. Inaddition, the integration of 600 PV panels and 480 batteries with a capacity of 268 ampere-hours and13.5 kWh storage, operating at 50 volts, delivers a further 56% reduction in carbon emissions. Byoptimizing the interaction between passive design and active low-carbon technologies, this researchpresents a comprehensive feasibility analysis that promotes sustainable logistics practices whileensuring a future-proof, low-carbon operational model.