The evolution of sustainable renovation of existing buildings: from integrated seismic and environmental retrofitting strategies to a life cycle thinking approach

The sustainable renovation of existing buildings is currently at the top of the agenda of the European Union. Sustainability is typically defined as the result of the interaction of environmental, economic, and social aspects, and it is now considered a major target objective in all sectors of our economy, including the construction one. The concept of sustainable renovation has changed significantly over time, leading to the current interpretation that considers the need to simultaneously improve safety and resilience against natural hazards and minimise energy and resource consumption, as well as to reduce impacts along the life cycle of the building. This manuscript presents insights into combined/integrated environmental and seismic retrofitting techniques and assessment methods for the sustainable renovation of the existing building stock, specifically focussing on those conceived according to a Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) approach. This manuscript goes beyond the current available state of the art by highlighting the evolution of the concept of building sustainability throughout time, as well as defining a comprehensive taxonomy of available retrofitting strategies, while also identifying common clusters among available research papers. This research effort is part of the mission of the European Association of Earthquake Engineering (EAEE) Working Group 15 (WG15), which focusses on ‘combined seismic and environmental upgrading of existing buildings”.