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Urban greening provides a wide range of ecosystem services to address the main challenges of urban areas, e.g., carbon sequestration, evapotranspiration and shade, thermal insulation, and pollution control. This study evaluates the environmental sustainability of a vertical greening system (VGS) built in 2014 in Italy, for which extensive monitoring activities were implemented. The life-cycle assessment methodology was applied to quantify the water–energy–climate nexus of the VGS for 1 m2 of the building’s wall surface. Six different scenarios were modelled according to three different end-of-life scenarios and two different useful lifetime scenarios (10 and 25 years). The environmental impact of global-warming potential and generated energy consumption during the use phase in the VGS scenarios were reduced by 56% in relation to the baseline scenario (wall without VGS), and showed improved environmental performance throughout the complete life cycle. However, the water-scarcity index (WSI) of the VGS scenarios increased by 42%. This study confirms that the installation of VGSs offers a relevant environmental benefit in terms of greenhouse-gas emissions and energy consumption, however, increased water consumption in the use phase may limit the large-scale application of VGSs.

The last decades witnessed an unexpected spread of the concept of sustainability. This phenomenon has also involved the urban and architectural design field for its obvious and known environmental impact. This cultural process, undoubtedly positive, is leaving a trace in our time more than others. It is leading to a growing awareness of the environmental problem, to an ever-wider diffusion of new design approaches and new technologies and to a significant reduction in energy consumption and polluting emissions. However, this same cultural process has exponentially accelerated over the last decades, partly because of emergency circumstances, causing an extreme simplification of its content and a subsequent rise in false beliefs. An example is the belief that the direction towards environmental culture is going is unambiguous and commonly shared. The following essay is a reflection on this false belief and its possible consequences.

The building sector accounts for 40% of energy use and 25% of CO2 emissions, mainly due to inefficient building practices and energy consumption during the operational phase of buildings. Social housing accounts for a significant proportion of the European building stock and about 50% of the existing buildings are likely to require large-scale renovations in the coming years, meeting the current EPBD directive. This could represent an opportunity to renovate the affordable building stock, often characterized by premature disrepair, resulting in a bad perception from inhabitants and community. Significant European experiences have already shown the importance of an integrated approach finalized to the construction or renovation of social housing, leveraging on environmental sustainability, creating urban identity, adopting measures to face social disadvantage, offering at the same time quality housing standard. In this regard, it seems necessary to match technological advancements and knowledge in energy retrofitting with social needs and habits. The implementation of energy-efficiency improvements in social housing requests support and participation of the final energy consumer. The paper investigates how to deal with knowledge gaps in the relationship between retrofit technologies and users’ behaviour and possible strategic measures to increase awareness between tenants through two case studies.

Data shows that buildings play an important role in the field of energy efficiency and environmental sustainability. The exchange of information among different countries is a key element to promote a wider diffusion of practices for sustainable development in the fields of architecture and urban planning, contributing to the improvement of new skills and economic and production activities, while also reducing the environmental impact of construction on the territory. An international cooperation can lead an exchange of experiences and practices, which could play a fundamental role since countries can have similar problems to deal with, as it happens for the specific identity of the Mediterranean territory in coastal and rural areas. This paper analyses a case of international cooperation, the project SCORE, “Sustainable COnstruction in Rural and fragile areas for energy Efficiency”, financed under the European MED Programme with the purpose to promote sustainable energy policies in the construction sector on fragile coastal and rural Mediterranean areas.