Approaching the whole quality of buildings: methods for the evaluation of economic, energetic and environmental issues

In this work the energy, economy and environment ("three E") requirements for buildings are approached in a joint view, by means of an application to an example building typical of the Italian building stock. With this aim, the rate of involvement of renewable sources is here considered for linking energy and environmental characteristics. Economic and environmental features are joint by means of the evaluation of the cost of the saved CO2. Economic and energy characteristics are linked by means of the cost of the saved energy. In turn, the environmental ambit is addressed by means of the ecoprofile methodology and of the environmental labelling of buildings. This should lead toward a first approach for singling out an overall indicator of the environmental sustainability that, suitably related to other performances of the buildings (e.g., the durability of materials and the indoor performances), could be proposed as a tentative measure of the whole quality of buildings.