In recent years, the term “sustainability” has become almost a mantra in the construction sector. Yet, behind the often-enthusiastic communication of green technologies and “eco friendly” materials, there is a reality that is much more complex, dense with compromises, technical limitations and choices that are rarely black or white. When scientists enter this conversation, a different picture emerges.
This is the space that ENEA, the National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, has decided to occupy with determination: that of rigorous, methodical research, built on real data and on monitoring in the field. Three researchers from ENEA’s Laboratory for Technologies for the Safeguarding of Architectural and Cultural Heritage, Vincenza Anna Maria Luprano, Patrizia Aversa and Ivano Iovinella, tell us how science is trying to steer the construction industry towards an authentic decarbonisation, where sustainability is not a marketing promise, but a verifiable and measurable result.
The role of ENEA: neutral science in the service of the building transition
ENEA positions itself as a reference centre for professionals in the sector, with a very precise task. Combining the development of new materials and the promotion of authentic sustainability, rigorously testing the materials placed on the market and providing feedback to end users.
This is a crucial role in a historical moment where the construction sector is under increasing pressure. Building, in fact, is the most energy intensive sector and the biggest contributor to CO2 emissions among industrial sectors, representing at least 40% of the worsening of the global climate situation.
ENEA’s mission is clear: to foster the process of decarbonisation and the modernisation of the sector through innovation based on scientific evidence. The agency’s research methodology follows an approach that international research recognises as reliable. ENEA projects foresee the experimentation of new materials and methodologies with the obligation of on-site monitoring which, in the case of projects financed by the European Community, provides for a duration of at least twelve months.
The importance of verifying with real data measured in the field
This monitoring is fundamental to verify that the properties declared in the technical datasheets of materials actually correspond to the positive effects observable in operation, both in terms of CO2 savings and energy consumption. In a sector where unverified claims often proliferate, this practice represents an anchor of certainty. The bulk of environmental impact and the climate challenge lies in the existing built heritage, while the impact of new constructions is significantly smaller. It is a strategic perspective that redefines the priorities of sustainable intervention. In the project, a small building was selected, an eight-apartment block of social housing managed by the agency ARCA Capitanata, Regional Agency for the House and Living. A choice that also guarantees potential replicability of the intervention on a significant scale. The location presents multiple and fascinating challenges. The building is located at the beginning of the seismic zone near Foggia, which required a holistic approach of upgrading not only energy performance, but also structural performance. In addition, proximity to the historic saltworks of the area exposes the building to particularly aggressive atmospheric agents and important climatic issues, making the monitoring of materials and systems even more relevant from a scientific point of view.
“Kilometre zero hemp”
The structural intervention included the optimisation of the building knowledge process through non-destructive techniques (NDT) to investigate the pillars and minimise intervention time. The heart of the intervention consists of the use of a particularly innovative material in building cladding: “The use of hemp creates a kilometre zero virtuous circle, a crucial concept since a large part of CO2 consumption is due to transport, and optimising distances is vital for sustainability”.
The takeaway is simple. Smart does not have to mean intrusive. With a method that is recognised at the European level, a guided interface that turns assessment into action, and real world evidence from three heritage sites, SMARTeeSTORY’s SRI web tool gives building owners and public authorities a credible way to plan digital upgrades that protect what is valuable and improve how buildings perform every day.
The territorial dimension and the role of hemp
The bulk of environmental impact and the climate challenge lies in the existing built heritage, while the impact of new constructions is significantly smaller. It is a strategic perspective that redefines the priorities of sustainable intervention. In the project, a small building was selected, an eight-apartment block of social housing managed by the agency ARCA Capitanata, Regional Agency for the House and Living. A choice that also guarantees potential replicability of the intervention on a significant scale. The location presents multiple and fascinating challenges. The building is located at the beginning of the seismic zone near Foggia, which required a holistic approach of upgrading not only energy performance, but also structural performance. In addition, proximity to the historic saltworks of the area exposes the building to particularly aggressive atmospheric agents and important climatic issues, making the monitoring of materials and systems even more relevant from a scientific point of view.
One of the central cores of the REHOUSE project concerns the choice of the insulating material: hemp hurd, the waste product from processing industrial hemp.The production process of hemp hurd for the building sector is very important, because hemp, a natural plant-based material, is sensitive to humidity and requires correct production and storage procedures, as well as attention to proper preservation on site during installation phases.This choice is not purely technical, but also territorial and strategic. Here, however, lies one of the great challenges of real sustainability, the one that scientists face with honesty. Hemp production in Italy, although growing, is not yet sufficient to fully cover demand, especially for building uses, and it is not standardised. This is one of the aspects that makes importing from France preferable, cancelling at least partially the advantage in terms of transport and circularity.
Hemp hurd
The Region of Puglia has invested significantly in converting land to industrial hemp, and the use of hemp as insulating material for the construction sector also supports this local agricultural supply chain, creating a kilometre zero circular economy virtuous circle. With changing climatic conditions, it becomes indispensable that designers, when using simulation software, enter accurate and updated input data, since commercial databases do not always adequately represent new climatic scenarios. According to data from international research, in fact, the thermo hygrometric behaviour of hemplime bio bricks is in any case comparable to traditional insulating materials commonly used such as Poroton or EPS, and they record slightly more performing results if accompanied by good management of internal ventilation, especially in the winter phase, allowing the house to “breathe”.
The intervention: from diagnosis to multifunctional innovation
The overall REHOUSE intervention represents a model of integration between research, innovation and social considerations. The upgrading foresees the application of a multifunctional ventilated façade from the outside, a choice that minimises disturbance to tenants and speeds up execution times compared to internal interventions. This innovative wall integrates vertical photovoltaic panels for decentralised energy production, aligning with the project’s objective of achieving an energy class close to zero consumption (Class A) or even that of generating more energy than is consumed, thanks also to innovation in heating and cooling systems.
Choose earlier, choose well
Before proposing the REHOUSE project, ENEA took care of mapping the waste products produced in the Puglia territory, such as straw and hemp hurd, to evaluate their reuse in other supply chains, including the building sector. This circular economy approach is not superficial: it represents a real territorial study to push the kilometre zero model. As emerges from the interview, the reasoning is that the choice of the intervention must be planned upstream taking into account, in order of priority, structural safety, durability and sustainability. The most sustainable choice in terms of material does not always coincide with the choice most suitable for the overall intervention.
Introducing sustainability into society
One of the most interesting aspects of the REHOUSE project is the involvement of tenants in the decision-making process, a dimension that the European Commission has pushed strongly, that of social innovation. ENEA researchers have strongly believed in the use of facilitators to explain the innovations to tenants and manage their acceptance, an action particularly delicate in a social housing context, where some residents have less familiarity with new technologies.
“Making the benefits understood”
Ivano Iovinella, Researcher at ENEA (Laboratory for Technologies for the Protection of Architectural and Cultural Heritage)
The results of this dialogue were enlightening and human. Tenants expressed their concerns about the installation of a green wall on the north side, for fear of insects and for the commitment required by maintenance. Such doubts were taken on by ARCA Capitanata in the final decisions. They instead fully accepted the complete electrification of the building, including induction cookers, perceiving it as a tangible improvement in quality of life. This acceptance represents a change of perspective: sustainability is accepted not as an abstract environmental sacrifice, but as an improvement of concrete and measurable living comfort.
The action of the facilitator was considered such a relevant good practice that the Region of Puglia has already included it in the new guidelines for urban regeneration projects.
The project’s performance indicators (KPIs) include:
- Energy consumption pre and post intervention
- Time saved during the intervention (thanks to external application)
- Minimisation of intervention time inside the apartments
- Reduction of embodied energy through life cycle analysis (LCA), thanks to the use of hemp, which has a significantly lower impact compared to petrochemical materials
- Post upgrading checks (at least one year) of energy consumption and the internal microclimate (temperature and humidity)
- Monitoring of the improvement of living comfort
The comparison with costs was not neglected. Partners were encouraged to use cheaper products to favour a wide range of application and replicability on a European scale.
“A difference compared to the past, today the priority is protection from heat”
Vincenza Anna Maria Luprano, Researcher at ENEA (Laboratory for Technologies for the Protection of Architectural and Cultural Heritage)
The complexity of a “prudent” structural sustainability
If the energy sustainability of buildings presents significant challenges, the structural one proves even more complex. Structural materials must meet extremely stringent regulatory requirements in terms of mechanical strength, durability and reliability: this drastically limits the space for sustainable innovation. In existing structures, in fact, the choice of innovative materials can shrink drastically, often to two or three solutions at most, since new materials must have characteristics compatible with guaranteeing good adhesion with existing structures.
Territorial mapping: turning waste into a resource
One of the less communicative but fascinating dimensions of ENEA’s work concerns the circular economy applied to building waste. The agency deals with mapping the waste produced in specific territories, wool in Sardinia, straw, hemp hurd in Puglia, to evaluate its reuse in other supply chains, including the building sector. This approach represents a paradigm shift compared to traditional waste management.
International studies have shown that over 95% of materials from demolition can be reused. 35% to renew the structure itself and 60% for other uses, without ending up in a landfill. Research conducted by ENEA in collaboration with Sapienza University, on a site of industrial archaeology in Rome, confirmed this potential: a deposit of demolition materials contained about 18 thousand cubic metres of materials, mainly reinforced concrete, for a total weight of about 35 thousand tonnes and over 15 thousand tonnes of stored carbon. The systematic mapping of these waste materials, conducted at national and local scale, represents a strategic tool to plan the efficient use of domestic resources and build robust circular economy supply chains by leveraging the productive characteristics of territories.
The cultural and communication challenges of sustainability – The scepticism of an “over” population
One of the most critical, and honest, aspects of the interview with ENEA researchers concerns the cultural and communication challenges of the public debate on building sustainability. A significant difficulty is represented by the demographic target of the Italian population over 70, owners of many historic properties and often sceptical towards innovative solutions. There is also a fundamental problem: the lack of reliable long-term data on the durability of sustainable materials in the face of new climate scenarios that are changing rapidly. Another critical element is climate change itself: upgrading buildings in the Mediterranean context must face an opposite problem compared to the past. If historically the focus was placed on protection from winter cold, today the priority is protection from summer heat, a challenge that significantly changes the criteria for selecting materials and insulation strategies.
The inflation of the term “sustainability”
But the deepest challenge is communicative. The term “sustainability” has been subject to verbal inflation and instrumental uses. Sustainability is often presented as an ethical necessity or a passing fashion, when in reality it remains a structural necessity: building contributes at least 40% to the worsening of the global climate situation. ENEA and the scientific community more generally, as a neutral third party, is constantly engaged in producing real data useful to scientific research in order to demonstrate the effectiveness and durability of innovative materials.
“It is crucial that the balanced communication of technicians is transmitted outside to reduce clashes based on principles. Sustainability must be communicated as an improvement in living comfort and lower consumption, rather than as an immediate saving on bills.”
Patrizia Aversa, Researcher at ENEA (Laboratory for Technologies for the Protection of Architectural and Cultural Heritage)
The perspective is fascinating: instead of presenting sustainability as a sacrifice or as an ideological principle, scientists suggest communicating it as a concrete improvement of quality of life, reduction of energy waste, superior thermal comfort, better indoor air quality, less humidity, elements that citizens can perceive and appreciate directly.
More data, more intellectual honesty
ENEA research and projects like REHOUSE represent a model that is by no means rare in the contemporary landscape: that of a sustainability built on rigid science, constant measurement and intellectual honesty regarding compromises and real limitations.
A lesson to be learned for the construction industry
The message of ENEA researchers is not one of triumphant green innovation, but a more mature and necessary one: building sustainability is possible, it is necessary, it is already under way, but it requires rigour, time, constant dialogue with territories, and above all, honest communication on real results rather than on promises. In a historical moment where the credibility of scientific research is increasingly pressed by polarised narratives, this way of doing research represents an anchor of balance, of method and of hope based on data, not on rhetoric. The real challenge, then, is not technical, sustainable materials already exist, and so do the methods to verify them, but cultural and communicative: how to tell a story of an energy transition that is at the same time urgent and complicated, vital and not simple, necessary and aware of its own limits?
This blog article was originally published in the Mobilita.org – magazine in cooperation with ENEA and translated from Italian to English with permission from the authors.
Original source: Sostenibilità oltre la retorica: la sperimentazione di ENEA – Master
Original author: Giulio Di Chiara
Website: Master – Dentro i grandi progetti e le infrastrutture di Italia
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mobilita-org/
Copyright pictures: ENEA https://www.enea.it/en
