Evaluation of the sustainability of energy retrofit interventions on the historical heritage: A case study in the city of Matera, Italy

Abstract

For some years now the regulations in the sustainability field oriented the practitioners towards an increasing restraint concerning energy necessities, to reconsider the weight in terms of energy and environmental impacts associated with different phases of their life cycle. Among the reliable models to carry out the valuation, the Life Cycle Assessment remains a useful tool that determine the most impactful stages of the life cycle of any process and, thus, its environmental performances. This paper aims to develop and complete previous analyses on sustainability led on the historical heritage of the city of Matera, highlighting all the issues that are still unresolved and the possible solutions to be undertaken. Deep considerations on sustainability and its peculiarities are carried out. A reported analysis of literature and a description of the methods and tools used in the case study are shown. The case study consists in performing the LCA using SimaPro software, based on the assumptions aimed to the energetic retrofit for "Palazzo del Sedile", an historical building located in Matera, Italy. In this section, three methods of assessment are largely described, the choice has been made due to their significance in expressing the environmental effects from three very different perspectives.