Environmental Sustainability Approaches and Positive Energy Districts: A Literature Review

Abstract

During the last decade, increasing attention has been paid to the emerging concept of Positive Energy Districts (PED) with the aim of pushing the transition to clean energy, but further research efforts are needed to identify design approaches optimized from the point of view of sustainable development. In this context, this literature review is placed, with a specific focus on environmental sustainability within innovative and eco-sustainable districts. The findings show that some sustainability aspects such as sustainable food, urban heat islands mitigation and co-impacts, e.g., green gentrification, are not adequately assessed, while fragmented thinking limits the potential of circularity. In this regard, targeted strategies should be developed. On the other hand, the Key Performance Indicators framework needs some integrations. In this direction, indicators were suggested, among those defined in the Sustainable Development Agenda, the main European standards and initiatives and the relevant literature experiences. Future outlooks should be directed towards: the harmonization of the Life Cycle Assessment in PEDs with reference to modeling assumptions and analysis of multiple impacts; the development of dynamic environmental analyses taking into account the long-term uncertainty due to climate change, data availability and energy decarbonization; the combination of Life Cycle Assessment and Key Performance Indicators based techniques, from a holistic thinking perspective, for a comprehensive design environment and the analysis of the contribution of energy flexibility approaches on the environmental impact of a project.

Operational Insights and Future Potential of the Database for Positive Energy Districts

“…The stories can bring new dynamic element to the PED Database, describing the PED design and implementation process through experience of particular stakeholder(s). Such an approach complements the already available static element of collected available data and information on PED cases/labs [20,23,75].…”

“…The concept of PED was introduced in 2018 [4], yet there are still not many currently available tools that allow to deepen the knowledge and characterization of this model. Recent studies and researches focusing on PEDs [17][18][19][20][21][22] highlight the emerging need to move from isolated best practices-i.e., pilot districts-to innovative, systematic, holistic and integrated approaches supporting the planning of green, healthy, efficient, liveable, and resilient districts, working in strict connection with the local planning instruments-e.g., Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAP), Sustainable urban mobility plans (SUMPs), City or District Plans, etc.-and relying on stakeholders' expectations and citizens' needs.…”

Science Based Targets and the factors contributing to the sustainable development of an organisation from a Literature review to a conceptual model

“…The use of indicators is an important element in determining an organization's efficiency. However, nowadays, the air pollution is the most assessed criterion for sustainability, and others, such as water and energy consumption (Morella et al, 2020) and from the articles retrieved about KPI (Marotta et al, 2021;Matlock et al, 2021;Pignatelli et al, 2023), it is possible to conclude that the financial, and social aspects of sustainability are being overlooked, due to the current focus on the environmental policies. The financial KPIs because they are well established, and the social KPIs because it is difficult to measure social stats, mainly due to them being more subjective and less quantifiable (von Geibler et al, 2006).…”

Operational Insights and Future Potential of the PED-Database

“…The stories can bring new dynamic element to the PED Database, describing the PED design and implementation process through experience of particular stakeholder(s). Such approach complements the already available static element of collected available data and information on PED cases/labs [19,22,74].…”