Sustainable Renovation Practices in Decision-Making for Multi-Family Buildings

Energy-efficient renovation of the existing building stock is essential for achieving the ambitious sustainability goals set by the European Commission for 2030. However, implementing sustainable renovation has proven challenging, as numerous studies have concluded. Multi-family buildings are a significant part of Sweden’s building stock and require renovations to meet energy efficiency standards. This study aims to provide an overview of sustainable renovation practices in Sweden’s multi-family buildings. A semi-open structured questionnaire was developed to examine the adoption of these practices, with data collected from 11 housing companies. The responses reveal that Swedish housing companies are well aware of the three key aspects of sustainability and actively consider them in their renovation projects. Notably, specific energy use and investment costs are the most commonly used methods for evaluating the environmental and economic aspects, respectively. However, there is a lack of a common method for assessing the social aspects of renovation projects. Additionally, this study highlights the need for standardized decision-making tools in multi-family building renovations.