Ranking the Barriers to the Energy Upgrading of Buildings Using the Best-Worst Method

Fani Antoniou () and Theofilos Mageiropoulos
Additional contact information
Fani Antoniou: Department of Environmental Engineering, International Hellenic University, 57400 Sindos, Thessaloniki, Greece
Theofilos Mageiropoulos: Department of Environmental Engineering, International Hellenic University, 57400 Sindos, Thessaloniki, Greece

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 22, 1-21

Abstract: The global need to reduce energy demand has led European governments to accelerate their endeavors to achieve their targets regarding nearly zero-energy buildings. Despite the implementation of funding initiatives for the energy upgrading of buildings in EU member states and other European countries, research has shown that the absorption rates of the offered funds remain low. This research aims to assess the significance of the barriers to improving the energy efficiency of Greece’s building stock. This is achieved by ranking the identified barriers using the best-worst method (BWM). The innovation provided by this study is that the data obtained are based on the experience of three categories of stakeholders, including professionals in the field, i.e., engineers and skilled workers, and homeowners. The results show that all three groups are discouraged from performing the energy upgrading of buildings due to economic barriers but also technological barriers related to a lack of training in the use of and slow development of related new technologies.

Keywords: energy efficiency; BWM; ranking of barriers; nearly zero-energy buildings (nZEB); green buildings; eco-materials; residential homes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/22/10143/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/22/10143/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:22:p:10143-:d:1525384

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().