Proposing a Conceptual Decision Support System for Building Energy Retrofits Considering Sustainable Triple Bottom Line Criteria

Beyond the traditional economic dimension, improving energy efficiency through building energy retrofits could be also evaluated through the consideration of environmental and social dimensions. Integrating these three dimensions of sustainability-which is often called the triple bottom line (TBL) approach-for decision-making in energy retrofits could help evaluating the retrofitting project performance with a broader perspective. This study introduces the sustainable energy retrofit (SER) decision support system to select an optimum energy retrofitting strategy for a specific building, while maximizing the project's TBL benefits. Economic, environmental and social indicators are defined and used in a multi-objective optimization model. The proposed SER decision support approach can be adapted and used in any energy retrofit project that wish to consider and optimize TBL criteria.