RENOVIT - A just renovation of buildings: analysing the techno-economic, environmental and social feasibility of energy retrofitting in vulnerable households

Energy poverty refers to ‘the inability to attain a socially and materially necessitated level of domestic energy services’, which can have a significant impact on a person's quality of life. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG 7) aims to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030. One strategy to help achieve this goal is boosting energy retrofitting, which involves making changes to existing buildings to improve their energy efficiency and reduce energy consumption. This can include measures like upgrading insulation, replacing old appliances with more energy-efficient ones, and installing efficient devices like heat pumps. Energy retrofitting not only helps reduce energy poverty but also contributes to a more sustainable future by decreasing greenhouse gas emissions and dependence on fossil fuels.

At the IIT, we are working very actively to understand all the dimensions of energy poverty and proof of that is the numerous projects developed in the last years in collaboration with the Chair of Energy and Poverty. To extend this work into the evaluation of the social, economic and environmental impacts of energy retrofitting, we are looking for a candidate to develop a PhD thesis focusing on these issues and framed in an interdisciplinary research environment.