• Energy Research

Abstract Employees’ wellbeing and comfort perception demonstrated to largely influence their productivity and tolerability of slight thermal discomfort conditions in the working spaces. Their whole comfort perception indeed depends on several parameters related to physical boundary conditions but also to the adaptation capability of occupants themselves and other personal, difficult to measure, variables. According to the available standards and regulations, only physical and measurable environmental parameters must be considered to evaluate occupants’ comfort conditions. Therefore, non-measurable factors such as socio-psychological, physiological, medical ones are currently not systematically considered. The present work aims to identify possible benefits in terms of occupants’ comfort perception due to non-physical strategies aimed at improving the work-environment quality and livability. To this aim, the environmental multi-physics and multi-domain performance of a mixed industry-office building is investigated through coupled in-field microclimate monitoring and questionnaires campaigns. The experimental microclimate monitoring and survey campaign were carried out to understand (i) the realistic indoor environmental conditions in terms of physical and measurable parameters and (ii) the personal perceptions and attitudes of the occupants with respect to those same ambient parameters, including also acoustic, lighting and medical investigation. Moreover, the collected experimental data were used to determine occupants’ comfort level through the classic comfort models, to be compared to the identified role of non-physical parameters on occupants’ final perception about the indoor environment. The main results show that non-measurable factors induced by virtuous company policy to improve employees’ working environment are effectively able to positively influence their whole-comfort perception even if the majority of workers do not have the opportunity to control their working environment. In fact, the consolidated comfort theories underestimate people satisfaction, as demonstrated by more than the 80% employees, who declared to be positively influenced by the pleasant aesthetics and livability of the workplace. The year-round experimental campaign demonstrated the need to further investigate the key role of non-physical parameters for possible incorporation into whole-comfort prediction models and standards. The role of such strategies could therefore be realistically considered as energy saving opportunities since they make building occupants much more open to tolerate slight uncomfortable conditions.

Abstract While cool materials are widely acknowledged for lowering surface and air temperatures, mitigating Urban Heat Island, reducing emissions imputable to active cooling systems in buildings, concerns arise about their impact on pedestrians' thermal and visual perception. These materials are typically applied on roofs, urban paving and building envelope: when the application is on non-usable spaces for pedestrians, it represents a win-win solution, since it decreases thermal stresses with no penalties for pedestrians. Instead, if the cool surface is installed over a passage area, glare and thermal radiative stress could affect pedestrians' comfort perception. In this work, a naturally cool, light colored stone is considered in the form of aggregates with varying grain size for cool roofing and paving application. Therefore, given its intrinsic passive cooling effect, this paper wants to experimentally investigate if such sustainable and cost effective material can create sensible thermal/visual discomfort perceived by pedestrians. To this aim, pedestrians' perception is investigated by means of in-situ survey and continuous monitoring in summer variable weather conditions, by taking into account several paving systems, i.e. grassland, asphalt, natural stones, and the investigated cool stone aggregates. The study demonstrated how in hot and sunny weather conditions, pedestrians prefer grassland, while asphalt is the least favorite material in any case. Cool gravel based surface does not produce thermal discomfort but it produces some visual discomfort due to glare issue, only in sunny weather conditions. In fact, variable weather conditions significantly affect pedestrians' sensitivity and their preference, also in the same summer season.

Crowdsourcing of inventive activities is a particular form of crowdsourcing that helps firms to innovate by involving dispersed individuals to exploit “crowd wisdom”. In this context, the greater the number of contributions, the greater the possibility to gather extremely valuable ideas to produce innovative products and services. While monetary and social rewards can be an effective means to boost contributors’ extrinsic and intrinsic motivations to contribute, a theoretical understanding and empirical evidence of their effects are lacking. This paper focused on the crowdsourcing of inventive activities, initiated by listed companies worldwide, from 2007 to 2014. Our findings shed light on the influence of monetary and social rewards on the number of ideas collected. In particular, we analyzed the impact on the number of contributions brought about by monetary rewards and noted a positive influence related to its presence and also a negative effect related to the amount of the compensation. Moreover, we have demonstrated how the presence of a social cause is beneficial to the number of contributions. Consequently, we contribute to a scholarly understanding of the crowdsourcing phenomenon and we have provided guidance to managers seeking to initiate crowdsourcing campaigns.

Abstract In order to mitigate Urban Heat Island Effect and global warming, both governments and scientific community are working to reduce energy consumptions. In particular, the construction sector has a high potential in reducing energy demand, by means of both active and passive solutions. The European building stock is mainly composed by existing buildings as well as historical ones, which happens to be the less energy efficient ones. Moreover, retrofit operations are more complex on historical buildings, due to strict regulations for the preservation of such historical and cultural heritage. Considering this challenge, in this work we described and in lab analyzed possible passive solutions specifically designed for historical and existing buildings. In particular, we developed innovative cool colored mortars and tested them in lab, as well as investigated cool colored mortars, cool clay tiles and cool natural gravels performance when applied as envelope and roof elements, by means of dynamic simulation.

Abstract Urban heat island is an anthropogenic phenomenon affecting urban outdoor thermal comfort conditions and energy utilization. This is even truer in urban canyon configurations, characterized by low sky view factor and where the effect of short-wave and long-wave solar radiation on construction surfaces is able to produce massive outdoor local overheating. Traditional solutions cannot always be applied in urban historical canyons, where the exteriors of buildings cannot be modified due to preservation. Here, the capability of innovative cool materials to mitigate local microclimate of historical urban canyons is investigated. A preliminary experimental characterization of the materials is performed. A numerical simulation of the microclimate effect generated by the application of such materials is performed. Results show that the proposed materials improve the microclimate without neglecting preservation constrains. Such materials set the best scenarios in terms of thermal comfort, by enhancing albedo on canyon surfaces. Their application on the vertical surfaces of narrow canyons can lead to deleterious effects on outdoor thermal comfort. Such findings are confirmed by PMV and MOCI analyses. Energy efficiency solutions may be effectively implemented in historical districts, opening the doors to other tailored solutions, such as integrated renewables, to make these environments more sustainable and comfortable.

The adoption of open innovation and peer production, powered by 3D printing technology, is transforming traditional manufacturing methods towards a “third industrial revolution”. The purpose of this research is to provide empirical evidence for an integrated approach, based on collaborative product development and peer production, combined with 3D printing, to deliver more sustainable, yet competitive, marketable products. In particular, this experimental study is conducted in the context of mobile forensics, an emerging market where limited expensive products exist and alternative solutions are needed. The technical viability and economic feasibility of the prototype developed in this research validate the proposed integrated approach, which could be a game-changer in the field of mobile forensics, as well as in other sectors. The sustainability improvements with this approach are a reduction of the total cost, thereby making it affordable for lower income users, and a decrease in energy consumption and pollutant emissions. The validated integrated approach offers start-up opportunities to develop and deliver more sustainable, marketable products, towards the paradigm of Open Sustainable Innovation. While the device developed and tested in this research has similar features to existing products, the methodology, implementation, and motivation are original.

AbstractGiven the acknowledged thermal performance of natural light color gravels applied as cool roof and cool urban paving, this work is aimed at investigating if such behavior is perceivable by pedestrians, who are questioned in this paper about their visual and thermal comfort perception. In fact, there are still related aspects to analyze, in order to optimize their application and provide a comfortable space for users, both on the thermal and the visual point of view. Therefore, the question that this work wants to answer is: given their intrinsic characteristics, do these materials create a sensitive thermally and visually more comfortable environment for pedestrians? In order to address this uninvestigated issue, users’ judgment about visual and thermal comfort of these surfaces is considered, also by comparing them with grassland and asphalt. Also, the statistical correspondence between physical properties of such materials and possible correspondence with respect to human perception with varying weather conditions is analyzed. Given the relatively high reflectance of these materials, it appears particularly important to evaluate these aspects, to consciously apply them as urban paving or roof covering by optimizing their natural passive cooling potential. In this preliminary study, users’ response to these surfaces is evaluated by mean of field surveys, both on the thermal and the visual evaluation, and contemporary in-field measurements of surface parameters. Also, human perception with respect to these high-reflectance surfaces’ is compared with the one related to grassland and asphalt, with varying weather conditions. Then, a statistical analysis is performed to investigate the differences among different gravels, grassland and asphalt, based on surveys’ results. The results show how pedestrians, questioned during summer days, prefer grassland, while asphalt is the less favorite surface both visually and thermally; there is a small difference between gravels’ types evaluation, while weather variability affect the preferences.