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Buildings must play a significant role in achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. Residential retrofits are an important part of this, but they are not being implemented at the scale and speed required to meet our goals. In this context, highlighting the co-benefits associated with energy retrofits could significantly strengthen the argument for more widespread adoption and effectively motivate building owners. Accordingly, this review utilizes a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches to analyze various dimensions of social, economic, and environmental co-benefits associated with residential retrofits initiatives. Following PRISMA guidelines, 207 articles were reviewed which indicated that the three most common retrofit interventions include adding insulation and replacing windows and heating systems. The results highlight the importance of implementing retrofits not only to improve environmental and economic outcomes, but also to provide significant social and health benefits. Findings show that the quantification of social benefits primarily revolved around inhabitant comfort and satisfaction, with thermal comfort emerging as the most extensively studied co-benefit, followed by health impact evaluations. In the reviewed studies, economic and environmental co-benefits have been analyzed with a focus on greenhouse gas emission reduction and the generation of new direct and indirect job opportunities. However, there is a need for standardized, comprehensive, multi-scale approaches to effectively evaluate the co-benefits associated with residential retrofits for all stakeholders, including individuals, society, and governments. Such an approach enables the integration of these co-benefits into policy objectives and retrofit decision-making processes, fostering a more holistic understanding of the positive impacts of residential retrofits.
Ruiz-Valero et al. (Wed,) studied this question.