{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,26]],"date-time":"2025-12-26T03:44:03Z","timestamp":1766720643065,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":46,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"7","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2018,7,3]],"date-time":"2018-07-03T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1530576000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001871","name":"Funda\u00e7\u00e3o para a Ci\u00eancia e a Tecnologia","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["MITP-TB\/CS\/0026\/2013","UID\/MULTI\/00308\/2013","CENTRO-01-0145-FEDER-000006"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["MITP-TB\/CS\/0026\/2013","UID\/MULTI\/00308\/2013","CENTRO-01-0145-FEDER-000006"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001871","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sustainability"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Several technological, social and organizational factors influence energy management in school buildings, resulting in a complex situation away from the usual engineering approach. The selection of evaluation criteria to assess the energy performance of school buildings remains one of the most challenging aspects since these should accommodate the perspectives of the potential key stakeholders. This paper presents a comprehensive problem structuring approach combining Soft Systems Methodology and Value Focused Thinking to elicit and organize the multiple aspects that influence energy efficiency of school buildings. The main aim of this work is structuring the fundamental objectives to develop a criteria tree to be considered in a multi-criteria classification model to be used by management entities for rating overall energy performance of school buildings. This methodological framework helped grasping the main issues at stake for a thorough energy performance assessment of school buildings and the need to define adequate policies for improvement.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/su10072295","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2018,7,3]],"date-time":"2018-07-03T11:12:58Z","timestamp":1530616378000},"page":"2295","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":22,"title":["A Combined Value Focused Thinking-Soft Systems Methodology Approach to Structure Decision Support for Energy Performance Assessment of School Buildings"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"10","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5290-6424","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hermano","family":"Bernardo","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"INESC Coimbra, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Polo II, University of Coimbra, 3030-290 Coimbra, Portugal"}]},{"given":"Ad\u00e9lio","family":"Gaspar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"ADAI, LAETA, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Polo II, University of Coimbra, 3030-788 Coimbra, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4754-2168","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Carlos","family":"Henggeler Antunes","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"INESC Coimbra, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Polo II, University of Coimbra, 3030-290 Coimbra, Portugal"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,7,3]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3261","DOI":"10.1016\/j.buildenv.2006.08.016","article-title":"Improving energy performance of school buildings while ensuring indoor air quality ventilation","volume":"42","author":"Becker","year":"2007","journal-title":"Build. Environ."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"47","DOI":"10.1080\/09613218.2013.814746","article-title":"Improved benchmarking comparability for energy consumption in schools","volume":"42","author":"Hong","year":"2014","journal-title":"Build. Res. Inf."},{"key":"ref_3","unstructured":"IEA (2016). Energy Efficiency Market Report 2016, IEA."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Blyth, A., Almeida, R., Forrester, D., Gorey, A., Hostens, G., and OECD (2012). Modernising Secondary School Buildings in Portugal, OECD Publishing.","DOI":"10.1787\/9789264128774-en"},{"key":"ref_5","unstructured":"Gameiro da Silva, M., Antunes, C.H., Bernardo, H., Jorge, H., Cruz, L., Barata, E., Dias Pereira, L., Coimbra, M., Luis, G., and Neves, L. (2013, January 9\u201310). A preliminary assessment of energy performance in refurbished schools. Proceedings of the 1st International Congress on Energy & Environment (ICEE): Bringing Together Economics and Engineering, Porto, Portugal."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"734","DOI":"10.1016\/j.enbuild.2016.07.018","article-title":"Evaluating energy performance in non-domestic buildings: A review","volume":"128","author":"Borgstein","year":"2016","journal-title":"Energy Build."},{"key":"ref_7","unstructured":"Bernardo, H., Antunes, C.H., and Gaspar, A. (2015, January 14\u201315). Exploring the use of indicators for benchmarking the energy performance of Portuguese secondary schools. Proceedings of the Energy for Sustainability 2015 Sustainable Cities: Designing for People and the Planet, Coimbra, Portugal."},{"key":"ref_8","unstructured":"IEA (2010). Energy Performance Certification of Buildings: A Policy to Improve Energy Efficiency, IEA."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"641","DOI":"10.3846\/tede.2010.39","article-title":"Using SSM for structuring decision support in urban energy planning","volume":"16","author":"Coelho","year":"2010","journal-title":"Technol. Econ. Dev. Econ."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"968","DOI":"10.1057\/palgrave.jors.2601763","article-title":"Using SSM to rethink the analysis of energy efficiency initiatives","volume":"55","author":"Neves","year":"2004","journal-title":"J. Oper. Res. Soc."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"84","DOI":"10.1016\/j.erss.2015.03.004","article-title":"Towards more effective behavioural energy policy: An integrative modelling approach to residential energy consumption in Europe","volume":"7","author":"Lopes","year":"2015","journal-title":"Energy Res. Soc. Sci."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"48","DOI":"10.1016\/j.erss.2016.11.009","article-title":"Climate change and cities: Problem structuring methods and critical perspectives on low-carbon districts","volume":"25","author":"Freeman","year":"2017","journal-title":"Energy Res. Soc. Sci."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"37","DOI":"10.1080\/17508975.2015.1109789","article-title":"Sustainability as a \u201csuper wicked\u201d problem; opportunities and limits for engineering methodology","volume":"8","author":"Yearworth","year":"2015","journal-title":"Intell. Build. Int."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Guarini, M., Battisti, F., and Chiovitti, A. (2017). Public Initiatives of Settlement Transformation: A Theoretical-Methodological Approach to Selecting Tools of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis. Buildings, 8.","DOI":"10.3390\/buildings8010001"},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1188","DOI":"10.3390\/su4061188","article-title":"Unveiling the Process of Sustainable Renovation","volume":"4","author":"Thuvander","year":"2012","journal-title":"Sustainability"},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Wahlstr\u00f6m, \u00c5., Berggren, B., Florell, J., Nygren, R., and Sund\u00e9n, T. (2016). Decision making process for constructing low-energy buildings in the public housing sector in Sweden. Sustainability, 8.","DOI":"10.3390\/su8101072"},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"729","DOI":"10.1016\/j.omega.2011.01.005","article-title":"Soft OR comes of age\u2014But not everywhere!","volume":"39","author":"Mingers","year":"2011","journal-title":"Omega"},{"key":"ref_18","unstructured":"Rosenhead, J., and Mingers, J. (2001). Rational Analysis for a Problematic World Revisited, John Wiley & Sons."},{"key":"ref_19","unstructured":"Rosenhead, J. (1989). Rational Analysis for a Problematic World, Wiley."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"530","DOI":"10.1016\/S0377-2217(03)00056-0","article-title":"Problem structuring methods in action","volume":"152","author":"Mingers","year":"2004","journal-title":"Eur. J. Oper. Res."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"209","DOI":"10.1007\/978-1-4419-5904-1_8","article-title":"Problem Structuring and Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis","volume":"Volume 142","author":"Ehrgott","year":"2010","journal-title":"Trends in Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis"},{"key":"ref_22","unstructured":"Cl\u00edmaco, J. (1997). Multiple Criteria Decision Making Within Checkland\u2019s Soft Systems Methodology. Multicriteria Analysis: Proceedings of the XI International Conference on MCDM, Springer."},{"key":"ref_23","unstructured":"Checkland, P. (1981). Systems Thinking, Systems Practice, John Wiley & Sons."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Reynolds, M., and Holwell, S. (2010). Soft systems methodology. Systems Approaches to Managing Change: A Practical Guide, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-1-84882-809-4"},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1147","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ejor.2009.12.019","article-title":"A review of the recent contribution of systems thinking to operational research and management science","volume":"207","author":"Mingers","year":"2010","journal-title":"Eur. J. Oper. Res."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"11","DOI":"10.1002\/1099-1743(200011)17:1+<::AID-SRES374>3.0.CO;2-O","article-title":"Soft systems methodology: A thirty year retrospective","volume":"58","author":"Checkland","year":"2000","journal-title":"Syst. Res. Behav. Sci."},{"key":"ref_27","unstructured":"Checkland, P., and Scholes, J. (1990). Soft Systems Methodology in Action, John Wiley & Sons."},{"key":"ref_28","unstructured":"(2016, January 12). ADENE in Portuguese: Programa de Efici\u00eancia Energ\u00e9tica na Administra\u00e7\u00e3o P\u00fablica (ECO.AP). Available online: http:\/\/ecoap.adene.pt\/."},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"299","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ejor.2006.12.038","article-title":"Making decisions in the absence of clear facts","volume":"185","author":"Georgiou","year":"2008","journal-title":"Eur. J. Oper. Res."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"81","DOI":"10.1037\/h0043158","article-title":"The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on our Capacity for Processing Information","volume":"63","author":"Miller","year":"1956","journal-title":"Psychol. Rev."},{"key":"ref_31","unstructured":"Keeney, R.L. (1992). Value-Focused Thinking: A Path to Creative Decisionmaking, Harvard University Press."},{"key":"ref_32","unstructured":"(2013). Decreto-Lei N.o 118\/2013\u2014Sistema de Certifica\u00e7\u00e3o Energ\u00e9tica dos Edif\u00edcios (SCE), INCM. (In Portuguese)."},{"key":"ref_33","unstructured":"OECD\/IEA (2014). Capturing the Multiple Benefits of Energy Efficiency, International Energy Agency (IEA)."},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1409","DOI":"10.1016\/j.apenergy.2016.07.027","article-title":"Measuring multiple impacts of low-carbon energy options in a green economy context","volume":"179","author":"Kelemen","year":"2016","journal-title":"Appl. Energy"},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4935","DOI":"10.1016\/j.enpol.2007.04.009","article-title":"The macro-economic rebound effect and the UK economy","volume":"35","author":"Barker","year":"2007","journal-title":"Energy Policy"},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"636","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ecolecon.2007.08.013","article-title":"The rebound effect: Microeconomic definitions, limitations and extensions","volume":"65","author":"Sorrell","year":"2008","journal-title":"Ecol. Econ."},{"key":"ref_37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"151","DOI":"10.1016\/j.egypro.2017.04.044","article-title":"Using a Calibrated Building Energy Simulation Model to Study the Effects of Improving the Ventilation in a School","volume":"113","author":"Bernardo","year":"2017","journal-title":"Energy Procedia"},{"key":"ref_38","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Parnell, G.S., Bresnick, T.A., Johnson, E.R., Parnell, G.S., Bresnick, T.A., Tani, S.N., and Johnson, E.R. (2013). Craft the Decision Objectives and Value Measures. Handbook of Decision Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.","DOI":"10.1002\/9781118515853"},{"key":"ref_39","unstructured":"MAOTESSESS (2013). Portaria N.o 353-A\/2013: Regulamento de Desempenho Energ\u00e9tico dos Edif\u00edcios de Com\u00e9rcio e Servi\u00e7os (RECS)\u2014Requisitos de Ventila\u00e7\u00e3o e Qualidade do Ar Interior, INCM. (In Portuguese)."},{"key":"ref_40","unstructured":"Fanger, P.O. (1972). Thermal Comfort: Analysis and Applications in Environmental Engineering, McGraw-Hill."},{"key":"ref_41","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"115","DOI":"10.1002\/(SICI)1099-1360(199705)6:3<115::AID-MCDA140>3.0.CO;2-I","article-title":"Integrated Support from Problem Structuring through to Alternative Evaluation Using COPE and V","volume":"6","author":"Belton","year":"1997","journal-title":"J. Multi-Criteria Decis. Anal."},{"key":"ref_42","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Franco, L.A., and Montibeller, G. (2010). Problem Structuring for Multicriteria Decision Analysis Interventions. Wiley Encyclopedia of Operations Research and Management Science, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.","DOI":"10.1002\/9780470400531.eorms0683"},{"key":"ref_43","unstructured":"Maystre, L.Y., Pictet, J., Simos, J., and Roy, B. (1994). M\u00e9thodes Multicrit\u00e8res ELECTRE: Description, Conseils Pratiques et cas D\u2019application \u00e0 la Gestion Environnementale, Collection G\u00e9rer l\u2019Environnement; Presses Polytechniques et Universitaires Romandes."},{"key":"ref_44","unstructured":"Roy, B., and Bouyssou, D. (1991). Aide \u00e0 la D\u00e9cision Fond\u00e9e sur une PAMC de Type ELECTRE, Universit\u00e9 de Paris Dauphine\u2014Laboratoire d\u2019Analyse et Mod\u00e9lisation de Syst\u00e8mes Pour l\u2019aide \u00e0 la D\u00e9cision. Document du Lamsade."},{"key":"ref_45","unstructured":"Yu, W. (1992). ELECTRE TRI: Aspects M\u00e9thodologiques et Manuel d\u2019Utilisation, Universit\u00e9 Paris-Dauphine. Document du LAMSADE."},{"key":"ref_46","unstructured":"Yu, W. (1992). Aide Multicritere a la Decision Dans le Cadre de la Problematique du tri: Concepts, Methodes et Applications, Universit\u00e9 Paris-Dauphine."}],"container-title":["Sustainability"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2071-1050\/10\/7\/2295\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T15:11:06Z","timestamp":1760195466000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2071-1050\/10\/7\/2295"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2018,7,3]]},"references-count":46,"journal-issue":{"issue":"7","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,7]]}},"alternative-id":["su10072295"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/su10072295","relation":{},"ISSN":["2071-1050"],"issn-type":[{"type":"electronic","value":"2071-1050"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2018,7,3]]}}}