Seismic retrofitting within sustainable building assessment schemes

In a historic period in which the climatic crisis is becoming more threatening than ever, actions need to be taken to reduce the emissions in every possible human activity. One of the measures in the construction sector is the adoption of sustainable building certifications on a voluntary basis, whose results are expressed with a very simple grading that clearly shows everyone how much a building is green. However, such protocols currently lack in considering seismicity and the relative resistance to earthquakes. The current codes are providing buildings that are safe against seismic actions with the aim of avoiding human life losses, but they do not consider many attempts for reducing the damages inflicted to the structure. Less damages mean also more sustainable buildings, implying lower environmental, social, and economic impacts. That is why a seismic resistance related criterion could be introduced in the assessment of green buildings’ certifications. Moreover, the European Union is pushing towards their renovation of its building stock both on a seismic and energetical point of view, since it is prevalently constituted by buildings constructed some decades ago. By consequence, the ideation of the criterion is going to take place through the investigation of an idealized case study constituted by a reinforced concrete building whose construction dates back to the 1970s, adopting alternative seismic analysis methods. The structure will be located both in Germany and Italy, in order to assess the impacts of seismic retrofitting techniques in regions with very different seismic activities.