A CBA-based analysis for the retrofit of a reference district

Many studies are shifting their attention from the sustainability of a single building to the one of the entire urban system. This is the reason why we decided to focus on the research of policies that allow to achieve a more sustainable way of life for the entire urban system. Starting from the first chapter, we discuss the European and international targets designed to keep the emissions produced under certain levels and to have a shift to a decarbonised society. Moreover, we also analyse several case studies to categorize their main features and the measures applied to improve the sustainability at the district and urban level. In the second chapter, we describe manifold policies that can be applied to reach the reduction of fossil fuels consumptions and of the emissions while, in the third one, we analyse the structure of a cost-benefit analysis and the environmental, social and economic benefits that can be achieved with the application of these measures. Afterwards, we focus on the creation of a pilot district for the city of Turin, which can be representative for its entire urban system. Through the application of different sustainable policies on it, the aim is to compare the saving of energy consumptions and the emissions reduction. The sectors that we consider, and on which we are going to intervene, are the buildings, mobility, waste and street lighting sectors. Since the measures applied on different sectors are manifold, we create several scenarios, composed by one policy for each sector, on which we evaluate costs and benefits. After that, we calculate the economic indicators of the cost-benefit analysis, which allow to choose the best project from the environmental, social and economic point of view. This thesis shows which is the best scenario and that, if the proper measures are foreseen, we can also obtain an economic return for the whole society. Therefore, in a key sentence, the main and ambitious purpose of this thesis is to create a sustainable pilot district for the city of Turin that can be reproduced on its entire territory to develop in the future a sustainable way of life for its entire urban system.