Assessing the sustainability of the energy use of residential buildings in Belgrade through multi-criteria analysis

• Defining, selecting and calculating energy indicators of sustainable development.
• A novel of measuring sustainability of residential buildings has been proposed.
• Application to target group (present overall housing stock) in the city of Belgrade.
• Proposing ASPID multi-criteria method to calculate the index of sustainability.

The paper presents a method for selecting and calculation indicators of sustainable development, needed for determining the level of sustainable development, expressed through sustainability index of residential buildings. It is important to verify procedure for determining economic, social and environmental sub-indicators based on consumption of final energy (used to meet space heating, hot water generation and household cooking needs, as well as for operation of various household electrical appliances, indoor temperature and humidity). It was done for representative sample of Belgrade buildings stock. Different dwelling types constructed in two different periods and heated by electricity, district heating and fossil fuels were analysed. Multi-criteria analysis was used to evaluate residential buildings sustainability. The results showed that the best building options, constructed in the period 1981–2006, are: the apartment buildings and single family houses (electricity for space heating) when economy indicator has priority; the apartments connected to the district heating system when environmental indicator has priority; and single family houses connected to the district heating system when social indicator has priority. Implementation of proposed methodology is beneficial when evaluating and comparing sustainability of different residential buildings, enabling decision makers to more easily reach decisions on the issues related to energy policy and environmental protection.