This book contains the proceedings of the 17th KES International Conference on Sustainability and Energy in Buildings 2025 (SEB2025) held in Catania, Italy, during September 17-19, 2025, organized by KES International. The conference attracted submissions from around the world. Submissions for the full-paper track were subjected to a blind peer-reviewed process. Only the best of these were selected for presentation at the conference and publication in these proceedings. It is intended that this book provides a useful and informative snapshot of recent research developments in the important and vibrant area of sustainability in energy and buildings.
Dr. John Littlewood is Professor of Sustainable and Resilient Buildings and Lead for the Sustainable and Resilient Built Environment research group in Cardiff School of Art and Design at Cardiff Metropolitan University (UK). He is a Chartered Architectural Technologist and Building Engineer. He has been General Chair for the Sustainability in Energy and Buildings International Conference in 2014, 2017, and since 2019 to date and Chair of the Sustainable and Resilient Buildings General Track since 2016. His research is conducted in collaboration with industry to optimise the design, offsite manufacturing, construction, and operation of existing and new buildings to maximise their performance and user comfort and quality of life, yet reduce embodied and operational carbon emissions. He has authored, co-authored, and co-edited 196 peer-reviewed articles, papers, conference proceedings, and book volumes. His current research with industry includes innovations in offsite manufactured buildings systems for net-zero-carbon dwellings; benchmarking organisational carbon emissions for decarbonisation; and measuring retrofit pathways to net-zero carbon for existing dwellings' fabric and renewable energy systems.
Prof. Antonio Gagliano has been a professor at the University of Catania, where he teaches Technical Physics and Environmental Control. Techniques. Antonio's research focuses on building energy efficiency, optimizing renewable energy systems, and integrating photovoltaics and photothermal energy plants within the built environment. He has authored and co-authored 200 peer-reviewed papers. Currently, he serves as a member of the editorial board for several international journals (10) and one national journal. Additionally, he is the editor of two books and has been a guest editor for four special issues of various journals. He has also been the Principal Investigator or a participant in several international, national, and regional research projects.
Prof. Robert J. Howlett is the Academic Chair of KES International, a non-profit organisation which facilitates knowledge transfer and the dissemination of research results in areas including Intelligent Systems, Sustainability, and Knowledge Transfer. He is Visiting Professor in Sustainable Innovation at Cardiff Metropolitan University, Wales, UK, Visiting Professor at 'Aurel Vlaicu' University of Arad, Romania, and has also been Visiting Professor for Enterprise at Bournemouth University, UK. His current interests centre on the application of smart systems to sustainability, particularly renewable energy, with applications in housing and sustainable agriculture. His has a background in the use of artificial intelligence for the solution of industrial problems. He previously developed a national profile in knowledge and technology transfer, and the commercialisation of research. He works with a number of universities and international research groups on the supervision teams of PhD students, and the provision of technical support for projects.
Lakhmi C. Jain, PhD, ME, BE(Hons), Dr. h.c., Fellow (Engineers Australia) is with the University of Piraeus, Piraeus, Athens, 18534, Greece. Professor Jain founded the KES International for providing a professional community the opportunities for publications, knowledge exchange, cooperation and teaming. Involving around 5,000 researchers drawn from universities and companies world-wide, KES facilitates international cooperation and generate synergy in teaching and research. KES regularly provides networking opportunities for professional community through one of the largest conferences of its kind in KES.
