This paper is built on the following research questions: (i) What are the direct/indirect relationships between Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG11) and sustainability protocols? (ii) Could the sustainability protocols constitute a solution towards the achievement of SDG11? We underline that, on the one hand, the SDGs are guidelines to support the development of sustainable policies and thus address all elements that may affect them, and on the other hand, sustainability protocols are assessment tools to promote sustainability-conscious design while remaining focused on the built environment. In the Italian regulatory context, the paper highlights how this difference in terms of focus and scale means that they only overlap and mutually reinforce each other with regard to certain aspects, more related to energy and air pollution issues and less to the social aspects of sustainability. Even if there is not always a direct relationship between the evaluation criteria of the protocols and the indicators of SDG11, it is possible to conclude that the sustainability protocols can facilitate the achievement of the SDG11 targets, acting as a key for the implementation of sustainable cities and helping in structuring the process leading to sustainability in a broader framework.

This paper explores the enhancement of adaptive reuse (AR) of buildings through the lens of the sustainability protocols within the context of circular economy (CE) in Italy. Cities and the built environment can play a key role in the transition to a CE, especially considering the documented negative global impact due to resource consumption and waste generation. This is recognised among the principles of circularity defined by the European Commission towards a general strategy for a sustainable built environment, which encourages initiatives of building reuse and land consumption reduction. It has been proven that the AR of vacant buildings can bring environmental, social, and economic benefits towards an urban strategy based on CE principles by generating useful values to support innovative development dynamics. In this perspective, the sustainability protocols can be identified as useful tools to pursue strategies for spreading the culture of sustainable build environment. Considering the huge vacant Italian architectural heritage, this paper aims to analyze how the most widely used sustainability protocols in the Italian context currently address the enhancement of the reuse of buildings, to improve environmental, social, and economic quality in the built environment. We discuss the results highlighting how and which sustainability protocols better intercept these issues, providing grounds for future development.

Within a global strategy for the pursuit of Sustainable Development, the governments are responsible for following, developing, and reviewing the 2030 Agenda at global, national, and regional levels. However, it is possible to observe a lack, acknowledged by the scientific debate, of effective implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this context, the paper intends to contribute to addressing this gap in methodological and operational terms, focusing on SDG11, and more specifically on two of its targets: 11.1 (Affordable Housing) and 11.3 (Inclusive and Sustainable Urbanization). In this sense, the research focuses on cities as crucial points of intervention to tackle global challenges since they represent the places with greatest concentration of population. This paper proposes a new set of indicators for monitoring targets 11.1 and 11.3 of SDG11 capable of supporting public policymakers in observing the Italian territory. More specifically, the research provides: i) the state of the art of the existing indicators of the targets in analysis; ii) the selection criteria and gaps to be considered for reviewing indicators; iii) the modalities of implementation; iv) a new set of indicators to support the development of urban policies.

The concept of sustainable development is closely related to that of sustainability assessment, as it implies a process of evaluation of progress made over time. In this context, indicators present themselves as a key and fundamental element for measuring and evaluating the specific issues that compose the different phenomena to be monitored. Indeed, they constitute the tool that can provide qualitative or quantitative data and information needed to identify the performance, progress, and weaknesses of plans, projects, and policies. In this context, the paper investigates the potential differences that the indicator can take in the differing purposes of measurement and evaluation in the context of urban sustainable development. A literature review is therefore conducted to gather and systematize knowledge so that it can be useful for reflections on sustainable urban assessment. The paper reports the results of the analysis concerning the context of measurement and evaluation, highlighting the differences or similarities from a conceptual and operational point of view.