In the aftermath of the global pandemic, the widespread embrace of flexible working models has led to suboptimal occupancy levels in office buildings. Despite this shift, traditional space management practices persist, contributing to increased energy consumption per person. This study investigates how integrating smart lock systems can enhance space utilization within flexible working environments, ultimately reducing energy use. A case study of an office building in Milan, Italy, is used to evaluate the proposed approach. The methodology includes a comprehensive assessment of building design and functionality, coupled with impact analyses using Building Energy Modeling and Life Cycle Assessment. The results indicate that innovative occupancy management strategies can achieve energy savings of from 9% up to 14% compared to baseline operational energy use, leading to a reduction in CO₂ emissions of 7.5 to 17.6 kgCO₂eq/m² depending on occupancy scenarios. The life cycle assessment reveals that, while smart locks introduce an initial embodied carbon footprint of approximately 2 tons of CO₂, that is recovered through the savings obtained after a few months of installation. The findings demonstrate that this methodology is effective in buildings that allow both functional and temporal flexibility, enabling partial shutdowns and the redirection of certain services when not in use, ultimately improving energy efficiency through lean interventions.

Mountain huts face unique challenges in waste management due to their altitude, accessibility, and seasonal variability. However, quantitative data on waste generation in these contexts remain limited, hindering evidence-based decision-making. This study proposes a replicable methodology to quantify waste generation in mountain huts and to assess the feasibility of on-site recycling. The framework is applied to a one-year case study of Rifugio Stoppani, selected as a representative case study within the Italian Alpine Club hut classification system. The method combines unstructured interviews, structured collection of product-consumption data, and a workflow that models a typical year of hut attendance, enabling the reconstruction of annual waste flows by material. Results show that plastic and glass represent more than 75% of the total waste mass and that even relatively small quantities generate significant logistical burdens, requiring approximately 65 h of annual transport due to the absence of local collection systems. The study further evaluates the feasibility of on-site plastic recycling through low-scale injection moulding, demonstrating the potential to convert locally generated waste into functional objects and reduce transport effort by up to 83%. The proposed framework provides a transferable method for waste flow modelling in remote mountain infrastructures and supports the evaluation of localized circular economy strategies across the Italian Alpine Club hut network.