Advanced Strategies for Net-Zero Energy Building: Focused on the Early Phase and Usage Phase of a Building’s Life Cycle

To cope with ‘Post-2020’, each country set its national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction target (e.g., South Korea: 37%) below its business-as-usual level by 2030. Toward this end, it is necessary to implement the net-zero energy building (nZEB) in the building sector, which accounts for more than 25% of the national GHG emissions and has a great potential to reduce GHG emissions. In this context, this study conducted a state-of-the-art review of nZEB implementation strategies in terms of passive strategies (i.e., passive sustainable design and energy-saving technique) and active strategies (i.e., renewable energy (RE) and back-up system for RE). Additionally, this study proposed the following advanced strategies for nZEB implementation according to a building’s life cycle: (i) integration and optimization of the passive and active strategies in the early phase of a building’s life cycle; (ii) real-time monitoring of the energy performance during the usage phase of a building’s life cycle. It is expected that this study can help researchers, practitioners, and policymakers understand the overall implementation strategies for realizing nZEB.