Last week, two interesting reports were published analysing how regulations can better support ‘sustainable’ material use. Very esteemed colleagues, united in a Dutch ‘Gideons tribe’ to make the buildings sector move faster, have been working on this. [1] I can… Continue Reading
It is now exactly 10 years ago around Christmas that I struggled with the interpretation of ‘cycles’. Why I wondered, is everyone convinced there are two resource cycles, as promoted nowadays in whats called the circular economy? And why would… Continue Reading
Rifkin some time ago wrote about the 0-marginal cost society. The book had a lot of attention. But cost is a complete different measuring unit as energy or greenhouse gasses. A 0-marginal cost society is not the same as a… Continue Reading
Since it looks as if we are going to introduce the climate measures for buildings mainly via municipalities or cities, I have recovered some of my older research material about urban sustainability, developed when I worked at Wageningen University. The… Continue Reading
Before going into agriculture, and the available figures for it, I will briefly summarize how evaluate keeping resource loops closed. Fot this a calculation method has been developed, called MAXergy, with Embodied Land as a measuring unit. To close resource… Continue Reading
The national organization for road works in the Netherlands, RWS, has a slogan: from A to Better. It has not brought us much so far: The roads are widened, more traffic lanes , so now we are not in a… Continue Reading
The Tetra Materia (see previous article) approach might be useful for practice, its not the whole story. It guides direction, but does not set targets. And our system has an overall limit as well. Materials, even renewables, come exclusively from… Continue Reading
Do we really want a CO2-neutral society, or even a society with closed cycles? If yes, a lot will have to change and we will need to become extremely creative. And not directly with the input of a lot of… Continue Reading
( picture: borrowed from: Agent Bob) … Well, then, what is a circular road? was a question that was asked , after the previous article. To answer, lets first analyze what happens when constructing a highway with current approach. Then… Continue Reading
(master-classes on this topic and others, see on the right) ” What is Circular Building really?” , a Dutch journalist twittered, being confused about the debates going on. Its not clear yet, apparently, so lets give it a try. The… Continue Reading