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
How are we going to ensure that buildings will be sustainable, that is to say, with the least impact on the environment, concerning raw materials depletion, loss of biodiversity and, above all, CO2 emissions as the most urgent effect of… 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
The Trias Energetica is one of the generic guidelines that has a wide adoption in the Netherlands since the nineties: it states that, in order of importance: 1 reduce energy demand, 2 use renewable energy 3 use fossil fuels as… Continue Reading
Strange, really, that calculating in kWh seems normal for everyone. Especially in this time, because kWh does say nothing about the origin of the energy, which can be anything, from labor, wind turbines, or coal to nuclear energy. Currently it… 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
So how could you do that, restoring minerals or metals? It happened that last week I was participating in the “Exergy, LCA & sustainability conference, ELCAS, 5th edition, originating from a EU COST project. And I presented a paper (with… Continue Reading
(below is a improved English text compared to the first one published. Thanks to (editing by) Simon McGuinness..!) The circular economy, is about closing production cycles, is it not? So, it is about restoring the original stock. Otherwise the resource… Continue Reading
The Netherlands, as one of the first countries in the world, will have a mandatory material performance requirement for new buildings. Which is unique, after 25 years of pushing and trying. There will be a set ambition, though very low… Continue Reading