Categorie: tools

LCA is not for practice. We need absolute energy indicators. 2/2

In many countries there is discussion at the moment about measuring the environmental impact of building ( and living ). [1] On the one hand of course the (operational) energy consumption, and how to deal with limited CO2 emission budgets. But on the other hand even more on the environmental…

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Building evaluation should change 1/2

There is a lot of discussion in the Netherlands about how to assess buildings, if you integrate material impacts in addition to energy, as well as to somehow include CO2 budgets. There is already an instrument for this, the MPG, (materials performance Buildings) but it is under discussion. Besides, in…

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On calculating per m2 living area ½

It is common in construction to normalize per m2 floor: such as e.g. energy, material, ventilation needs, or even costs and investments. But when it comes to the national requirements for housing in fact you should not calculate per m2 floor. Because it’s not about the impact per 1 m2…

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MNB1: 0-CO2 per 2030, MNB2: max 550 kg/m2

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 agree in general with the contents and analyses ( to…

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There is no ‘end of life’ of a building… 1/2

Life has an end, but is there also an ‘end of life’, for products and buildings? Which is frequently used in science, like in building evaluations calculating with a maximum life span, but seems weird. It is understandable in trade, for product developers, that want things to be replaced at…

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Embodied Energy emissions is now, not in 2050 !

This is an extended version of a previous post on linked in, which had a lot of reactions.. {april 2019}   When it comes to Embodied Energy, we are used to normalize this over the lifespan of a building ( or a product) , and in that case it does…

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Circular cities..? Real time material flows for London

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 urban approach makes sense, buildings are not isolated functions, they…

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Lowering building impact

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 our construction and consumption drive? Earlier I wrote that the…

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From Tetra Materia, to Trias eXergetica 2/2

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 within our own system, while (renewable) energy is available in…

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From Trias Energetica, to Tetra Materia. 1/2

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 effective as possible. But is this still valid? First some…

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