[Press Release] Boosting low carbon building renovation across Europe
In conjunction with the URBAN FUTURE Global Conference in Oslo, the World Green Building Council and partners announce BUILD UPON2; a project that will accelerate the renovation of buildings in European cities Oslo, Norway – 23 May 2019 – Today, the World Green Building Council’s European network in collaboration with eight cities and partners announced the launch of BUILD UPON2, the next phase of the world’s largest collaborative project on building renovation. With cities across the world declaring
First net zero energy building certified in India under IGBC rating system
Plant – 13 Annexe is a multiple use office and convention centre located in the Godrej campus at Vikhroli. Over the years, this building has demonstrated the highest standards of performance and has won many accolades including the ‘IGBC-EB Platinum Rating’ under the ‘Existing Building’ certification and the ‘BEE 5-Star Rating’ which further conforms the building to a ‘Minimum Energy Performance’. With the IGBC Net Zero Rating, the building has achieved a unique status of being self-sustainable
Deep retrofits: Financing needs to play a critical role
This is the fourth and final blog post in BuildUp series on recent developments in energy efficiency financing. Prior posts covered Energy Service Agreements, PACE Financing, and on-bill finance. Deep retrofits to existing buildings will be critical for reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions over the next 30 years. But such retrofits can be expensive, so financing is vital for unlocking energy savings. Several recent projects illustrate innovative ways to finance these retrofits.
Global survey finds we’re lacking fresh air and natural light, as we spend less time in nature
The survey of 16,853 adults across 15 countries, across Europe and North America, found that despite 90% of respondents stating that they would enjoy spending more time in nature, over half (52%) said that in the last month they had on average only spent one hour or less a day in it. The global survey revealed that 85% believed that they typically spent more time in nature as a child than children do today, indicating that this is a mounting global problem. Nature can reduce stress and increase
London event showcases innovation behind new investor climate tool
Yesterday’s event, titled “Applying Climate Risk Data to Investment Portfolios”, convened environmental, financial and academic experts to discuss the project Climate Risks for Asset Managers (CRAMs), a collaboration between Carbon Delta and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Change Research (PIK). The CRAMs project will facilitate a global assessment of the financial impacts of climate change on corporations and their investable securities as well as real estate assets. CRAMs will be key in helping
Green Solutions Awards 2019: hot climates in evidence.
Will sustainable construction in hot or tropical climates be the main challenge to keep global warming under 1.5 ° C? Everything suggests that it will, since hot climates are predominant on our planet. Beyond this, tropical or arid areas have the highest population growth and significant economic development. These evolutions could impact significantly global climate. Sustainable construction in hot climates is therefore fundamental, as is sharing sustainable solutions that limit the use of mechanical
Interview with Christiane Egger, Jury Member of Roger Léron Award
Christiane Egger is the Vice-President of FEDARENE and the Deputy Manager of OÖ Energiesparverband, the energy agency of Upper Austria, and the manager of the Ökoenergie-Cluster, a network of 160 companies active in renewable energy and energy efficiency. She is the conference director of the World Sustainable Energy Days, one of the largest annual conferences in Europe on energy efficiency and renewable energy sources. Christiane is an expert in energy efficiency in buildings, in solar and biomass
Europe's urban air quality
Air pollution is one of the most important environmental problems affecting people's health, particularly in urban areas of Europe. Over the past decade, air quality has slowly improved in many of Europe's cities, as a direct result of more robust air quality policies across various governance levels, the introduction of targeted measures and actions, and technological improvements that have reduced emissions from various sources. Nevertheless, many cities and regions still experience exceedances
Future-proof buildings for all Europeans – A guide to implement the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive
Two-thirds (65%) of the European building stock was built before 1980: about 97% of the EU’s buildings must be upgraded to achieve the 2050 decarbonisation goal, but only 0.4-1.2% are renovated each year. A more efficient, technically equipped and smarter building stock could be the cornerstone of a decarbonised energy system. Highly efficient buildings have an important role to play in achieving a climate-neutral European economy, through renewable energy production, control, storage and demand
Welcome joining the 14th Global Forum on Human Settlements (GFHS 2019)
- Observance of Urban October 2019 - The 14th Global Forum on Human Settlements (GFHS 2019) Date: September 5th – 6th, 2019 Venue: The United Nations Conference Center in Addis Ababa (UNCC-AA) Theme: Sustainable Development of Cities and Human Settlements in the Digital Era The 14th Global Forum on Human Settlements (GFHS 2019) is being planned to be held on September 5th - 6th, 2019 in the United Nations Conference Center in Addis Ababa (UNCC-AA). As one of the most important global congresses on
Building a Better Tomorrow: 6 Ways to Create a More Sustainable Construction Site
With construction and demolition materials such as concrete, wood, and asphalt piling up quickly, the construction industry poses a substantial threat to the environment. It is a significant source of pollution, responsible for around 4% of particulate emissions, and more water pollution incidents than any other industry, as well as thousands of noise complaints each year. By 2025, the volume of construction waste is expected to increase to 2.2 billion tons every year. That's why various government
Getting the right institutions in place to run Africa's cities efficiently
Over the next 16 years, all of the world’s 10 fastest growing cities are going to be in Africa. If this growth is a process of people voting with their feet, as last year’s winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics Paul Romer once put it, these cities are winning. By Astrid R.N. Haas, International Growth Centre Yet urbanisation in many developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, is not delivering the benefits of people and firms clustering together. Historically, cities have been the
[Press release] D2Grids official project launch : rolling out 5th generation district heating & cooling
D2GRIDS is an acronym for ‘demand driven grids’. This new Interreg North-West Europe (NWE) project, coordinated by Mijnwater Ltd., aims to upscale 5th generation District Heating and Cooling (5G DHC) grids across Europe. Construction21 is the communication partner of this promising project. What is 5G DHC ? First developed in Heerlen by Mijnwater Ltd., and in contrary to conventional district heating, this thermal smart grid is based on low temperatures. By a cloud of decentralized heat pumps,
Webinar on ExcEED project Database: from data to information to knowledge
This webinar will take place June 4th from 12:00 to 13:15. Please register through this link. The H2020 ExcEED project takes the pulse of the actual energy consumed by last generation of buildings. The project answers the need for transparency and comparability of energy performance calculations. The scope of ExcEED is to create a European database for measured and qualitative data on beyond the state-of-the-art buildings and districts. Building Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) have been selected
Making buildings responsive to the users’ needs with the Smart Readiness Indicator and the ExcEED database: new briefing published by the H2020 project
The H2020 project ExcEED (European Energy Efficient building district Database) is funded by the European Commission and aims at collecting data coming from new, modern and energy efficient buildings (such as energy performance, CO2 emissions, etc.). The project answers the need for transparency and comparability of energy performance calculations. The scope of ExcEED is to create a European database for measured and qualitative data on beyond the state-of-the-art buildings and districts. Building
