What is an Energy Efficient Mortgages? EEM initiative published the definition

The Energy Efficient Mortgages (EEM) Initiative is unveiling its definition of an energy efficient mortgage which is the result of extensive cross-sectoral, market consultation of the lending institutions piloting the energy efficient mortgage framework and of the EEM Advisory Council.  The announcement coincides with the United Nations Climate Change Conference – COP24 –  taking place in Katowice, Poland until 14 December.  The definition is intended as a concrete response to the efforts of the

COP24: Social innovation to drive just transition of coal regions

With the carbon costs of travel in mind, key EIT Climate-KIC COP24 session summaries are available online for those who cannot attend—and for review for those present. These summaries aim to extract important debates, dialogues, and learnings from each session. ‘Just transition’—interventions needed to secure workers’ jobs and livelihoods as economies shift to sustainable production—is a major topic at this year’s COP in Katowice, Poland. Systemic, cross-sectoral change catalysed by inclusive social

Mix and Move in Trento

From the 16th to the 22nd of September, the local authorities from the city of Trento celebrated alongside other cities the European Mobility Week under the theme of multimodality. The European Mobility Week campaign encouraged people to explore their cities through means of clean and sustainable urban transport. The theme for this year’s campaign was on multimodality, a way in which travellers mix the different modes of transport available in all their journeys. Towns and cities organised a set

Renaturing cities: cooperation manifesto launched at the World Forum on Urban Forests

URBAN GreenUp and other EU projects jointly signed a document in Mantua, Italy, to promote and boost the adoption of nature-based solutions in urban areas worldwide. “Nature is often seen as a problem, here it is seen as the solution”. This sentence by Josefina Enfedaque may resume the sense of the 1st World Forum on Urban Foreststhat closed the month of November and opened December in Mantua on a deeply green note. The EC Senior Policy Officer, present at the invitation of URBAN GreenUp, participated

#GreenSolutions Awards 2018: Discover these winners whose solutions already shape the zero carbon city

The Green Solutions Awards 2018 winners were revealed in Katowice, a Polish mining town that made the shift to commit to the energy transition and COP24 theatre. The Construction21 network, organiser of the contest, rewarded the winning teams during a ceremony that gathered nearly 200 industry professionals from all around the world.  Beyond their prize, the awarded teams gain an exceptional visibility that allows them to show the market they are able to provide with relevant solutions, already used

KTR Headquarters (France): Sustainable Renovation Grand Prize Winner - Green Solutions Awards 2018

KTR, a German industrial group specialized in mechanical transmissions, wanted a building reflecting the image and the values of the company for its French headquarters: innovative and offering excellent work conditions for its employees, autonomous especially energy wise. The KTR group has already built very efficient buildings, but for the site of Dardilly, the refurbishment option was chosen. The construction manager oriented the project to aim for even more ambitious goals, with a more comprehensive

Wild South Media Library (France): Energy & Hot Climates Winner - Green Solutions Awards 2018

The Wild South Media Library, on the Reunion Island, is based on a specific sustainability approach to the tropical and subtropical climates and interrogates contemporary architecture of the Reunion Island. The library creates a progression from public space to the intimacy, providing a true connection to the outside and blurring the limits with the inside of the building. In order to achieve that result, the project was oriented toward passive, but open building requiring no air conditioning thanks to

CLK Passive House (Luxembourg): Smart Building Winner - Green Solutions Awards 2018

This passive house demonstrates that connected building can go hand in hand with sustainable housing. Beyond the work for a very efficient and eco-responsible envelope, the contractor wanted to install the EnOcean technology for its ecological values. The CLK witness house thus becomes an intelligent connected home. This house’s intelligence is invisible, it warns and allows also to control the data, without spending any energy and with the least possible wave emissions. This technology requires

Landsea New Mansion (China): Health & Comfort Winner - Green Solutions Awards 2018

The Landsea New Mansion project is located in the west suburbs of Shanghai and covers a 13,433m2 area, with three 5-storey residential buildings. This project capitalizes on the construction manager’s years of experience in healthy and comfortable buildings, notably by following the approach of international standards.  In order to offer optimal living standards to the inhabitants, the Landsea New Mansion has been refurbished to find balance between health, comfort, energy savings, preservation of

The Beehive (France): Low Carbon Winner - Green Solutions Awards 2018

The Beehive is a social experiment born from the will of the city of Bègles to have an exemplary participative project on its territory. After a 4-year human adventure, 11 families enjoy a collective residence with 7 housings and 4 contiguous houses built on the parcel of an old single house.  This first participative housing owes its success to the project team – who followed the project from the origin – and its very committed inhabitants, who participated also from the very beginning. Biweekly