To achieve climate neutrality by 2050, the question of renovating buildings to be more energy-efficient is of crucial importance. More than ever before, it is the subject of debate on both sides of the Rhine. Lucie Duboua-Lorsch and Lukas Scheid report on the EURACTIV website. Energy-efficient building renovation: a Franco-German challenge Even before the … Continue reading Comparing France and Germany in their building renovation strategies
Category: buildings
“Building a passive house was the best decision we ever made”
Arlene Harris writes on the Irish section of The Times website about the positive aspects of having a passive house. What is your experience? Passivhaus concept isn’t a load of hot air Parents of teenagers will recognise how irritating it can be when their children take long showers and use up all the hot … Continue reading “Building a passive house was the best decision we ever made”
Shift to construction with wood could lead to a cleaner, greener future
Harry Cockburn writes on The Independent website that there are many environmental benefits from using wood as the construction material of choice, according to researchers at Aalto University in Finland, and the Finnish Environment Institute. Cities made of wood 'could store huge amounts of carbon and cut construction emissions' The construction material of choice … Continue reading Shift to construction with wood could lead to a cleaner, greener future
Blog from Stuart Fairlie: Don’t reinvent the wheel for commercial property retrofit
In the same way that Government-approved technical standards provided the foundation for the Green Homes Grant and the low energy retrofit of millions of UK homes, so similar energy efficiency standards are now being developed that should pave the way for the retrofit of commercial buildings. The only trouble is, the first draft of these … Continue reading Blog from Stuart Fairlie: Don’t reinvent the wheel for commercial property retrofit
Concerns about “net-zero energy ready” buildings in Canada
As many countries around the world are planning on ambitious energy efficient buildings, Canada has run into some problems for new buildings. John Bleasby discusses latest developments in an article on the Daily Commercial News website Energy efficiency advocates concerned about direction of 2020 NBC Two groups representing Canada’s leading edge of building energy … Continue reading Concerns about “net-zero energy ready” buildings in Canada
Bill Gates says “buildings will be the most difficult innovation challenge of the climate crisis”
Recently, the European Commission came out with its Renovation Wave, realising that Europe has to address improving the energy performance of its buildings if it is to meet the Paris climate goals. Bill Gates has now come out to gives his views on the importance of buildings in our climate crisis. Louise Boyle explains in … Continue reading Bill Gates says “buildings will be the most difficult innovation challenge of the climate crisis”
Britain faces a major challenge to improve home energy efficiency
Latest Office for National Statistics data shows there has been little improvement in home energy efficiency in recent years, writes Andrew Warren, chairman of the British Energy Efficiency Federation, on the Business Green website. Energy efficiency statistics lay bare the scale of draughty homes Not far off half the energy the UK consumes each … Continue reading Britain faces a major challenge to improve home energy efficiency
Understanding Europe’s Renovation Wave
The European Commission unveiled a new energy efficiency strategy that could see 35 million buildings renovated and up to 160,000 green jobs created. It is useful to go directly to the EC website to have a better understanding. The following are questions and answers to help us better understand this new initiative. Questions and … Continue reading Understanding Europe’s Renovation Wave
Fire safety should be integrated into Europe’s buildings energy policies
MEPs TANJA Fajon (Slovenia) and Sirpa Pietikäinen from Finland have joined forces with Fire Safe Europe in calling upon the European Union and national policymakers to integrate fire resilience within the EU Green Deal’s initiatives on buildings. This is an article on the Fire Safety Matters website. MEPs support inclusion of fire resilience within … Continue reading Fire safety should be integrated into Europe’s buildings energy policies
New report from JRC: Enabling Positive Energy Districts across Europe: energy efficiency couples renewable energy
From an energy perspective, zero or positive energy districts (PED) provide opportunities to achieve cost-effective levels of high-energy efficiency and renewable energy systems. This newly published report by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) aims to understand how to handle energy performance targets by moving beyond individual buildings towards a district level. This is a … Continue reading New report from JRC: Enabling Positive Energy Districts across Europe: energy efficiency couples renewable energy
Energy in Demand - Sustainable Energy - Rod Janssen 