In an article on The Conversation website, Jamie Goggins, Professor of Civil Engineering, College of Science and Engineering at the University of Galway discusses how green cement production is showing real promise. What are your views? Green cement production is scaling up – and it could cut the carbon footprint of construction Aside from … Continue reading With the right incentives in place by governments and the construction sector, almost all cement produced around the world could be low-carbon
Category: construction
Paris Olympic Games have target to produce half the emissions of the Rio and London games
Paul Messad writes on the Euractiv website about what Paris Olympic Games organisers have done to reduce its carbon footprint. Climate friendly Paris Olympic Games focused on low carbon, repurposed construction The Paris Olympic Games have opted for low-carbon construction and the repurposing of existing facilities for its sports infrastructure. The target is to … Continue reading Paris Olympic Games have target to produce half the emissions of the Rio and London games
New BPIE report calls on multilateral donors and policymakers to apply investment criteria for a sustainable reconstruction of Ukraine
This week the Buildings Performance Institute Europe presented six investment criteria to drive a sustainable reconstruction of Ukraine’s heavily damaged built environment. The report calls on multilateral donors and the Ukrainian government to allocate funding to projects that meet ambitious energy efficiency, renewable energy, climate adaptation, and circularity criteria. The criteria is aligned to scenarios … Continue reading New BPIE report calls on multilateral donors and policymakers to apply investment criteria for a sustainable reconstruction of Ukraine
Hemp is being touted as a building material for housing that may avoid some of the environmental, logistic and economic downsides of concrete
Proponents of hemp tout its non-toxic and mould, fire and infestation-resistant properties. Edward Helmore discusses the benefits of hemp in an article on the Guardian website. ‘It’s almost carbon-negative’: how hemp became a surprise building material Cannabis sativa, the plant of the thousand and one molecules, has a long and expansive reputation – as a folk … Continue reading Hemp is being touted as a building material for housing that may avoid some of the environmental, logistic and economic downsides of concrete
Florida community reaches LEED Zero
In an article on the Washington Post website, Nicolás Rivero discusses the world’s first LEED Zero Energy certified residential development in Hunter’s Point, Florida where every house produces more electricity than it uses. Why people don’t have to pay anything for electricity in this Florida community In this Florida development, no one pays an … Continue reading Florida community reaches LEED Zero
Emerging markets will need $1.5 trillion in investment before 2035 to make new and existing buildings environmentally friendly and avoid a jump in climate-damaging emissions
Tommy Wilkes and Simon Jessop write on the Reuter’s website that emerging markets will need $1.5 trillion in investment before 2035 to avoid a jump in climate-damaging emissions. China alone would need $1.33 trillion. The funds would be used for investments in electrification of older inefficient buildings with cleaner energy, and the construction of energy-efficient … Continue reading Emerging markets will need $1.5 trillion in investment before 2035 to make new and existing buildings environmentally friendly and avoid a jump in climate-damaging emissions
The need for addressing embodied carbon in our buildings
An efficient EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive must look out for the reduction of ‘whole life carbon emissions’ in order to achieve Europe’s climate goals, writes Zsolt Toth from BPIE in an article on the EURACTIV website. Just published is a PhD thesis by Jane Anderson on on 'Reducing Embodied Carbon in the Built … Continue reading The need for addressing embodied carbon in our buildings
If you look back at the examples of the past two centuries, industry-wide reuse of such materials as iron from sunken ships should have been business as usual by now
Salman Shooshtarian and Tayyab Maqsood at RMIT University in Australia provide a fascinating article on The Conversation website about being innovative in using recycling materials for our building construction. Buildings used iron from sunken ships centuries ago. The use of recycled materials should be business as usual by now At Fremantle Prison in the … Continue reading If you look back at the examples of the past two centuries, industry-wide reuse of such materials as iron from sunken ships should have been business as usual by now
Roman-inspired approaches towards concrete might be a cost-effective way to make our infrastructure last longer
Nicola Davis writes on The Guardian website about new research showing that Romans had techniques to give concrete self-healing properties. Would this work now? ‘Self-healing’ Roman concrete could aid modern construction, study suggests They have stood through the fall of an empire, the carnage of great wars and the foundation of a new country. … Continue reading Roman-inspired approaches towards concrete might be a cost-effective way to make our infrastructure last longer
The European Commission has outlined possible “transition pathways” to address the environmental impact of the construction sector
Europe’s construction ecosystem employs approximately 24.9 million people but it is also extremely fragmented with 99.9% of the companies being SMEs. Nikolaus J. Kurmayer discusses on the EURACTIV website the plans of the European Commission to transform the sector and that digitalisation could be the silver bullet to address all the problems – lack of … Continue reading The European Commission has outlined possible “transition pathways” to address the environmental impact of the construction sector
Energy in Demand - Sustainable Energy - Rod Janssen 