Office building Baumschlager-Eberle: a building without heating

Source: Detail; photo: Jakob Schoof

The architects from Baumschlager-Eberle have built a very special office building in Lustenau, Austria, partly for their own office, partly to be rented.
Although it was not their intention to build a building according to passive standard, it has become a real passive building, since the building has no heating system (and no mechanical ventilation).
More details can be found in Detail and at their website.

TED talk on building with clay and ...community

Once again, a very inspiring TED talk, now by Diébédo Francis Kéré, who was educated as an architect and looked for a way that his community in Burkina Faso could benefit from his education.

New book of the Club of Rome on 'Plundering the Planet'

On June 6th the Club of Rome launched a new report on our misuse of natural resources: Plundering the Planet. How to manage the Earth's limited mineral resources.
Up to now it is only available in German, but more information (in English) can be found here:
- executive summary
- some findings in detail
- background information

TED talk on behavioral sciences to lower energy consumption

A very inspiring TED talk by Alex Laskey on how insights in behavioral sciences can help you to persuade people to lower their energy consumption.

Climate change: background, myths and denial strategy

Interested to understand the mechanisms behind climate change, to discover the strategy of climate change denialers and to be able to counter their arguments?
The department of prof. van Ypersele (UCLouvain), vice-chair of IPCC, developed a website with lots of interesting information on this subject: www.climate.be/desintox . 
The main page is in French, but it also contains presentations and links to English sources of information.

Gent in transitie?!

De stad Gent is o.a. via het Gents Klimaatverbond al een tijdje bezig om via transitie-initiatieven te komen tot een meer duurzame stedelijke omgeving. 'Gent in transitie?!' heeft deze initiatieven in kaart gebracht en heeft ze raadpleegbaar gemaakt volgens verschillende criteria (systeem, niveau, initiatiefnemer, periode, ligging en fase). Het gaat momenteel al om een 70-tal projecten. Gent in transitie?! maakt deel uit van het onderzoek van het Vlaams Steunpunt Transities voor Duurzame Ontwikkeling (TRADO).

Changing behaviour of energy users

Apart from technological innovations, also behavioural change can lead to reductions in energy consumption. However, the permanence of these changes remains questionable.
The EU-project Changing Behaviour tried to tackle this challenge and focused on the understanding of the role of actors, timing and context of behavioural change, especially in the domain of energy savings.
On their website case studies, best practices and publications can be found.