RELECS - An alternative for electric cars

RELECS stands for Real Electric Solutions and offers an alternative for the electric car. As they say 'the objective is to explore new concepts for advanced sustainable mobility'. Worth reading.

They've participated in the GE Ecomagination Challenge, a $200 million call for new ideas on renewable energy, grid efficiency and ecobuildings.

Environmental assessment of buildings

To assess the sustainability or environmental impact of buildings, different assessment methods have been developed during the last decade.

Internationally well known are the British method BREEAM and the American method LEED.

BREEAM is the Environmental Assessment Method of BRE. After registration, you can freely download the BREEAM checklists for offices, homes, industrial buildings, etc., but in order to become an official certified BREEAM assessor, you need to follow the BREEAM trainings.

LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and is developed by the US. Green Building Council. It should be flexible enough to assess all kinds of buildings, both commercial and residential buildings.

In Flanders, the government developed its own guide (in Dutch) 'Waardering van kantoorgebouwen - op weg naar een duurzame huisvesting voor de Vlaamse overheid'.
Apart from a brochure, the website gives also an Excel checklist and presentations of model buildings and of the Vlaams Administratief Centrum (VAC) in Leuven, the first 4-stars building of the Flemish government.
A pro of this method is that it is adapted to the Flemish context and can easily be applied to other Flemish office buildings.

Op bezoek bij ...

De komende weken kan je verschillende bedrijven en gebouwen bezoeken die op de ene of andere manier met energie bezig zijn.

Bedrijven zetten op zondag 3 oktober hun deuren open voor geïnteresseerden tijdens de  'Open Bedrijvendag'. Het thema voor 2010 is 'hernieuwbare energie': meer dan 40 bedrijven verspreid over heel Vlaanderen die bezig zijn met energie uit wind, zon, biomassa, bodem,... kunnen bezocht worden.

Energiezuinige woningen en kantoorgebouwen kan je bezoeken in november. Wat vroeger 'Open Klimaathuizen' heette en 1 weekend duurde, is vanaf nu 'Ecobouwers Open Deur' en duurt een hele week, van 6 - 14 november.
Meer dan 100 lage-energie en passiefwoningen kunnen bezocht worden op 6, 7, 13 en 14 november. Voor iedereen toegankelijk, maar vooraf inschrijven is noodzakelijk.
25 energiezuinige kantoorgebouwen zijn te bezichtigen op 8, 9 en 10 november, maar wel enkel door een professioneel publiek.

Environmental impact of materials

Not only use of energy and water has an important impact on the sustainability of buildings, also the materials contribute to the sustainability. Their impact traditionally is assessed through LCA or life cycle assessment. According to the ISO 14040 a good LCA consists of 4 subsequent steps:

1. definition of the goal and scope of the LCA: of what specifically are you determining the environmental impact?
2. a life cycle inventory (LCI): an inventory of 'all' in and outcoming fluxes: which natural resources are used, how much water or land is used, which gases are emitted, etc.
3. a translation of the inventory into impacts on environment, health, biodiversity,... 
4. finally, an interpretation of the results

For the European context, different databases with LCA data of (building) materials are available:
ECOINVENT: a large, well documented and transparent LCI database from the Swiss ecoinvent Competence Centre. The LCI data are online available for a fee, but all documentation reports are accessible free of charge (for some, registration as guest is needed).
GEMIS: a large German database, available in German and English, completely available free of charge
A tool, especially made for eco-design, is the Ecolizer 2.0, available in Dutch and English. The tool is online available free of charge. An easy-to-use paper version can be ordered for a small fee at OVAM

Over bloemetjes en bijtjes

Source: Ecologie appliquée

Gezien langs de snelweg in Frankrijk op weg naar Spanje: akkers afgewisseld met hectares vol bloemen.



Blijkt onderdeel te zijn van een grootschaliger Frans project "Jachères Apicoles": op braakliggende gronden wordt een welgekozen mengeling van bloemen uitgezaaid. Deze bloemen zorgen voor voldoende stuifmeel van goede kwaliteit om lokaal de populatie van bijen en andere insecten op peil te houden. Via hun rol in de bestuiving van planten zijn deze beestjes zeer belangrijk voor het behoud van biodiversiteit.

Een ecoproject dat alvast zeer mooi oogt.

Achieving Net-Zero-Energy Buildings - ASHRAE

Youtube is not only about funny videos and music clips. Also ASHRAE, the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-conditioning Engineers, posts videos on Youtube.

The ASHRAE video on how to achieve a net zero energy building shows in a short, but very clear way the subsequent steps you should follow to turn a typical office building into a net zero energy building. Also very clear and useful to keep in mind when designing low energy buildings. In fact, it is a video representation of the principle of the trias energetica.

Engineering for the ecological age

As some of you might know already, iTunes U gives you free online access to some of the most excellent lectures from highly reputable institutes such as MIT, Stanford, Oxford,... It is worth to browse in their offerings.

One of my favourite lectures is from John Ochsendorf from MIT. In his video lecture, entitled 'Engineering for the ecological age: lessons from history' he shows very interesting cases where lowtech materials are combined with hightech engineering. And positively he is a very gifted speaker. Look in iTunes U > MIT World > Engineering to find the lecture.
Skip the extremely boring introduction and start at 10:50.

Air Infiltration and Ventilation

A well designed and well performing ventilation system is crucial for a low energy building in order to combine low energy consumption with good indoor air quality.

If you search for up to date information about ventilation, the Air Infiltration and Ventilation Centre (AIVC) is a good starting point. AIVC is an initiative of IEA ECBCS Annex 5. It is a huge information source with thousands of papers on air infiltration and ventilation.

You need to register, but online access is free for Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Netherlands, Norway and USA.

Lowtech solutions (1)

Way too often hightech solutions are percieved as the only solutions for the present energy problems. Still, often also a lowtech approach can offer a valuable solution for many problems. Lowtech means here using some simple phenomena from physics, such as evaporative heat, radiative reflection, thermal mass,... as the basis to generate heat, cold, light,... .

A first example: cooling based on the principle of evaporative heat:

source: Weston Mill Pottery

1) A wine cooler made of ceramic only needs to be wetted with water to chill the bottle of wine. Every summer, the simplicity of this technique amazes me.










2) Sprinkling water mist in the streets can create a local temperature drop in a hot climate: I experienced myself the positive effect at the World Expo in 1992 in Sevilla, Spain and at the World Expo in 2010 in Shanghai

3) Green roofs: they have many functions, but the evaporation of the rain water, buffered in the green roof has a positive cooling effect on the urban heat island effect, often observed in an urban environment.

To be continued...

Regenwater

Goed waterbeheer in en om gebouwen is inherent aan duurzaam bouwen. 
Het infopunt voor duurzaam omgaan met water in Vlaanderen is het Waterloket. Hier vind je o.a. de handleiding Waterwijzer bouwen en verbouwen met alle basisinformatie voor de architect, bouwheer, aannemer, etc.

Maar met (regen)water kan nog zoveel meer gedaan worden dan het wegstoppen in de grond. Enkele voorbeelden:

Bron: Kamp C

Groendaken zijn decoratief en kunnen bijdragen tot een beter microklimaat, maar hun voornaamste rol is die van regenwaterbuffer.









Regenwater kan als element gebruikt worden in het tuinontwerp of in het landschap, zoals door deze landschapsarchitect.

Regenwater kan geïntegreerd worden in het gebouwontwerp, tot zelfs bij wolkenkrabbers, zoals in het ontwerp van Poolse architectuurstudenten