CO2 prestatieladder

Onder initiatief van Prorail is in Nederland de CO2-prestatieladder ingevoerd: een systeem voor bedrijven om samen te zorgen voor minder CO2. Belangrijk uitgangspunt is dat een grote verantwoordelijkheid aan de bedrijven zelf wordt gegeven. Het systeem is een stappenplan om achtereenvolgens 1) inzicht te krijgen in de eigen uitstoot, 2) eigen ambities te stellen, 3) deze intern en extern te communiceren en 4) via dialoog en samenwerking met andere bedrijven deze aanpak te verspreiden binnen de bedrijfswereld.
Welke bedrijven hieraan deelnemen, vind je ook op de website.
Prorail heeft dit instrument ondertussen doorgegeven aan de Stichting Klimaatvriendelijk Aanbesteden en Ondernemen SKAO.
Struktonrail NL heeft in dit kader zijn expertise beschikbaar gesteld voor kleinere bedrijven via de tool duurzame leverancier.

Window farms or how to grow food in your apartment

Britta Riley tells in a TED talk 'A garden in my apartment' her experiences with growing food in her apartment and how she and her friends from all over the world researched, tested and tweaked the system using social media. They call it R&DIY! If you are interested in their experiences, have a look at their blog rndiy.org.

Playscapes, wonderful playground design

I just discovered Playscapes, the blog of Arcady, an American woman collecting examples of non-commercial playground design. It contains a lot of wonderful examples from real artistic designed playgrounds over natural designed playgrounds to very inventive low cost playground design for a favela. Inspiring to stroll around in this blog. I would have liked to be much younger...

Source: Playscapes

Source: Playscapes

Limburg goes climate neutral by 2020

The summary report on how the province of Limburg, Belgium will become climate neutral by 2020 is now available in English.

The full report of this study by VITO is only available in Dutch.

Sustainable by design 2050

Sustainable by design 2050 is an initiative of the International Union of Architects. It is a website that serves as online exhibition and database for sustainable architecture. It aims at increasing the awareness and knowledge among architects on sustainable design strategies.
Apart from information about innovative sustainable architectural projects all over the world, you also find some 50 short films on responsable architecture.

Cost-effective energy efficiency measures for real households

ECN (the Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands) did a very interesting study on the cost-effectiveness of energy efficiency measures in real households. The study shows that real cost-effecitveness strongly depends on specific technical and behavioural characteristics of individual households (which we already knew), but more interestingly, they also show figures about this real cost-effectiveness. Very interesting conclusions!

Green design by Pia Wustenberg



Credits: Pia Wustenberg


Pia Wustenberg is a German designer who lives in England. On her website you find some very nice and poetic examples of design products that make use of sustainable materials that are commonly available around us like moss and paper. Take a look at her Garden Rug and her lamps and tables made of processed paper. Don't forget to watch the video on how the processed paper is made! The result is wonderful!

Building with mud and steel frames

Source: No Tech Magazine - Marcelo Cortes

No Tech Magazine shows 2 nice examples of building projects with mud and steel frames: one from the Kazakh architect Saken Narynov and one from the Chilean architect Marcelo Cortes.

Renewable energy support policies in the EU

Ecofys publiced a new report on the performance of the renewable energy support policies of the EU-27. This RE-SHAPING report describes the efficiency and effectiveness of the support policies of the EU Member states through a set of indicators.

Tap water versus bottle water

Another reason to shift from bottled water to tap water: in 1976 Americans drank 1,6 gallons bottled water every year. 30 years later they drink 30 gallons, despite the much higher cost of bottled water compared to tap water. What this means for the pollution by the plastic for all these water bottles, is described by National Geographic.

Building with bamboo

Source: design boom via webecoist

Bamboo is a fast growing and strong material that might perfectly fit as sustainable building material, under the condition that it is not transported over thousands of kilometres.
Some nice examples of bamboo buildings can be found on Webecoist. 

A very nice bamboo building is the Green School in Bali. And there is a very inspiring TED talk by John Hardy, the founder of this school which is not only a beautiful building, but also an educational project that teaches children how to build, garden, create and get into college.

Solar Decathlon 2011

Winning project by University of Maryland (photo credits: Jim Tetro/US Department of Energy Solar Decathlon) 

People's Choice Award by Appalachian State University (photo credits: Jim Tetro/US Department of Energy Solar Decathlon)

Hanwha Solar CHIP by SCIA-Arc (photo credits: Jim Tetro/US Department of Energy Solar Decathlon)

Last week the Solar Decathlon 2011 took place in Washington D.C. The winner was the University of Maryland and the People's Choice Award went to the Appalachian State University.
My favourite is the puffy house or Hanwha Solar CHIP by SCIA/Arc. An interview with the team and all details on this project can be found on World-Architects.
For the first time, a Belgian team participated, with the E-cube and they got the 16th place out of 19, but they were winner for the affordability criterion.
More information on the teams and a lot of photos of the projects can be found on the website of Solar Decathlon.

Studio H and the student-built farmer's market pavilion

Farmer's market pavilion (source: The Smart Planet)

Studio H tries to use design and construction of public architecture by high school students as a way to educate these students and at the same time to empower the poorest rural communities in America.
A nice recent example of what they realise is the farmer's market pavilion in Bertie County, North-Carolina.
The curriculum concept of Studio H is freely online available.

I posted earlier the inspiring TED talk with one of the founders of Studio H, Emily Pilloton.

Bottle schools: using plastic bottles to build schools

Bottle school La Cereza (source: Hug it forward)

Hug it forward is a non-profit organisation in Guatemala who supports poorer communities to build eco-friendly schools by recycling waste plastic bottles as construction material. They have already 14 bottle schools completed and 3 are in progress.

The High Line NYC: a railroad transformed into a park

By Iwan Baan 2011 (source: The High Line)

Another example of a wonderful, poetical sustainability project: The High Line Park in NYC. How a railroad built in the 1930's, on which the last train rode in 1980, firstly was overtaken by nature, then risked to be destroyed, finally was transformed into a wonderful public park.

On Transition movement

An alternative way of dealing with climate change and peak oil through local environmental and social initiatives, this is more or less what transition movement is about. It started in the UK, but it quickly spreads all over the world.
A more detailed description can be found on wikipedia.
Information on the UK transition network can be found here.
For those interested in transition towns and how this works in reality, certainly take a look at what happens in Totnes, UK, the first transition town.

Also in Flanders, Belgium, the transition movement is spreading out.

• All kinds of initiatives in Flanders can be found on http://www.transitie.be/ (in Dutch)
• For those interested in the transition movement applied to the built environment, the website of Transitiearena Duurzaam Wonen en Bouwen is a good starting point (in Dutch).
• An interesting website on the transition movement from a Flemish researcher, specialized in sustainable materials

(Un)happy Earth Overshoot Day

Source: Footprintnetwork

According to the Global Footprint calculation method, today, 27th September, we exceed nature's budget for this year. Last year, it was on 21th August. Does that mean that we are doing better? Unfortunately no. Apparently, it is only due to differences in the calculation method. We still do slightly worse year over year. Read more on the Earth Overshoot Day

Opnieuw op bezoek bij ...

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

Bedrijven zetten op zondag 2 oktober hun deuren open voor geïnteresseerden tijdens de  'Open Bedrijvendag'. Het thema voor 2011 is 'materialen in beweging': meer dan 35 bedrijven verspreid over heel Vlaanderen tonen hoe de kringloop van materialen door recyclage en recuperatie van afvalstoffen kan gesloten worden.

Energiezuinige woningen kan je bezoeken in november. Wat vroeger 'Open Klimaathuizen' heette en 1 weekend duurde, is sinds 2 jaar 'Ecobouwers Open Deur' en neemt 2 weekends in beslag, 5-6 november en 11,12 en 13 november.

Wanna know your food footprint?

Our Western food consumption has a high environmental impact. You want to know your own food footprint and what to do to improve it?
Take a look at the Food Carbon Footprint Calculator (UK) or the Voedselafdruk (NL)

Sustainable business for tomorrow's child

A very inspiring TED talk by Ray Anderson, CEO of an American carpet company who since 1995 started to climb Mount Sustainability of which he wants to reach the summit in 2020. Besides, by climbing this mountain he found out that this way he not only reduces the environmental impact of his product drastically, but it turns out to be even a better business model.
At the end of his talk, he brings a beautiful poem, written by Glenn Thomas, one of his employees. Here it is.

Tomorrow's Child

Without a name, an unseen face,
and knowing not your time and place.
Tomorrow's Child, though yet unborn,
I met you first last Tuesday morn.
A wise friend introduced us two.
And through his sobering point of view
I saw a day that you would see,
a day for you, but not for me.
Knowing you has changed my thinking.
For I never had an inkling
that perhaps the things I do
might someday, somehow threaten you.
Tomorrow's Child, my daughter, son,
I'm afraid I've just begun
to think of you and your good,
though always having known I should.
Begin, I will.
The way the cost of what I squander,
what is lost if ever I forget that you
will someday come and live here too.

Why light needs darkness

An inspiring TED talk by the Dutch light designer Rogier van der Heide on the importance of darkness to create beautiful and enjoyable environments with daylight. His talk is full of inspiring examples.

Architecture for Humanity

For all designers, professional or still student, contribute to building a more sustainable future by sharing your design through Architecture for Humanity.
Cameron Sinclair, the founder of Architecture for Humanity, gave an inspiring TED talk on open source architecture, his way to contribute to a better world.

Shelter with green roof

Source: ecodemica

In a provincial parc domain near Leuven, Belgium you can find this nice example of a shelter with a green roof. It has been designed by Brick, an architect office from Antwerp specialised in ecological design.

Solar Decathlon 2011: The E-cube

Ghent University built the E-cube, a do-it-yoursef building kit for a solar powered zero energy house. It is their contribution to the Solar Decathlon 2011 Event that will take place on September 25 in Washington DC.

Keeping bees in town

In Brussels and Ghent, two cities in Belgium, two persons, independently from each other, were concerned about the dramatic decrease in bee population and decided to start an initiative to promote apiculture or beekeeping in the city. Liesbeth Hiele started the project Apicula in Ghent and Marc Wollast the project Apic Bruoc Sella in Brussels. They're both now beekeepers with several beehives on the roofs of buildings in Ghent and Brussels.
Read more about their story on the weblog Apicula or here (in Dutch) or the website of Apis Bruoc Sella (in French and Dutch).

Let's speak sustainable construction

Source: EESC

The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), together with the Architects Council of Europe and the European Concrete Platform have developed the Sustainable Construction Glossary. It is a multilingual glossary, a dictionary-type publication in English-French-Spanish-German with common language terminology for sustainable construction.

Rotterdam Climate Initiative

The Rotterdam Climate Initiative is a collaboration between the city of Rotterdam, the port of Rotterdam and other partners with the ambitious goal to achieve a 50% CO2 reduction in the region of Rotterdam and to make Rotterdam climate proof by 2025.
Many interesting projects that support this climate program are described on the website (partly in English).
A nice project by TU Delft is the Rotterdam Energy Approach (REAP) to make the building stock energy neutral. More information on this project (report in Dutch) can be found here.

Stylish combination of solar shading and solar energy

Source: Webecoist

Tensil-Solar designed by SMIT (Sustainable Minded Interactive Technology): this flexible and recyclable fabric combines solar shading and solar energy production in a stylish way. More information and pictures on Webecoist and a video on Core77

Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry demo SixthSense

This has nothing to do with sustainability, but, although this TED talk is already from 2009, it still is so astonishing and fascinating that I want to share it here on my blog.
Is this how the future will look like?
Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry demo SixthSense Video on TED.com

Duurzaamheidstools

Op de website van de Vlaamse overheid vind je een overzicht van verschillende handleidingen en afwegingsinstrumenten voor duurzaam bouwen en wonen: van sociale woningen over kantoorgebouwen en scholen tot wijken.

Heat Pump Centre

The International Energy Agency IEA has many expert centres and networks in which research institutes from all over the world join their research efforts on specific energy related research.
The IEA Heat Pump Centre is such an international information centre on heat pump technologies. It operates already since 1978 and through its annexes and projects it developed a large amount of scientific information on heat pump technology.
Information on the IEA ECBCS network on Energy Conservation in Buildings and Community Systems can be found here.

Limburg klimaatneutraal tegen 2020

Bron: TACO2 rapport

De Belgische provincie Limburg heeft zich de ambitieuze doelstelling gesteld om tegen 2020 klimaatneutraal te zijn. Hoe zij dit denken te realiseren, kan je lezen in de TACO2 studie.

Will bio-LEDs turn trees into illuminating street lights?

The search by scientists for new and greener lighting technology is continuing. After the invention of LEDs and OLEDs, there are now the bio-LEDs. This technology still is in its experimental phase, but it might be a future way of using trees as streets lights

The ZEDfactory

The ZEDfactory are the architects that designed BEDZED, the first and largest Zero Energy Development in the UK, built in 2002. Many more projects of low carbon architecture designed by them can be found on their site.

Energy online in real time

Several organisations and companies show the energy consumption and energy production of their building or of their products online in almost realtime.
Some nice examples:
- Live heatpump: a monitoring project of 6 houses in Belgium and The Netherlands, 5 of them equipped with an air-water heat pump and 1 with a gas fired condensing boiler. Of course, energy consumption not only depends on the heating system, but also on the insulation level, the occupants' behaviour, etc. And it is a project established by a heat pump producer. It would be nice to also have the real energy consumption figures, but it is already interesting that you can compare the houses on a yearly, monthly, weekly or daily basis.
- Adam Joseph Lewis Center: AJLC is an American academic demonstration building in Ohio that forms part of a larger initiative that aims to be a catalyst for ecological design. Their website is a Building Dashboard, showing quite some real time information on energy consumption, energy production, water consumption, geothermal and solar energy. If you search a little bit on the website, you find quite detailed information on end energy use, water use and others, also historic data. 

Ask Nature - the Biomimicry Design Portal

Ask Nature is a free, open source project of the Biomimicry Institute. It is established as an online inspiration source on biomimicry. You can find many cases, quite extensively explained.

Bio-inspired building designs

One of the most beautiful and intriguing buildings I saw at the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai was the British pavilion, called the Seed Cathedral. Unfortunately it was closed the day I visited the expo.
Only now, after watching the TED talk of Thomas Heatherwick on 'Building the Seed Cathedral', I learnt to know that it was a bio-inspired building, capturing hundreds of seeds.

Some other very nice examples of bio-inspired design can be found in his TED talk (do not quit the talk on his rather funny first work he is showing at the beginning of his talk, because the most interesting examples come more at the end).

A building made of water: sensing and actuating architecture

As architect Carlo Ratti tells in his TED talk on 'Architecture that senses and responds' the physical world turned into a digital one during the last decade, but now the digital world is turning again into the physical one, as the omnipresent digital data can be used to create our physical environment. Many examples can be found on the website of his MIT SENSEable City Lab and in the TED talk.

Digital Water Pavilion, Zaragoza (source: Inhabitat)

One of the most beautiful examples of sensing and actuating architecture is the Digital Water Pavilion, built in Zaragoza. It really is a building made of water. How it works is shown in the TED talk. Wonderful to see how it even can disappear!

R2B2: kitchen appliances that do not need electricity

Christoph Thetard is a German designer who designed the R2B2. It is a set of 3 kitchen appliances which are powered by muscular strength.
On his website you also find the design of heatable outside furniture that does not produces CO2.

If you are interested in or want to contribute into making environmentally friendly household devices, take a look at http://www.areyouwheel.com/

A world on 100% renewable energy possible by 2050?

Ecofys together with WWF made a well founded study on how the world in the coming 40 years can shift to renewable energy only. All figures and details on their assumptions can be found in The Energy Report (Dutch version) (English version)

Climate Action Tracker

Source: Climate Action Tracker

If you are interested to know which impact our current efforts concerning GHG emission reduction will have on the global temperature rise, have a look at the Climate Action Tracker, developed by Ecofys.
You also find detailed information there on individual countries and how well they are on track.

OLEDs: current and future possibilities of these organic light emitting diodes

OLEDs or organic light emitting diodes are a new type of LEDs that can produce paper-thin lights, even foldable.
The principle is well explained on How stuff works.
Examples of designs with this new light type can be found here.

You fade to light is video of an interactive installation by rAndom internationals and Philips Lumiblade, the OLED of Philips Lighting.

Solar Wind Bridge: a design to harness wind and solar energy

The Solar Wind Bridge: an amazing design for a large bridge to harness wind energy and solar energy. Will this design by Italian designers for a competition become reality once?

Flow: a beautiful and eco friendly concept for street lights on wind energy

Source: Igen Design

As mentioned on Webecoist: true innovation comes from seeing a problem and coming up with a solution that is both simple and creative.
A very nice example of true innovation is the Flow, a design by Igen Design of bamboo street lights working on wind energy. It is not only eco-friendly, but also very beautiful.

On the Igendesign Blog, a video can be found on the making of the Flow lamp.

Jeans for insulation

Ford is recycling clothes for the acoustical insulation of its cars. Apparently for 1 car you need 2 recycled jeans. Considering the amount of cars produced by Ford, the impact of this recycling can be substantial.

Insulating render based on aerogels

The Swiss Research Center EMPA developed a highly insulating render based on aerogels that can be used for renovation of buildings.

Architectural membrane with aerogel

Birdair, a company specialized in tensile architecture, developed an insulated translucent membrane roofing system (Tensotherm) with a material based on aerogel to be used in architectural membranes. The aerogel is applied between two layers of glass fibers/PTFE. The material is very light and can be used as thermal and acoustical insulation. One of the advantages is also that it is translucent and therefore can reduce the energy consumption for artifical lighting.

Daylight design lamp by Ross Lovegrove

Source: Velux

I am glad to see that more and more attention is paid by designers to develop applications that make use of daylight for the lighting of interiors. A beautiful example is the designer lamp by Ross Lovegrove for VELUX, based on the VELUX Sun Tunnel. It is purely daylight. The design won already several awards.
Ross Lovegrove himself explains his vision and design in a small video.

Biomimicry in architecture

A TED talk by Michael Pawylyn on biomimicry in architecture: using nature's genius in architecture
Michael Pawlyn: Using nature's genius in architecture Video on TED.com

More examples of biomimetic design

Habitat 2020, China (image via Webecoist)

Webecoist collected 12 more examples of biomimetic design, this time inspired by the leafs of plants. Many of the examples are related to buildings. But once again, although these nice examples are inspired by nature, this does not mean that they are intrinsically sustainable.

Green lighting: a beginner's guide

Inhabitat presents Green lighting 101: a beginner's guide to eco & energy efficient indoor lighting (made by Philips). It contains basic, but very useful information on energy efficient lighting, with information on some new developments in lighting products.

A flying car: science fiction or reality?

Source: Techniline Sirris / Terrafugia

Science fiction movies and comics often show future cities where cars are flying in the air. Will this become reality once? 
Terrafugia, a company created by engineers from MIT already succeeded in developing a prototype: the Transition. It still looks and makes noises like an airplane, but it can drive you home after landing.

Hard plastic with a soft feel

This is a technique developed by Nissan that has nothing to do with sustainability, but nevertheless intrigues me as an engineer: a hard plastic with a surface that feels soft and moist.
Interesting is also that the article explains what physical process causes our sensation of a moist or soft feel.
This technique might have some interesting opportunities for interior design.

Tree structure for the Qatar National Convention Center

source: www.designbuild-network.com

The new Qatar National Convention Center, QNCC, that will be finished in 2011, aims to be the first convention center with a gold LEED rating according to the standard of the US Green Building Council. The concept of the building is designed by Yamasaki Architects based on a design by Arata Isozaki.
Striking is already the tree structure at the main entrance that supports the canopy of the building. Buro Happold is the design consultant for the tree structure.
Although the building strives for a high sustainability level, it is questionable whether this structure is the most material efficient solution. More details and renderings of the building can be found on Designbuild Network.

Foam based on artificial photosynthesis

Photosynthesis is the process in which plants use sunlight to make organic material. Researchers try to copy and apply this process in an artificial way to fix CO2.
An example of a foam based on artificial photosynthesis developed by a research group in Cincinatti can be found on sciencenet.

Design inspired by nature



Lighter and stronger building materials
inspired by bird skulls (source: Webecoist)


Once again Webecoist presents a collection of 14 nice examples of inventions and design inspired by nature and 13 examples of design inspired by the sea

Intelligent building façade

Homeostatic façade system (source: www.fastcodesign.com)

The homeostatic façade system is a very nice example of an intelligent building façade system to control the solar gains in a building (still a prototype), based on the principle of dielectric elastomers. But it is not clear to me if the material of which this prototype is made is so sustainable.

Wildlife bridge or ecoduct

Source: www.weertfm.nl

In one of its items, Webecoist mentions the design of a green wildlife bridge to help wildlife savely crossing a highway that passes through a national park in Colorado.
In the province of Limburg, Belgium they have already since 5 years such a wildlife crossing, the ecoduct Kikbeek. That this bridge is very useful for animals to pass the highway, is shown with these images by night made by TVLimburg of wildlife crossing the ecoduct.
Also in the Netherlands, several examples of wildlife bridges can be found.

Daylight

In all the attention paid to energy efficiency and rational use of energy in buildings, the focus on the benefits of daylight is still limited. The Dutch organisation Stichting Living Daylights promotes the application of daylight in the built environment with a wide range of information on daylight, daylight experts, good examples of daylight application in buildings and the yearly Daylight Award. The website is in Dutch, but some of the publications are in English.

Biomimetic design

10 nice examples of biomimetic design inspired by insects collected by Webecoist, but biomimetic is not necessarily sustainable.

Home renovation with highest LEED score ever

source: Inhabitat

In Chicago a home has been thoroughly renovated and earned the highest LEED score ever. A reportage by Inhabitat.

Interview with architect Steven Holl

Inhabitat interviewed architect Steven Holl on the importance of sustainability in his architectural design.

Interview with architect and C2C author William McDonough

Inhabitat did an interview with the green architect and founder and co-author of Cradle to cradle William McDonough on his approach to sustainable design.