1,721,081 research outputs found
Planning sustainable communities: An appropriate basis for sustainable residential communities?
No full textApplication of Life Cycle Assessment in buildings - An overview of theoretical and practical information
No full textBuilt environment represents the man-made surroundings providing setting for human activity and so encompasses places and spaces that were created or modified by people including buildings, parks, and transportation systems. Despite the multiple benefits for living people, built environments of today are created through usage of large amounts of energy and materials, affecting the health of humans and the natural environment in negative manners. This aspect is amplified by built environments enhancing because of urban areas expanding to meet necessities and requirements of an increasing number of citizens. The built environment is responsible for both consumption of resources and energies, the generation of wastes and the emission of greenhouse gases and other pollutants, with the consequent environmental impacts. Buildings contribute hugely to those environmental issues and impacts. Therefore, life cycle evaluations upon the energy and environmental performance of buildings are desirable to find room for improvement. In this context, this chapter highlights the importance and usefulness not only of life cycle assessment but also of guiding and regulating its application in buildings, so to contribute, in turn, to enhancement of the subject literature and knowledge
How can life cycle thinking support sustainability of buildings? Investigating life cycle assessment applications for energy efficiency and environmental performance
No full textHow can life cycle thinking support sustainability of buildings? Investigating life cycle assessment applications for energy efficiency and environmental performance
No full textIn the context of built environment, buildings are amongst the principal generators of environmental externalities. Life Cycle Assessment (LCAs) of energy efficiency and environmental performance of buildings are deemed critical to address sustainable development issues. This paper aims to investigate LCA as a tool to support the design of buildings with two objectives in mind. Firstly, it determines the role of LCA in the evaluation of energy efficiency and environmental performance of buildings. Secondly, it elaborates LCA of these constructions through the lens of international standards. The methodological approach of the study leads to development of a whole building life cycle formula that sums up the contributions from a set of LCAs. By doing so, the paper highlights the necessity of LCA applications in buildings, and the need for minimisation of resource and energy consumption, and environmental impact. The study helps in better understanding the way LCA supports the search for and identification of innovation pathways in buildings. This paper contributes to the efforts in providing theoretical expansions in LCA of buildings and stimulates the creation of technical standards for the residential building construction sector
Waste recycling patents and environmental innovations: An economic analysis of policy instruments in the USA, Japan and Europe
No full textSince natural resources are finite, new policy instruments to sustain the most efficient processes of waste recycling are required in all countries. To this end, it is critical to explore all technology mechanisms underlying solid waste researchers and practitioners’ behaviors. The study focuses on to demonstrate the importance of knowledge diffusion between the source and destination of environmental innovations. This way, policymakers can elaborate opportune strategies to improve the efficiency of innovation activities. By analyzing a sample of 240 large international firms from the USA, Japan, and Europe, this paper discusses the extent to which innovation inputs, research and development, and relative technological spillovers affect environmental innovation—that is measured by the number of waste recycle and land fertilizers patents. The novelty of the study comes from introducing a knowledge production function approach to analyze the role of technological knowledge spillovers on waste recycling and land fertilizers efficiency at the firm level. The technological relatedness between the firms is computed through technological proximity, based on the construction of technological vectors for each firm. The results reveal a significant positive impact of external spillovers on firms’ environmental innovation levels. This finding is important particularly in terms of policy implications concerning industrial strategies; as in order to improve environmental innovation, incentives that favor industrial relatedness and establishing integration between firms are crucial
Knowledge based protection for ancient city centres
No full textWith the support of a case study, the paper describes the impact of technological transfer to anticipate the degradation processes in outdoor collective spaces. Taking into account the historic center of Salerno, the paper discusses an urban regeneration experience based on remote monitoring and permanent maintenance with innovative technologies. Thanks to a synergy between the University and the Superintendence, knowledge and innovation become motors of active protection and development with the creation of a laboratory of urban sustainability. The paper identifies a knowledge based approach as the means to promote outdoor spaces identity, with the affirmation of inner inherent dynamism, internal and external connection. Knowledge based active protection is here identified with a process of anticipation, vigilance and planning of vulnerabilities, informed to the logic of responsibility sharing between users and managers, coordinating design choices. Condition for an active protection is the complementarily of information, experience and expertise, for the preservation and promotion of the built capital. Reconciling multi-scalar and multi-sector approaches, active protection brings into play an idea of the settlement as an interconnected system, where design scenarios arise from the complexity of the relationships between spaces, performances and instances. The awareness of users, creating a sense of ownership, are conditions to support these processes, acting on the components of identity, heritage and memory
Benchmarking knowledge-based urban development performance : Results from the international comparison of Helsinki
No full textIn the era of a global knowledge economy, urban regions that seek to increase their competitive edge, become destinations for talent and investment and provide prosperity and high quality of life to their inhabitants have little chance of achieving these goals without forming effective knowledge-based urban development strategies. The research reported in this paper aims to address the questions of how a knowledge-based urban development performance measurement can be undertaken and the value contribution of such measurement. The paper focuses on the city of Helsinki. This empirical study analytically\ud
investigates Helsinki’s performance from the lens of knowledge-based urban development by comparing this urban region with eight international competitors, Boston, San Francisco, Birmingham, Manchester, Melbourne, Sydney, Toronto, and Vancouver. The results of the study not only reveal a clearer understanding of Helsinki’s benchmarked performance and competitive edge considering the regional policy context along with strategic directions in strengthening its international standing and competitiveness but also provide useful insights for other urban regions that aspire to such development
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