Exergy & Planning (conf. SREX), Delft - The Netherlands, hold September 22 - 2011

Submitted by petrareulen@iis... on Mon, 07/18/2011 - 14:04

The SREX (Spatial planning and exergy) research project was initially meant to develop exergy based criteria to be able to plan and choose the most optimal locations for new housing, based on renewable energy potentials. One of the spin-offs of the project was a website “heat mapping’, showing the potential of subsoil heat for heating and cooling buildings with heat-exchangers and heat pumps, for all of the Netherlands.
www.warmteatlas.nl
(heat=warmte in dutch)
However going further down in the matter and explore the role of renewable materials as well, the main question came out to be turned upside down. In fact, any location has a maximum exergy potential, which should be decisive for the total activities to be developed or established in the system. In other words, the renewable to gain potential in any region (with known conversion technologies) is guiding for a sustainable exploration.
This was one of the presentations during the Conference on the issue: Spatial planning and exergy.
Location: Delft, the Netherlands
Date: 22 September 2011

Ronald Rovers, RiBuilT
Research Institute Built environment of Tomorrow www.ribuilt.eu

IWA World Congress on Water, Climate & Energy, Dublin - Ireland, May 13-18, 2012

Submitted by petrareulen@iis... on Mon, 07/18/2011 - 10:39

The IWA World Congress on Water, Climate and Energy, taking place in Dublin, Ireland 13-18 May 2012.

Climate change is forcing us to reassess our energy usage and will have real substantial impacts on the water cycle as well as energy production. Solving the interlinked challenges of water, climate and
energy in a sustainable manner is one of the fundamental goals of this
generation.

The Congress will explore topics of resilient and sustainable cities with a focus on climate change adaptation and mitigation, energy
including:

* CLIMATE CHANGE
* COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION
* ECONOMICS AND POLICY
* ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY
* WATER, WASTEWATER &
ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURES / UTILITIES
* WATER, AGRICULTURE AND FOOD
* SPECIAL PROGRAMMES

For a full detailed listing of Topics and Sub-Topics visit:
www.iwa-wcedublin.org

The Congress will attract over 2000 like-minded water, climate and
energy professionals from across the globe to exchange ideas, explore
the state of the art and debate the key issues underlying the science
and practice of these inectricably linked natural, utility and
infrastructural issues of our time.

Detailed proposals received for SB13 & SB14 Conferences

Submitted by petrareulen@iis... on Fri, 07/08/2011 - 16:47

Rotterdam and Penne du Tarn, 4 July

The period for receiving detailed proposals to hold SB13 and SB14 conferences has now ended, and representatives of CIB, iiSBE, UNEP-SBCI and FIDIC, led by Dr. Bill Porteous, will now begin to review the proposals.

The SB Conference series was established a decade ago, and is now recognized as the pre-eminent conference series related to sustainable building and construction. The founding international sponsor organizations were CIB and iiSBE. UNEP-SBCI joined in 2005 and FIDIC earlier this year.

The conference series has evolved into a three-year cycle, with Year 1 focused on preparation and planning, Year 2 consisting of a series of several national events, and Year 3 culminating in a world conference. The total number of delegates for the last two cycles
was approximately 6000 delegates. It should be noted that the uniqueness of the series lies partly in the peer review of papers and its non-commercial aspect, and partly in that delegates tend to be researchers, policy makers and practitioners who are all specialized in sustainable building.

The last event of the current conference cycle will be the World SB Conference in Helsinki, during 18-21 October of this year.
See for details.

Requests for expressions of interest for the 2013-2014 cycle were issued in January and 8 detailed proposals have been received for
2013 national events, and 3 bids for the single global conference in 2014. The global partners reserve the right to include a small number of additional SB13 national events in order to provide geographic and thematic balance.

It is expected that an announcement will be made at SB11 Helsinki of the names and locations of the selected 2013 national events and of the winning global 2014 event.

Nils Larsson
Executive Director, iiSBE

International trends in the development of rating systems

Submitted by Giulia Barbano on Wed, 03/09/2011 - 15:18

As part of a larger conference for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) organization, a two-day seminar on green buildings was held on 3-4 March 2011, in Washington DC. The seminar, Green Buildings and Green Growth: the Enabling Role of Standards and Trade, brought together some 100 people from 10 countries from the fields of trade, business, standards and building technology. Delegates known to most iiSBE members included Niclas Svenningsen of UNEP and Kazuo Iwamura from Japan.

Beyond welcomes and introductions, some 40 substantive presentations were made. Issues covered included the role of standards, EPDs (environmental product declarations) and rating systems in promoting or hindering global trade. Nils Larsson represented iiSBE and delivered a presentation titled International trends in the development of rating systems., which is attached.

IEA Task 23 documents

Submitted by Giulia Barbano on Mon, 02/28/2011 - 13:34

IEA Task 23 explored the role of the integrated design process (IDP) in enabling buildings to reach very high levels of performance. The three files attached provide an overview of the project, which ended in 2003.