Emerging Research in Sustainable Energy and Buildings for a Low-Carbon Future

This paper discusses the development and validation of an Active Building Design Guide being developed to enable the design of Active Buildings. The definition of Active Buildings and the key principles to be considered when designing them are discussed and illustrated. The background to the research project is discussed, which includes addressing the UK Government’s aim to at least halve the energy consumption of all new buildings by 2030, and how the author’s experience in designing Active Buildings and developing a Design Guide to enable others to design Active Buildings could help achieve this aim. The author has identified a need for some design guidance to enable the Active Building concept to be adopted by the construction industry, contributing to reducing the energy consumption of buildings, aligning with the UK Government’s Industrial Strategy. The paper presents progress on the Design Guide development, testing and refinement, including the considerations for ensuring it is a document that architectural designers of Active Buildings will genuinely find useful and will use to ensure reductions in energy use and associated carbon emissions through the design of such buildings.

Based on our experience of more than 20 years in housing construction for vulnerable families, from the IMV and IH, we have assumed the commitment to project integral housing solutions, incorporating the principles of sustainability in its three dimensions: economic, social and environmental. Our design premise is based on reducing the energetic demand in the houses, projecting in bioclimatic conditions which correspond to the convenient site for the facilities, incorporating the active participation and the multidisciplinary accompaniment to the families from the very beginning. The Institute of Building Sustainability (ISE) has evaluated the first houses in their energetic and environmental performance, allowing us to learn about the functioning of the homes and be able to meet the minimum requirements in terms of comfort.

Based on an online survey, this paper analyzes the attitude of detached house owners in Sweden toward future renovations and their perception over a one-stop-shop (OSS) service for deep renovation of these dwellings. With the aid of a house owners’ renovation decision-making journey for renovation, personal and contextual variables have been analyzed to identify those house owners having renovation plans in the near future, what they are going to renovate, and which needs to lead them to that decision. Furthermore, we examine if there is an interest in OSS concept and the factors affecting positively or negatively the choice for such a concept. Results suggest that deep renovation is not yet prioritized. The priority for house owners is to change specific components of their dwelling and follow a step-wise approach. Aesthetic renovations are high on the agenda, with some structural and energy-related renovations following them. House owners between 29 and 49 years of age are those mostly interested in more comprehensive renovations. The OSS concept appears to be interesting to a number of house owners capable to verify a business potential. House owners up to the age of 45 years, with dwellings built from 1960 and above and with environmental awareness, are the market segment that can act as early adopters of the OSS concept. When it comes to the decision-making journey for renovations, house owners’ future plans, and the factors affecting their choice for an OSS provider, we can claim that OSS can act as a guide for house owners from the early stages of their decision-making journey and provide them with a shortcut that will make this journey more secure, while triggering renovation decision of greater extent. In terms of financing, incentives related to energy performance are also suggested as means that could boost greater interest for more comprehensive renovations.

The work presents the problem of institutional changes in Russian Urban planning. Institutional problems in the sphere of cultural heritage are discussed. The necessity to conduct the research is substantiated, and methods and tools for evaluation of the effectiveness of the institutional changes are suggested. The program of the urban development is proposed, and tested methods for estate objects of cultural heritage protection, which are to be implemented further in Russia considering climatic, seismic and ecological peculiarities of the regions, are suggested. The issues of marketing and reforming of institutions in the sphere of cultural heritage protection as well as the ways to manage estate cultural heritage are discussed.

Green retrofitting is the justifiable solution for contemporary issues such as global warming, resource depletion, and greenhouse gas emissions which have arisen due to the existing conventionally built environment. Nevertheless, the building owners are less willing to invest in green retrofits due to the contradictory views associated with the first cost and payback period implications of the green retrofit. In that context, this chapter presents an assessment of the first costs and life-cycle saving implications of fourteen (14) energy and water-efficient retrofits incorporated into four (04) garment buildings in Sri Lanka to find the retrofit options which are financially sound. The green retrofits such as skylights, LED lights, steam line insulation, compressed airline modification, biomass boiler, evaporative cooler, energy-efficient chiller, and VSDs were implemented in the garment buildings in Sri Lanka as energy and IEQ measures. Additionally, the selected buildings were upgraded using green retrofits such as subsystem-level water meters and low water flow push taps. All the selected green retrofits are financially practical with positive NPVs and SPB periods of less than 5 years. This information would provide some cost-based considerations for green investors in the selection of retrofits for other industrial buildings and thereby contribute to promoting sustainable developments.

This study presents the result of the findings on the factors impeding the sustainability of construction projects in developing countries using Nigeria as a case study. The study sought responses from construction managers, project managers, and quantity surveyors from the six different regions of the country. Data gathered were analysed using factor analysis and structural equation modelling. The findings revealed that issues surrounding regulation and policy, information and management, sustainability knowledge and sustainable materials and technology availability have a significant relationship with the poor sustainable construction in the country. It is believed that the findings of the study will help construction participants in the country and other developing countries particularly in Africa where the construction practice is similar, in understanding the core issues to tackle in the quest for sustainable construction in the country.

The earth is constantly faced by issues affecting the living conditions of its inhabitants and one of such challenges is the exacerbated effect of global warming which is largely attributed to the emissions of carbon (a major contributor to greenhouse gas) in the ecosystem. This has led to the call for a drastic abatement of operations that aid in the discharge of carbon emissions considering the harmful effect it has on the environment. Occupants of buildings engage in operations and activities that bring about the discharge of carbon, thus serving as an agent or contributor to the facing crisis of global warming. This study sets out to evaluate the barriers to the adoption of zero-carbon emissions in occupied buildings with a view to proffering ways to mitigate such practices. A comprehensive review of relevant literature was done which aided the identification of the barriers. Data for the study was elicited through a questionnaire survey from the built environment professionals. Methods of data analysis used were Percentage, Mean Item Score and Principal Component Analysis while Cronbach alpha was used in testing the reliability of the questionnaire. Findings from the study revealed that the hindering factors to the adoption of zero-carbon emissions in buildings and recommendations were made to help foster the adoption of zero-carbon emission processes in building operations and activities by its occupants.

Various policies have been formulated by governments to reduce energy consumption in buildings. Evaluating the effectiveness of a proposed policy requires consideration of complex interrelationships that exist among many variables. Therefore, this research aims to develop a dynamic model to analyse the impact of energy policies on buildings performance. The principle of socio-technical systems as an approach to model this complexity has been advocated in this research. A System Dynamics model has been developed to simulate the intrinsic interrelationship between the dwellings, occupants and environment systems. This chapter will analyse the impact of various policy scenarios on energy consumption in building towards achieving the UK national targets; namely: improvements in the uptake of dwelling insulation measures, occupants’ behavioural changes, and policy change on energy prices. An integrated scenario has been also assumed to combine the effect of the first three ones. The main findings indicate that it is unlikely for anyone scenario alone to meet the required binding reductions unless an integrated solution is adopted. The developed model considers various qualitative conditions that are not usually simulated using the traditional regression-based forecasting of energy use in buildings. The developed model can be used to test various policies other than the UK context considering various data sets of the model variables.

Kazakhstan is one of the leading economies of the Central Asian region. With the ambitious goal of being among the fifty most developed countries in the world, Kazakhstan is rigorously attempting to boost its infrastructure development. Among others, significant resources are invested in the construction of both residential and non-residential buildings. As a proponent of sustainable development, the government of Kazakhstan is seeking ways of reducing both energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. As a part of this agenda, Kazakhstan hosted EXPO2017 «Future Energy» exhibition which triggered the integration of sustainability principles into all areas of the economy including the construction sector. Among others, the construction industry started adopting widely recognized environmental assessment certification schemes such as the Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) and the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM). Up to this day, more than 50 buildings, especially from rapidly expanding cities such as Nur-Sultan and Almaty, have obtained LEED and BREEAM certificates and were recognized as green buildings. This study investigates the nature of adopting these methods in the context of Kazakhstan with the aim of understanding the driving factors of such application, characteristics of the certified buildings, and the potentials of promoting the certification schemes at a wider scale.

The fourth industrial revolution (4IR) marks a significant period in world history as this innovative era has the potential to change the way we think and execute ideas in every area of our lives. The emerging technologies coupled with its rapid impacts prompt a swift and urgent revamp of higher education curricula worldwide. This is to provide present-day built environment students with an opportunity to comprehend the intrinsic details and applications of this latest disruptor. The aim of this research is to determine undergraduate courses that will be relevant to the built environment in the nearest future. A qualitative Delphi approach was adopted to validate these courses as institutions of higher learning prepare students for this latest wave of innovation. Fourteen experts completed a two-stage iterative Delphi study process and reached consensus on all 29 technological areas identified. This study found that concepts such as data analytics, artificial intelligence, computer programming, computer coding and data mining should be integrated into the curricula of universities to ease the transition of students from the lecture-room to the world of work. It is recommended that universities across South Africa and beyond integrate innovation-driven courses to provide an understanding of the technologies accompanying the 4IR era to not only produce graduates who comprehend these applications but also to build on these concepts to address socio-economic problems plaguing the continent.

Sustainable Construction projects are precarious by nature and a lot of accidents occur in the process and therefore there is a need for insurance policies. The purpose of this study is to appraise the level of awareness and adoption of insurance policies on the sustainability of construction projects in Nigeria. The objective of the study is to examine the various insurance policies available to sustainable Construction Projects. This study was achieved through a questionnaire survey method that was self-administered to Professional in the construction industry; insurer and Client Representatives, the data collected were analyzed using statistical software (SPSS 23.0) Statistical Package for Social Sciences which encompasses tool such as mean, frequency, percentile, standard deviation and ranking. The findings of the study indicate the types of insurance policies available to construction industry, concluded that Contractors’ All Risks (CAR) insurance is an all-inclusive insurance cover used in construction contracts, most effective and adopted and it has been realized that the risk involved in engaging insurance policies are numerous. Thus, insurance policies have positive impacts highly beneficent to the performance of construction projects.

As human beings have detached themselves from natural environments by spending most of their time indoors, they have also distanced themselves from the positive experiences that nature provides. Sick building syndrome, nature deficit disorder amongst others, are examples of the impact of separating the built environment from nature. Biophilia is an innate affiliation to nature which stems from our evolutionary history, vital for sustaining health and wellbeing. Biophilic concepts have been explored from biophilic cities to biophilic hospitals. However, existing biophilic research is fragmented. In the last few decades, energy efficiency and carbon emissions have increased in importance for low environmental impact design, nonetheless, there is a need for more research in biophilic buildings which are beneficial to our health and wellbeing as well as causing less harm to the environment. This paper aims to investigate the application of biophilia in building design practices for improved health and wellbeing. Firstly, biophilic theoretical frameworks developed by leading biophilic experts have been examined and compared to health and wellness performance certifications such as WELL Building and Living Building Challenge (LBC) standards. Finally, a holistic biophilic framework inspired by Kellert and Calabrese has been elaborated to assess the biophilic features in the built environment. Multiple explorative case studies were employed for this paper, the findings revealed that the biophilic applications linked to direct experiences of nature were implemented inefficiently and lacked a holistic approach to improve health and wellbeing. The authors argue that biophilia needs to be included holistically to maximise the benefits of nature’s experiences.

A new experimental procedure for determining the thermal conductivity of small-sized building materials using the boxes method setup is described. The proposed approach does not require additional sensors. Indeed, the measurement is based on the permutation of sensors and then the interpretation of the steady-state heat balance of samples. For the characterization, local earthen blocks from eastern Morocco were developed. The measured thermal conductivity values were compared with those obtained by an accurate transient hot disk method. The comparison shows a good agreement and verifies the performance of the permutation approach. To evaluate the thermal performance of the developed building materials, annual simulations were performed for a typical earthen building located in two different climates in Morocco. In this paper, hot and cold semi-arid climates were chosen to study the impact of the characterized earthen walls on the annual energy consumption of the case study building. The results show that the earthen wall reduces the annual cooling loads by 21.2% and 18.1% for hot and cold semi-arid climates compared to the reference case, respectively. In addition, the studied earthen walls show a reduction in the maximum cooling peak load of up to 20% compared to the conventional walls. However, a slight difference in heating loads for buildings located in cold semi-arid climates was observed. The experimental tests demonstrated the performance of the proposed methodology, which could be used for laboratory testing and for updating building material databases. While the building performance analysis clearly proved that earth walls can play a great role in mitigating the cooling demand and improving the thermal comfort of buildings in summer.

This chapter is expected to help the reader understand the fundamentals of the control for the Wind Energy Conversion System (WECS) based Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator (PMSG). At first, the modelling of the WECS is introduced, including the model of the Wind Turbine (WT), the dynamic models of the PMSG and the power converters. It can be helpful for the readers to know the operation of the PMSG wind system, which are the basics to design the control systems presented in the following chapter. Then, the controls of the Machine Side Converters (MSCs) and Grid Side Converter (GSC) are introduced. The proposed control methods were used to maximize the generated power from Wind Turbine Generators (WTGs), to keep a constant DC-bus voltage for the GSC and to control the powers fed to the grid.

High-temperature heat pumps (HTHPs) based on vapour compression technology are being considered an energy-efficient possibility for low-grade waste heat recovery in industrial applications. If the HTHP technology is extended, the industrial energy efficiency would be closer to the 2050 target of decarbonisation, and consequently, it would reduce the worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. This chapter gives a comprehensive overview of the current status and future possibilities of the HTHP technology based on the working principles, working fluids, configurations, existing prototypes, and the possibility of reversible operation. Many working fluid possibilities with low Global Warming Potential are available, but there is no perfect alternative, and the selection must consider many factors. The relatively higher temperature lifts make advanced configurations feasible. Existing HTHP prototypes cover a wide range of working fluids and configurations; nevertheless, they are going to be required for developing HTHPs capable of supply increasing temperatures from higher heat sources.

The study of energy and its relationship to the environment is now critical due to its effect on the quality of present and future life. The need to reduce greenhouse gases to combat climate change implies an increasing use of non-renewable sources of energy. This article aims to evaluate the possibility of replacing fossil fuels by renewable sources of energy in a residential building in Chalus, an Iranian city with a high potential for using on-site sources of energy. This study first investigates the annual operating energy used by households in Chalus. To do this, the type of appliances and average time of their use, including heaters and air conditioning units, is extracted from official reports together with a local field study. The ability of renewable on-site sources of energy to supply this load is calculated by considering the specific characteristics of the region. The result shows these sources have the potential to provide approximately 98% of the annual energy the household consumes.

Air-conditioning of vehicles is important to improve driver comfort and motivate users to invest. The heating and cooling processes required for this are very energy-intensive processes. In conventional battery-operated commercial vehicles, the energy required to operate the air-conditioning system is used from the battery. This reduces the range of the vehicles by up to 30%. One of the greatest challenges in making electric commercial vehicles usable across the board is to increase their driving range. To reduce energy losses through air-conditioning, it is preferable to develop a technology that is independent of the battery. There are a number of options for controlling the temperature of a moving vehicle, but only a limited number that is CO₂-neutral. In this paper, we focus on adsorption chiller technology in combination with an auxiliary heater based on bioethanol. To understand the advantage of an adsorption machine, a simulation model can provide useful data on scaling and ease of use and thus be the basis for design and assembly of a prototype system. Therefore, a mathematical model of the adsorption technology is combined with the known dimensional parameters of electric vehicles, and the results are presented in form of a simulation model.

The role of sustainable infrastructures such as roads in the development of any community cannot be overemphasised. Quality and sustainable roads play a vital role in the daily living of individuals. However, roads within the rural areas are in most cases adjudged to be defective and unsustainable, thereby crippling activities within these rural areas. It is based on this notion that this study assessed the possible measures for attaining sustainable road infrastructure within rural communities in Limpopo province, South Africa. The study sought answers from rural dwellers and construction workers within the study area through a questionnaire survey. Data gathered were analysed using percentage, mean item score, standard deviation and one-sample t-test. The reliability of the questionnaire was also tested using Cronbach’s alpha which gave an alpha value of 0.948 which indicates the questionnaire used was reliable. Findings of the study revealed that the most significant measures for attaining more sustainable road constructions within the rural areas include using quality materials that will last the expected lifespan of the road, having planned maintenance, proper investment on road projects, and using contractors and skilled workers with the right experience in road construction. It is believed that the findings of this study will help increase the delivery of sustainable road projects within the rural areas in a bid to provide better standard of living for rural dwellers.

This study has been undertaken in response to drivers from the Welsh Government to increase the number of houses and quality and as such increase the offsite manufacturing of modern methods of construction and also to meet Wales’ low- to zero-carbon agenda, launched in March 2019. The need to increase the quality and operational energy use of buildings has been acknowledged since 2019 when it was recognised that the UK’s climate change targets were impossible to meet without almost 100% elimination of greenhouse gas emissions from UK buildings. This paper discusses and presents the first of three case studies undertaking time and motion and value stream mapping studies by one of Wales’ (UK) largest offsite manufacturers (referred to as the company hereafter) of timber-frame construction systems, in order to evaluate optimisation opportunities in the offsite manufacture of the company’s modern methods of construction within roof component production, such as trusses. A time and motion matrix to capture the live manufacturing data is presented and discussed. The preliminary results from the time and motion and value stream mapping assessments of the company’s manufacture of a number of roof truss case studies conducted between May and September 2019 are presented and highlight opportunities for quick win refinement to their operational processes with the aim to increase production efficiency, reduce waste and close the performance gap, therefore increasing the quality and thermal performance of offsite manufactured timber-frame buildings resulting in reduced operational energy usage and therefore minimising greenhouse gas emissions. This paper will be useful for academics, timber-frame manufacturers, offsite manufacturers, building contractors, estimators, housing developers and clients.