City climate leadership a model for sustainability
The United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is a plan of action. There are 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 169 targets and 231 indicators…
Smart cities
Smart meters giving Missouri customers incentive to save energy during peaks
Evergy and Ameren Missouri are both rolling out optional time-of-use rates to customers as they install smart meters. Missouri’s two major electric utilities are introducing…
How Japan’s ‘opt-in’ smart city could change urban living
This article is part of the Global Technology Governance Summit The city of Aizuwakamatsu in Japan has introduced an opt-in service for smartphone disaster alerts. It’s…
Greening our homes could kickstart an economic recovery – but we need new ideas
Ask an economist what they’d do first to kickstart a green recovery and they’ll probably say ‘retrofit’. That’s because greening our homes is essential if…
The UK has some of the least energy-efficient housing in Europe – here’s how to fix this
Samot/Shutterstock Sankar Sivarajah, University of Bradford Poorly constructed housing can seriously affect people’s health and wellbeing. And with the UK having some of the oldest…
Shift to decentral heating needed to make Germany’s buildings climate neutral – industry
Government measures to create a climate-neutral building stock by 2050 are insufficient, the German Housing Association (GdW) and the CDU Economic Council (CDU Wirtschaftsrat) have warned in a joint…
Children’s views should be taken into account when designing urban space
Iryna Inshyna/Shutterstock Jenny Wood, Heriot-Watt University Children see the world in a different way to adults, but urban planning policies rarely take this into account….
Of hemp’s many uses, one of the most promising could be in construction
“Hempcrete,” made from the woody core of hemp, is showing promise as an environmentally friendly building material. October 6, 2020 — It has become almost…
Big Green Apple: forbidden fruit, no more
The science behind climate change is self-evident: the burning of fossil fuels is the largest contributor to human-caused climate change. Climate change is a worldwide…
Energy performance in buildings is key to meeting 2030 emissions target
Ursula von der Leyen and Frans Timmermans have pledged to kick-start a renovation wave across Europe. This is a management challenge with three aspects that…
A solution to engineering energy-saving smart materials
Dr Mohammad Taha It is estimated that between 40-60 per cent of energy usage in buildings is due to climate control, including air conditioning and…
The heat is on to make German buildings ‘nearly’ climate-neutral
A mainly fossil energy guzzler, heating in Germany has taken a back seat to the Energiewende’s poster child, the power sector. But the “Wärmewende”, or…
‘Smart bricks’ could work to store energy in buildings
Making a run to the home improvement store for your next project? That’s what scientists in the United States did when they needed red bricks…