In this article, some of the obstacles for translating urban imaginaries and urban sustainability concepts based on technological interventions are analyzed. This analysis is built on experiences from the World Urban Forum 7 in Medellín, Colombia held in April 2014 and uses previous attempts to explore the production of imaginaries at play in the performance of SymbioCity, an urban development concept with a symbiosis tint created by the Swedish Trade Council. Through documenting the role of physical and non-physical messages from the Swedish delegation and its exhibition, along with numerous interviews with key actors at the conference and from the city's administration, an analysis of the current strategies used to promote the tool is provided. The claim that induced idealized urban futures sap energy and result in poor achievement of the goals is used to suggest that context and current conditions influence the ability to understand and adopt technological solutions. The conclusions are centered on the fact that SymbioCity, for the most part, is trying to sell products or services that are difficult to see and understand from the perspective of cities-customers, since most of these consist of invisible (i.e., energy), or hidden loops (i.e., waste and water). It is argued that there are contextual and historical conditions that are crucial for the decision to implement them that are, at least implicitly, expressed by the targeted cities-customers, and that the SymbioCity concept, or at least the way it is communicated in these fora, has undergone a change, in the sense that it has become more flexible and allowed for bottom-up considerations to enter the discourse. ; Funding agencies: AForsk; Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems (Vinnova)
Researchers from Austria, Czech Republic, Italy, the Netherlands, and Sweden collaborate in the EU sponsored project »Asses implementations in the frame of the Cities of Tomorrow« (ASI). ASI is centered on quality of life issues and the way they are dealt with in projects aiming to pro-mote sustainable transport. In general, these issues tend to be overlooked by researchers, as they are difficult to measure or quantify. The main objective of this project is to examine whether and how policy makers take into account quality of life effects when designing and implementing transport policies, by reviewing policy implementations in ci-ties that participated in the Cities of Tomorrow programme. Based on this, development of an instrument that will enable decision-makers to better address quality of life issues in mobility projects is prepared, in order to secure public acceptance and promote user behaviour changes. The project follows holistic approach to sustainability; special emphasis is given to issues of sustainable transport. This reflects the facts that the urban structure directly pre-determines the transport system and that the mobility of people and goods has a central impact on the quality of urban environment. Therefore the project clamours for compact, space-saving settlement structure interrelated with an environmentally compatible transport system. Its scientific orientation is determined by the objectives of the EU policies and its inspiration sources could be found also in eco-logical and architectural movements. Similarly to their typical approach, the project Ecocity intends to realise its vision of sustainable city through planning of an ideal physical structure within a spatially limited model area.
This report is an anthology from the research programme MiSt - Tools for environmental assessment in strategic decision making. MiSt is an interdisciplinary research programme on tools for environmental assessment in strategic decision making running from 2003 to 2008. The focus of the MiSt-programme is the empirical study of effectiveness of tools of environmental assessment as aid to strategic decision making. Two perspectives running through the programme are public participation and legal regulation of tools. There are three major steps in the programme: • a critical examination of the function of tools • a theory based understanding of their effectiveness • and ultimately a development of prescriptions for effective tool use including effective combinations of tools. MiSt is funded by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. Participating researchers come from a dozen leading Swedish research institutions in the field. The programme was initiated by the Blekinge Institute of Technology. ; Programmet "Miljöstrategiska verktyg", MiSt, är ett tvärvetenskapligt forskningsprogram finansierat av Naturvårdsverket. I programmet studeras verktyg som kan underlätta miljöbedömning i strategiskt beslutsfattande på olika nivåer, från nationell till lokal. Förståelsen och basen för utveckling av verktyg och rekommendationer om verktyg i olika planerings- och beslutsprocesser baseras på empirisk forskning på fall inom flera sektorer. Målet för MiSt-programmet • Kritisk undersökning av verktygens funktion • Teoribaserad förståelse av deras verkan • Utveckling av råd om effektiv användning av verktyg och kombinationer av verktyg. Antologin är en första avrapportering av resultat från MiSt-programmet. Strategisk miljöbedömning, MKB
Buildings account for 40% of all energy use in European countries. The European Union (EU) therefore encourages member states to adopt Energy Efficiency Measures (EEMs) and implement energy-efficient practices during building design to minimize the energy use of buildings. However, recent studies have shown that energy-efficient buildings may not always outperform conventional buildings in terms of Life Cycle Energy (LCE) use. This is mainly due to the trade-off between embodied and operational energy, and a reliance on EEMs that reduce operational energy while sometimes increasing embodied energy and LCE use. To improve buildings' environmental performance, the impact of different EEMs on buildings' energy use needs to be assessed from a lifecycle perspective, and methods for identifying optimal combinations of EEMs that minimize LCE use should be developed. Ideally, these methods should be integrated with building information modelling (BIM) to enable seamless data exchange and to help Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) practitioners make optimal design decisions relating to EEMs. The work presented in this thesis had two overall objectives: (1) to explore the scope for developing BIM-supported method(s) for assessing and optimizing the impact of EEMs on buildings' LCE use during the design process, and (2) use the BIM-supported method(s) for exploring the impact of various EEMs that are implemented and modified during the building design process on the buildings' LCE use. The work presented in this thesis is based on an exploratory research design involving iterative cycles of (1) problem identification, (2) method development, (3) method examination, and (4) theory suggestion. In step 1, problems were identified by conducting literature studies and workshops with AEC practitioners, and analyzing archival data. In step 2, prototyping was used to develop methods to overcome the identified problems. In step 3, the applicability of these methods (or prototypes) was tested in case studies on actual and hypothetical building projects. Three case studies were conducted – one dealing with a low energy dwelling located in Kiruna, Sweden; another dealing with a multifamily residential building in Uppsala, Sweden; and a third dealing with a hypothetical multifamily residential building in Stockholm, Sweden. In step 4, the results were compared to existing theories to strengthen existing knowledge and identify previously unrecognized findings. In relation to the first objective, the results obtained show that the factors and activities required to develop BIM-supported method(s) for assessing and optimizing the impact of EEMs on a building's LCE use during the design phase are: • A database that stores external and building project data (e.g. BIM data) and links it to be used for assessment and optimization, providing access to the data whenever needed. • The development of interfaces using middleware applications to ensure interoperability and seamless automated exchange of information between BIM and other systems. • Predefined objects (i.e. building part and component recipes) that are stored in a database and linked to inventories and Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for the relevant materials, enabling assessment of the buildings' embodied energy and LCE use. • The application of multi-objective optimization techniques (e.g. Pareto-based genetic algorithms) to identify optimal solution(s) for EEMs that minimize (optimize) the building's LCE use. In relation to the second objective of the thesis, the results obtained indicate that: • EEMs that are implemented and modified during the detailed design phase have much less influence on the building's LCE use than those implemented in the early design phase. Highly influential EEMs related to the early design phase which were tested herein were the building's shape, orientation, Window to Wall Ratio (WWR), and the selection of materials used in the building envelope. • Generally, thickening roof insulation has a strong beneficial effect on LCE use for buildings in Sweden. • For buildings using energy sources with high primary energy factors, the most effective way to reduce LCE use may be to implement many EEMs that reduce operational energy use. However, this approach may be less helpful for buildings using greener energy sources because in such cases the embodied energy may have a greater effect on the final LCE use. • The embodied energies of materials in the same class can vary significantly between suppliers. Such differences in embodied energy can be identified by considering the suppliers' EPDs, the energetic contributions due to their mode of transportation from the site of production, and the distance between the site of production and the construction site. • If the developed optimization approach is used to identify optimal combinations of EEMs in the early design phase, designers can freely choose from a wide range of building shapes without greatly affecting LCE use. However, without early phase optimization, designs that use different building shapes may exhibit significantly different LCE use values. The results provide both theoretical and practical contributions that may be useful to researchers and AEC practitioners seeking to develop BIM-supported design processes and to reduce buildings' LCE use by adopting appropriate EEMs. The results also show that embodied energy can be a major component of a building's LCE use if the building's design relies heavily on EEMs designed solely to reduce operational energy use. Policy makers and governmental bodies are thus advised to update regulations and building codes to reflect the importance of embodied energy so as to minimize the LCE use of new and retrofitting building projects.
From 1st January 2022, Swedish government plan to introduce the climate declarations as a legal requirement for new buildings. LCA is a method that could be used to quantify buildings' climate impact. The climate declaration in the Swedish building code expects to create interest in LCA among stakeholders. This study aims to identify and understand the challenges and opportunities of using LCA by stakeholders during the early stage of construction process. The study is based on responses from six building professionals to a questionnaire. The policy implications of the study findings are discussed.
In many European countries, there are building stocks in need of extensive renovation. This constitutes an important opportunity to perform energy-saving measures and improve indoor environmental quality aiming at a more sustainable built environment. In this paper, we report results from an interview study with the aim of obtaining an in-depth understanding of renovation processes and how sustainability aspects are handled by various Swedish property owners. Examples of important barriers revealed in the interviews are insufficient inspection of existing buildings, absence of both overarching and detailed sustainability targets and guidelines, and lack of knowledge about sustainability aspects. Based on the interview study, conclusions are drawn for the further development of a process model which aims at systematize integration and effectively address energy, environmental, and indoor environmental quality aspects throughout a renovation process; we refer to this as sustainable renovation. Some key starting points for the process model are to suggest routines, provide checklists and tools, and offer guidance for formulating sustainability targets. However, the interviews show that in order to reach a more sustainable built environment, there is a need for government subsidies, other incentives or new business models that value environmental aspects higher. ; QC 20150604
Rebound effects represent the difference between anticipated or projected energy savings and the real energy saving in relation to, for example, implemented policy measures aimed at improving energy efficiency. Rebound effects in the transport sector may counteract policy measures so that goals related to energy or emissions are not achieved, or achievement is greatly delayed. This comprehensive report examines the presence of rebound effects within the transport sector and while the aim was to provide a full review of the issue, for some transport areas it was not possible to find any studies on rebound effects. Those areas are identified as having knowledge gaps. We summarize the literature for rebound effects for passenger vehicles, technological developments, freight transports, public lighting, aviation, waterborne transports and for indirect, economy-wide effects, and also discuss rebound effects in aspects of environmental awareness and in the transport and community planning. The existing literature suggests that rebound effects exist to varying degrees and that there is a high risk of energy efficiency measures transferring transport energy savings into other transport modes, sectors or energy services. Consequently, rebound effects should be included when calculating whether Sweden will reach its climate and energy goals. ; Rekyleffekter är skillnaden mellan den förväntade eller beräknade energibesparingen och den verkliga energibesparingen för olika typer av åtgärder. Om detta inte tas med i beräkningar kan rekyleffekter motverka politiska åtgärder så att mål relaterade till energi och utsläpp inte uppnås eller blir försenade. Målet med denna rapport är att göra en litteraturöversikt och att identifiera kunskapsluckor. Följande områden tas upp: fordon och bränslen, persontransporter, vägtransporter, luftfart, godstransporter, sjöfart, teknisk utveckling och utomhusbelysning. Direkta, indirekta och ekonomiövergripande rekyleffekter tas upp och även exempel på rekyleffekter i transportplaneringen. Rekyleffekter är också diskuterade ur aspekter av miljömedvetande och hur de hanteras i transport- och samhällsplaneringen. Vi har också identifierat områden som saknar väsentlig information om rekyleffekter. Sammanfattningsvis så tyder våra resultat på att rekyleffekter förekommer i olika storlekar och att det finns stor risk att energieffektiviseringsåtgärder inom transportsektorn överför energibesparingarna till andra typer av transportslag, sektorer eller energitjänster vilket kan resultera i förlorade eller inga energibesparingar eller ännu värre, en ökad energikonsumtion. Därför bör rekyleffekter beräknas för att Sverige skall nå sina klimat- och energimål. Detta gäller speciellt inom transportsektorn där rekyleffekterna antas vara särskilt stora inom vissa transportslag och över tiden.
Rebound effects represent the difference between anticipated or projected energy savings and the real energy saving in relation to, for example, implemented policy measures aimed at improving energy efficiency. Rebound effects in the transport sector may counteract policy measures so that goals related to energy or emissions are not achieved, or achievement is greatly delayed. This comprehensive report examines the presence of rebound effects within the transport sector and while the aim was to provide a full review of the issue, for some transport areas it was not possible to find any studies on rebound effects. Those areas are identified as having knowledge gaps. We summarize the literature for rebound effects for passenger vehicles, technological developments, freight transports, public lighting, aviation, waterborne transports and for indirect, economy-wide effects, and also discuss rebound effects in aspects of environmental awareness and in the transport and community planning. The existing literature suggests that rebound effects exist to varying degrees and that there is a high risk of energy efficiency measures transferring transport energy savings into other transport modes, sectors or energy services. Consequently, rebound effects should be included when calculating whether Sweden will reach its climate and energy goals. ; Rekyleffekter är skillnaden mellan den förväntade eller beräknade energibesparingen och den verkliga energibesparingen för olika typer av åtgärder. Om detta inte tas med i beräkningar kan rekyleffekter motverka politiska åtgärder så att mål relaterade till energi och utsläpp inte uppnås eller blir försenade. Målet med denna rapport är att göra en litteraturöversikt och att identifiera kunskapsluckor. Följande områden tas upp: fordon och bränslen, persontransporter, vägtransporter, luftfart, godstransporter, sjöfart, teknisk utveckling och utomhusbelysning. Direkta, indirekta och ekonomiövergripande rekyleffekter tas upp och även exempel på rekyleffekter i transportplaneringen. Rekyleffekter är också diskuterade ur aspekter av miljömedvetande och hur de hanteras i transport- och samhällsplaneringen. Vi har också identifierat områden som saknar väsentlig information om rekyleffekter. Sammanfattningsvis så tyder våra resultat på att rekyleffekter förekommer i olika storlekar och att det finns stor risk att energieffektiviseringsåtgärder inom transportsektorn överför energibesparingarna till andra typer av transportslag, sektorer eller energitjänster vilket kan resultera i förlorade eller inga energibesparingar eller ännu värre, en ökad energikonsumtion. Därför bör rekyleffekter beräknas för att Sverige skall nå sina klimat- och energimål. Detta gäller speciellt inom transportsektorn där rekyleffekterna antas vara särskilt stora inom vissa transportslag och över tiden.
The central role of impact assessment instruments globally in policy integration initiatives has been cemented in recent years. Associated with this trend, but also reflecting political emphasis on greater accountability in certain policy sectors and a renewed focus on economic competitiveness in Western countries, demand has increased for evidence that these instruments are effective (however defined). Resurgent interest in evaluation has not, however, been accompanied by the conceptual developments required to redress longstanding theoretical problems associated with such activities. In order to sharpen effectiveness evaluation theory for impact assessment instruments this article critically examines the neglected issue of their political constitution. Analytical examples are used to concretely explore the nature and significance of the politicisation of impact assessment. It is argued that raising awareness about the political character of impact assessment instruments, in itself, is a vital step in advancing effectiveness evaluation theory. Broader theoretical lessons on the framing of evaluation research are also drawn from the political analysis. We conclude that, at least within the contemporary research context, learning derived from analysing the meaning and implications of plural interpretations of effectiveness represents the most constructive strategy for advancing impact assessment and policy integration theory.
The aim of this study is to assess how different renovation scenarios affect the environmental and economic impacts of a multi-dwelling building in a Nordic climate, how these aspects are correlated and how different energy carriers affect different environmental impact categories. In order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the European Union has set an agenda in order to reduce energy use in buildings. New buildings on the European market have a low replacement rate, which makes building renovation an important factor for achieving the European Union goals. In this study, eight renovation strategies were analyzed following the European Committee for Standardization standards for life cycle assessment and life cycle costs of buildings. This study covers all life cycle steps from cradle to grave. The renovation scenarios include combinations of photovoltaics, geothermal heat pumps, heat recovery ventilation and improved building envelopes. Results show that, depending on the energy carrier, reductions in global warming potential can be achieved at the expense of an increased nuclear waste disposal. It also shows that for the investigated renovation strategies in Sweden there is no correlation between the economic and the environmental performance of the building. Changing energy carriers in Sweden in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions can be a good alternative, but it makes the system more dependent on nuclear power. ; Open Access APC beslut 10/2019
Reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through energy reduction in buildings is a high priority for policy-makers in the European Union and elsewhere. However, although long-term sustainability targets exist on the societal level, it is not obvious how these targets may trickle down to individual sectors and further down to specific organizations or buildings. The aim of this paper is to illustrate an approach for evaluating renovation measures in order to identify appropriate target levels in early project stages and what is needed to achieve a number of proposed sustainability targets. The evaluation approach is supported by a tool that can be seen as an aid to making rough estimations of the environmental impacts. Sustainability target levels in a Swedish context are presented for three issues: operational energy use, GHG emissions due to total energy use for building operation, and embodied GHG emissions due to production of materials. The approach to support well-grounded retrofit decisions is shown with a case study. The tool developed, in combination with a suggested step-by-step evaluation approach, provides an effective way to evaluate various potential improvements, and their consequences, in early project stages. However, other tools with similar functionality may be used. Results from the case illustration imply that it is possible to achieve the proposed sustainability targets for operational energy use by implementing nine measures. However, the targets for GHG emissions for operational energy use and embodied GHG emissions were not achieved because of an energy supply with too high a share of nonrenewable fuels. ; QC 20161020
Efficiency in the public and freight transportation systems is of crucial importance for a society. Railways can offer high capacity and relatively low environmental impact, but require that several technical systems are tuned and operate well. Specifically there is a very tight interdependency between infrastructure and trains, which distinguishes railways from other transportation modes. Thus maintenance of all the subsystems is needed. Railways do also have some specific and complicating properties that influence maintenance and operations: Most activities need exclusive access to the infrastructure and - due to the geographic layout, safety requirements and partitioning of the subsystems - large portions of the network will be affected by each activity. Furthermore, several organisational units and resources are involved, ranging from governments and regulatory bodies, over operators and contractors to suppliers, technical experts and work forces. Thus railway maintenance is complicated to organize and consumes large budgets. This thesis treats the planning and scheduling problems that concern railway infrastructure maintenance and the coordination with train traffic. Mathematical methods and optimization are studied and used, with the aim of advancing the knowledge about models for solving such problems. The thesis contains three papers and presents: (1) A survey regarding railway maintenance activities, the major planning problems and the conducted research so far; (2) A model for quantitative comparison and assessment of competing capacity requests from train operations and maintenance; (3) An optimization model for integrated scheduling of both maintenance windows and train services. The work can be helpful for practitioners as well as researchers who want to take further steps in this interesting and challenging area. Based on the results that have been obtained, future research directions are presented that may lead towards practical use of concurrent planning of railway maintenance and train services. ; Efficient planning of railway infrastructure maintenance
The scope of this study is to assess how different energy efficient renovation strategies affect the environmental impacts of a multi-family house in a Nordic climate within district heating systems. The European Union has set ambitious targets to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2030. There is special attention on reducing the life cycle emissions in the buildings sector. However, the focus has often been on new buildings, although existing buildings represent great potential within the building stock in Europe. In this study, four different renovation scenarios were analyzed with the commercially available life cycle assessment software that follows the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) standard. This study covers all life cycle steps from the cradle to the grave for a residential building in Borlänge, Sweden, where renewable energy dominates. The four scenarios included reduced indoor temperature, improved thermal properties of building material components and heat recovery for the ventilation system. One finding is that changing installations gives an environmental impact comparable to renovations that include both ventilation and building facilities. In addition, the life cycle steps that have the greatest environmental impact in all scenarios are the operational energy use and the building and installation processes. Renovation measures had a major impact on energy use due to the cold climate and low solar irradiation in the heating season. An interesting aspect, however, is that the building materials and the construction processes gave a significant amount of environmental impact.
The European Union aims to reduce energy use and CO2-emissions by 40 % by the year 2030. The building sector has been identified as having a great potential to reduce emission of CO2 by increasing its energy efficiency. Also, there is a growing concern of the buildings environmental performance, that lead to the development of building environmental assessment tools. However, different types of energy sources and confusing environmental impacts affect the decision making when renovating for improved energy efficiency. This study develops and tests a methodology to help decision-makers when considering major renovation of their building stock when connected to adistrict heating system. The proposed methodology is applied and used to investigate how different renovation scenarios affects the building environmental impacts in terms of CO2 emissions and identify and discuss future improvements of the methodology. The novelty of the method is the expanded system boundaries that include both the distribution and production of district heating and the energy use at a building level. In this way it is possible to compare and weight measures made both at the energy system level and the building level. This work has limited its approach to energy use in buildings, but it is important to bring the life cycle thinking to the methodology. During the choice of the renovation methods it was noticed that the environmental impact of the production of some components in order to reduce the energy use of a building are not insignificant. Even if all the renovation measures considered in this case study are feasible, it is important to determine in which order they are desirable or achievable from an economic point of view. Uncertainty in the future development of energy, and limited economic resources can play an important role in the possibility of energy efficient renovation. ; Den Europeiska Unionen har som målsättning att minska energianvändning och utsläpp av växthusgaser med 40 % till året 2030 jämfört med 1990. Byggnader har identifierats som ett område med stor potential för utsläppsminskningar om de energieffektiviseras. Användningen av olika energislag och olika sätt att värdera miljöpåverkan påverkar beslutsfattandet i samband med energieffektivisering. I studien utvecklas och testas en metodik som kan hjälpa beslutsfattare vid renovering med energieffektivisering inom fjärrvärmeområdet. Först utvecklades en översiktlig metodik vilken inkluderar både byggnadsenergisimulering och energisystemsimulering. Sen implementerades metodiken genom olika renoveringsscenarier och utsläppen av växthusgaser analyserades. Metodiken visar att det finns en möjlighet att utveckla ett verktyg som kan hjälpa beslutsfattare när energibesparingsstrategier ska implementeras vilka kan bli positiva för både byggnader och fjärrvärmesystemet. ; REESBE
