November 14, 2014
by Etienne Vienot (RAEE)
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Good indoor air quality: yes we can !

One of our work lead on sustainable buildings is indoor environmental quality. It refers to the health and wellbeing of those who occupy space within building. Many factor can define indoor environmental quality such as lighting, acoustic and the one we choose to focus on is indoor air quality.

There is no secret for anyone any more : the air within buildings can be more seriously polluted than the outdoor air. We spent 2 days of training with the company Medieco. Created in 1986, Medieco is specialised on Health within buildings. It provides training and consulting on indoor air quality for material and building stakeholders. Rhone-alpes’ partners asked Medieco for a specific training on indoor air quality and we invited Mountee pilote projects stakeholders : territory representatives and project managers.

Here is a short feedback of our training.

First of all, indoor air quality is a major public health issue as we typically spend 80% of our time indoors. In France, a study evaluates at 19 billion Euros the social cost of only six indoor pollutants!

Four main sources are responsible for indoor air pollution : 1/ outdoor air 2/ subsoil, basement 3/ building material and furnitures 4/ users activities.Locating the source of pollutant allows to define crucial steps during building lifetime :

  • Program :
    • analyse site weakness and strength : soil, vegetation, existing infrastructure and equipment, prevailing wind…
    • define health objectives as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being,
    • prepare indoor air quality commissioning.
  • Conception : Environmental quality assessment of materials, plans and equipments (especially ventilation)
  • Construction : Raise awareness of construction and renovation companies. Make sure to achieve a proper implementation of the products and materials (drying time for example).
  • Handover should focus on monitoring solutions, ventilation assessment (flow, balancing, pressure) and maintenance contracts. Medieco recommends an initial assessment before using the building in order to create an original state.
  • Exploitation : Air quality can be assess by asking for users satisfaction and measurement campaign.

Medieco will step in at least two mountee pilot project :

  • one is already in exploitation phase. Some measurement will be done in order to assess initial state and to improve it
  • The other pilot will be in conception phase. Recommandation on conception documents will be made.

Our goal is to reach a very good indoor air quality in every public buildings in the next years, specially in buildings used by children. Let’s do it!

Etienne Vienot (RAEE)

Etienne Vienot (RAEE)

I am project manager in charge of european projects at the regional energy agency of Rhône-Alpes.

November 6, 2014
by Jakob Dietachmair (CIPRA)
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Sustainable construction and renovation: The key sector for energy savings

Around 40 percent of our energy consumption is related to buildings. High emissions of greenhouse gases and high costs for heating/cooling are the consequence. That’s no new information for regular readers of this Blog. The all-embracing question is how to overcome these problems with a solution oriented approach.

 

At a workshop for municipalities and cities, regional and national governments, professionals (craftsmen, architects, organizations for local development, etc.) organized by the Alpine town of the year association and CIPRA International on 17th of October 2014 in Idrija (Slovenia) several questions on sustainable construction and savings have been raised:Foto Anton Zelenc, fototeka Mestnega muzeja Idrija (6)

  • How can a house be built or refurbished in a sustainable way?
  • What kind of general framework needs to be set up by a municipality in order to build with the lowest energy consumption possible?
  • Who needs to be involved in this process?
  • How does successful cooperation within the region work?

One presentation was held by Silvia Rivas (European Commission – Joint Research Centre).The Joint Research centre provides scientific-technical support to the development, implementation and monitoring of the Covenant of Mayors initiatives. She spoke about sustainable energy action plans (SEAP) and the measures in the building sector. Very interesting is, that out of 3815 plans submitted so far, over 40.000 measures were collected that address the buildings equipment/facilities and industry sector. That are twice as many measure compared to the transport sector and about four times more than the “local energy productions” sector.

SEAP_Folie

What I want to emphasise with this example, is that sustainable construction and renovation is a key sector when it comes to energy savings. The findings of the MountEE project and the transparency of the pilot buildings can help regions and municipalities all over Europe to take action in this field.

Please find the slides of the presentations with in-depth information on measures here

Jakob Dietachmair (CIPRA)

October 26, 2014
by Apolline Faure
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Learn from the Vorarlberg’s experience

In late September, Dr Karl Torghele from Spektrum Institute came to Pyrénées catalanes to conduct a workshop of 2 days. The goal of this visit was to make stakeholders of our territory aware of the possibility to build in a sustainable way in mountains area.

IMG_20140923_114253

The first day was dedicated to elected people, partners and technicians and focused on Vorarlberg’s experience, especially on the services package used. Then, reflection groups were organised, where the participants who attended the workshop had to think about local particularities, stakes and difficulties faced in our territory. A discussion was also held about the meaning of sustainable building, beyond the energy efficiency. Participants were truly interested about the effects of materials on health issues.

The second day was dedicated to craftsmen and building enterprises. The workshop began with reflection groups which were asked to think about local context, demand in sustainable construction, and difficulties faced.

Dr Karl Torghele then presented the Tools used in the Vorarlberg to answer to some of that stakes. In this way, participants understood that the same difficulties had to be overcome in Austria, at the beginning of the process to establish a better way of building. That was clearly the case for the local wood industry.

In total, 50 people participated to this workshop. Participants were very interested by Vorarlberg’s experience and by the results obtained in Austria.

The workshop gave them the opportunity to consider what the future could be if the good choices in building are made today.

IMG_20140923_151805IMG_20140923_143226

 

 

Apprendre de l’expérience du Vorarlberg

Fin septembre, le Dr. Karl Torghele de l’Institut Spektrum est venu animer un workshop de 2 jours au sein du territoire du Parc naturel régional des Pyrénées catalanes. L’objectif de cette visite était de faire prendre conscience aux acteurs du territoire qu’il est possible de construire durable en zones de montagne.

Le premier jour, dédié principalement aux élus, partenaires et techniciens du territoire, a permis d’aborder l’expérience du Vorarlberg, et notamment le bouquet de services mis en place pour accompagner et faire émerger des projets de construction durable. Les participants ont ensuite réfléchi en groupe aux particularités de notre territoire, aux enjeux et aux difficultés rencontrées. Le Dr. Karl Torghele a également expliqué ce qu’était la construction durable au-delà de la performance énergétique, et un débat a été engagé à propos des effets des matériaux utilisés sur la santé.

Le deuxième jour était consacré aux artisans et aux entreprises du bâtiment. La journée a commencé par des réflexions menées en petits groupes sur le contexte local, la demande actuelle en termes de construction durable et les difficultés rencontrées. Le Dr. Karl Torghele a ensuite présenté les outils mis en place dans le Vorarlberg pour répondre à certains de ces mêmes enjeux. Les acteurs locaux ont ainsi pu prendre conscience que la plupart des difficultés rencontrées avaient dû être dépassées par le Vorarlberg au début de son expérience. C’est notamment le cas concernant la structuration de la filière bois local.

Au total, 50 personnes ont participé à ces 2 jours. L’expérience et les résultats obtenus dans le Vorarlberg ont fortement intéressés les personnes présentes. Ce séminaire leur a permis d’envisager ce que pouvait être l’avenir si les bons choix en termes de construction étaient faits aujourd’hui.

 

Apolline Faure

Apolline Faure

October 24, 2014
by Jakob Dietachmair (CIPRA)
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…And action! Building for the Future

Construction and renovation of sustainable public buildings is a team-oriented process and requires audacity. This includes decision makers, architects, craftsmen, and of course the local population. Today I’d like to remind you again on our movie “Building for the future” – or as we sometimes say “Building the future!”. The film shows how European mountain municipalities from Sweden, across the Pyrenees to the Alps are pioneers in the field of sustainable construction. Good practice examples and inspiring ideas invite to follow!

The film is available in German, Italian, French and Swedish and has been produced by the partners themselves under the framework of the project MountEE.

 

MountEE-Film

Jakob Dietachmair (CIPRA)

October 16, 2014
by Jakob Dietachmair (CIPRA)
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MountEE pilot buildings

Based on commonly agreed criteria in total 20 renovation objects and 13 new buildings have been realized in the MountEE project so far. The selected buildings range from schools, cultural centres and town halls to social housing buildings, hospitals and office-buildings. The buildings keep high standards of energy performance and choice of building materials and the majority of buildings use renewable energy as source for heating and warm water.

On the MountEE-Webpage we’ve compiled an overview on all pilot buildings with short descriptions, an evaluation report and comments of testimonials who work in the buildings or have been involved to the planning and construction process.

Renovated buildings: http://www.mountee.eu/pilot-buildings/renovations/

New construction:       http://www.mountee.eu/pilot-buildings/construction/

Some impressions:

Administrative building Grésivaudan

Administrative building Grésivaudan

Ecologic and sustainable passive house school Nya Vegaskolan

Ecologic and sustainable passive house school Nya Vegaskolan

Renovation of a barn to create a town house in Mantet

Renovation of a barn to create a town house in Mantet

Cultural center Malraux in Chambéry

Cultural center Malraux in Chambéry

Jakob Dietachmair (CIPRA)

October 9, 2014
by Jakob Ebner
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LED-light or fluorescent lamps in classrooms?

One of our MountEE pilots is right now discussing implementation of lightsource. Some of our experts and leading manufacturers say that by today long-life fluorescent light is more economic in classrooms than LED-light. And I just wonder if you have the same opinion.

Long-life fluorescent lamps have a warranty of 48,000 hours  compared to LED luminaires that have a similar life span (usually given to 50,000 hours) but with higher replacement costs, higher initial costs and very good optics and glare the fluorescent lamps outcompete LED.

Fagerhults, one of Swedens leading companies in terms of lighting, have developed a model for classrooms with only LED uplighting  but say that they cannot see any better solution for classroom than fluorescent lamps considering the higher costs för LED-lamps. The only occasion the LED-lamps can be a better choice is in hallways or other areas where spot lights can be used.

We do have examples of LED-lights in schools giving a very pleasant light quality , however we do not have LCC-calculations on these implementations. Asking lightening manufacturers for advice is not the proper way if we want to have innovations,that is why I wonder if you can help me with your experience:

What are your exeriences with LED-lights in schools? Do you know more about the light quality of LED-lights? Some say fluorescent lamps have a really bad spectrum of light for reading och LED is outstanding. Others say LED is emitting harmful radiation due to transformation of electricity.

 

Thanks for your response!

Jakob Ebner

Jakob Ebner

October 6, 2014
by Wolfgang Mehl (Nenet)
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Passive house built in Kiruna, north of the Arctic Circle

Source: LTU Luleå University of TechnologyKiruna_IMG_7934
The construction company NCC is building passive houses in new Kiruna. The house will be completed in September 2014. The construction is a spin-off effect of the R&D project Attract where LTU researchers and enterprises produce goods and services that meet the evolving needs of the new city of Kiruna.
Passive houses, or low-energy houses , are warmed up by body heat , electrical appliances, lighting and solar radiation and therefore need very little added heat energy. In Kiruna winter is long and dark and the sun shows itself rarely .
NCC aim is to build a passive house with district heating as an energy source , a house that can hold its own energy supply even in environments with arctic climate. The house becomes the first passive house in these latitudes.
– We want to show that it is possible to build a passive house even in such a demanding environment as Kiruna , says Jan Byfors , director of technology development, NCC and adjunct professor at the Luleå University of Technology. Combining this with district heating is extra interesting. Then you need the wires are not buried as deeply.
Mats Nilsson, Technical Office in Kiruna AB, sees more advantages of using district heating in passive house as the heat recovered from waste from industry , minimizing the use of electricity. The seventh house as the building has been named , will also serve as a research laboratory.
LTU- researchers are installing the equipment  that makes it possible to study the technical solutions ecological footprint  and conditions for building efficient and energy-saving in extremely cold environments.
The research performed  in the seventh house is within the research project Attract focusing on moving the cities Gällivare and iKiruna , involving multiple research groups at the university.

Wolfgang Mehl (Nenet)

Wolfgang Mehl (Nenet)

Wolfgang Mehl, coming from Austria, has worked as director for the Austrian Climate Alliance, a network of 800 municipalities working on climate protection from 1995 to 2009. Since he is 2009 working as project manager for environmental and energy-related programs for Nenet and the north Swedish municipality Jokkmokk.

October 1, 2014
by Etienne Vienot (RAEE)
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Vorarlberg’s Territorial strategy for sustainable construction, an inspiration for our territories

October 1st at 2pm, L’Isle d’Abeau welcomes an half-day of exchanges intended for elected officials and the actors involved in the definition and implementation of local sustainable building strategies in their climate plan and their vision of TEPOS in 2050.

Partners in these exchanges are firstly Voralberg (Austria), in a pioneering role of regional energy strategies, and secondly Rhônalpine players in position to develop these strategies.
Indeed, Vorarlberg has implemented a strategy to become a TEPOS in 2050. In addition to the development of renewable energy, a big part of the actions is the reduction of energy requirements in buildings (public and private). If the issue of energy efficiency in buildings is still important, other aspects of sustainability are not forgotten : maximum comfort for users, use of local materials, regional economic development through increasing the skills of local businesses…
As a continuation of several European projects (NENA ENERBUILD, CABEE, VISIBLE …), MountEE project allows through these exchanges GPRA Nord Isère durable, Métropole Savoie, Grésivaudan, Communauté de communes de l’Oisans, taking inspiration from Vorarlberg in the development of tools to develop strategies for planning and adapting some tools : support service to communities, cross-compliance of government incentives related to environmental performance described in repositories of environmental Quality building.

The objective of development of support service to communities, service validated by ASDER and AGEDEN on ten pilot projects in the territories of Metropole Savoie, Grésivaudan and Communauté de communes de l’Oisans, is the subject of a second day of discussions.

Several pilot projects will be presented on October 2nd in the morning at ASDER (Chambéry) and followed by discussion of the environmental choices that have been made, in the purpose of collective progress of the actors. Two representatives of sustainable construction in Vorarlberg, Mr. Lenz and Mr. Dietmar Karl Torghele will be present and will share their expertise on these projects. This project review will be followed in the afternoon by a meeting of the Committee of Local Cooperation dedicated to financial tools and strategies to local sustainable buildings

Etienne Vienot (RAEE)

Etienne Vienot (RAEE)

I am project manager in charge of european projects at the regional energy agency of Rhône-Alpes.

September 22, 2014
by Jakob Ebner
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Municipalities cooperate for sustainable buildings

In Dalarna, Sweden, a network of smaller municipalities has been formed in order to improve the client-role in construction projects. By sharing experiences with each other and utilize each other’s expertise, municipalities can increase their professionalism when ordering buildings, elaborate better procurement  procedures and be more self confident in dealing with construction companies. It is the MountEE- project that initiated the network and one of the MountEE pilot municipalities will serve as chairman of the group.

This group of “purchasers”  is also interested in working with MountEE- service package.  In Dalarna the work with further testing and adaption of the package will be done in the coming years by the Build Dialog Dalarna together with the interested municipalities in the newly formed network. 

Jakob Ebner

Jakob Ebner

September 12, 2014
by Apolline Faure
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Head in the stars, but feet kept on the ground : a sustainable way of preserving environment and reducing electric consumptions

Mantet, one of the municipalities which are leading a pilot-project under MountEE, tries to be exemplary on several issues.

Worried of preserving its environment and reducing its energetic consumptions, the village has just become the first and unique “Starry Village” of the Department of Pyrenées Orientales, with a distinction of 4 stars, in regard of its fight against light pollution. Photo Independant Mantet village étoilé

The National Association for the Night-environment and Sky Protection (ANPCEN), which gave this award to Mantet, helps the municipalities with their management of public lighting in order to reduce night pollution: extinction of street lighting between 11 pm (in winter) or midnight (during summer) until 6 am; replacement of street lamps by lamps facing downwards; replacement of bulbs with ones using less energy, etc.

This title is part of the ongoing process started by the municipality with the burying of electricity networks. Today, thanks to these various actions, Mantet has divided by two its street lighting bill. This quality approach has also positive impacts on environment, an issue even higher for this village because it is in the heart of a Natural Reserve: insects preservation, respect of fauna rhythms…

To pursue this action, Mantet intends to develop astronomical tourism with thematic evenings dedicated to astrology and stargazing.

 

La tête dans les étoiles, mais les pieds sur terre : une démarche durable

Mantet, une des communes qui portent un projet pilote MountEE, est une commune exemplaire sur bien des sujets.

Soucieuse de préserver son environnement et de limiter ses consommations énergétiques, elle vient de devenir « Village étoilé » et d’obtenir  4 étoiles,  distinction à ce jour unique dans le département des Pyrénées Orientales, au titre de sa lutte contre la pollution lumineuse.

L’Association Nationale pour la Protection du Ciel et de l’Environnement Nocturne (ANPCEN), qui a décerné cette récompense au village de Mantet, accompagne les communes dans la gestion de leur éclairage afin de diminuer la pollution lumineuse (extinction de l’éclairage public entre 23h en hiver et minuit en été, jusqu’à 6h du matin ; remplacement des luminaires par un éclairage orienté vers le bas ; remplacement des ampoules pour diminuer le nombre de watts…).

L’obtention de ce titre s’inscrit dans la continuité d’une démarche d’enfouissement des réseaux électriques entamée par la commune. Ces différentes actions ont aujourd’hui permis de diviser par deux la facture d’éclairage public de la commune. Cette démarche qualitative a également des impacts positifs sur l’environnement, enjeu d’autant plus important que Mantet est située au cœur d’une réserve naturelle : préservation des insectes, respect des rythmes de la faune…

Mantet envisage aujourd’hui de développer le tourisme astronomique avec des soirées thématiques consacrées à l’astrologie et à l’observation des étoiles.

Apolline Faure

Apolline Faure