A methodology to analyze the net environmental impacts and building’s cost performance of an adaptive reuse project: a case study of the Waterloo County Courthouse renovations

2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 419-438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Sanchez ◽  
Mansour Esnaashary Esfahani ◽  
Carl Haas
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 2208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamie E. Filer ◽  
Justin D. Delorit ◽  
Andrew J. Hoisington ◽  
Steven J. Schuldt

Remote communities such as rural villages, post-disaster housing camps, and military forward operating bases are often located in remote and hostile areas with limited or no access to established infrastructure grids. Operating these communities with conventional assets requires constant resupply, which yields a significant logistical burden, creates negative environmental impacts, and increases costs. For example, a 2000-member isolated village in northern Canada relying on diesel generators required 8.6 million USD of fuel per year and emitted 8500 tons of carbon dioxide. Remote community planners can mitigate these negative impacts by selecting sustainable technologies that minimize resource consumption and emissions. However, the alternatives often come at a higher procurement cost and mobilization requirement. To assist planners with this challenging task, this paper presents the development of a novel infrastructure sustainability assessment model capable of generating optimal tradeoffs between minimizing environmental impacts and minimizing life-cycle costs over the community’s anticipated lifespan. Model performance was evaluated using a case study of a hypothetical 500-person remote military base with 864 feasible infrastructure portfolios and 48 procedural portfolios. The case study results demonstrated the model’s novel capability to assist planners in identifying optimal combinations of infrastructure alternatives that minimize negative sustainability impacts, leading to remote communities that are more self-sufficient with reduced emissions and costs.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 2118
Author(s):  
Emma Johnson ◽  
Andrius Plepys

Business models like product-service systems (PSSs) often recognise different sustainability goals and are seen as solutions for the impacts of consumption and fast fashion, but there is a lack of evidence supporting the environmental claims of such business models for clothing. The research aimed to understand if rental clothing business models such as PSSs have the environmental benefits often purported by quantifying the environmental impacts of rental formal dresses in a life-cycle assessment (LCA) in a case study in Stockholm, Sweden. The effects of varying consumer behaviour on the potential impact of a PSS vs. linear business model are explored through three functional units and 14 consumption scenarios. How users decide to engage with clothing PSSs dictates the environmental savings potential that a PSS can have, as shown in how many times consumers wear garments, how they use rental to substitute their purchasing or use needs, as well as how consumers travel to rental store locations.


2021 ◽  
pp. 128085
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Danilecki ◽  
Jacek Eliasz ◽  
Piotr Smurawski ◽  
Wojciech Stanek ◽  
Andrzej Szlęk

Heritage ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Khalil ◽  
Naglaa Hammouda ◽  
Khaled El-Deeb

Sustainable design is believed to stand on the opposite side of heritage conservation. This view is supported by the fact that sustainable design requires invasive measures to implement new technologies and treatments that challenge the principle of minimum intervention in heritage conservation. Another point of view sees heritage conservation as an already act of sustainable development that protects and preserves social and cultural resources such as heritage buildings and their intangible values. On the other hand, research and practice have proven that heritage buildings can be the subjects of sustainable design projects that achieve outstanding measures of sustainability and energy efficiency while not compromising the authenticity of the heritage value of the building. This sustainable conservation reaches its peak in adaptive-reuse projects of heritage buildings as reusing the building guarantees its ongoing maintenance and promotes its social, cultural and economic values to society, while giving it the ability to withstand modern users’ comfort and energy efficiency standards. This research presents a case study of the adaptive-reuse project of Villa Antoniadis in Alexandria; a heritage building built in the mid-nineteenth century and in the process of a major adaptive-reuse project. The history and significance of the building will be studied as well as the conservation values of the current project, then some proposals for interventions that could achieve more energy efficiency for the project while conserving the building are discussed. The research included a simulation of the building, using building energy modelling software for the current adaptive-reuse project as a base case, and the hypothetical application of different proposed sustainable interventions such as thermal insulation, double glazing, shading, lighting control, natural ventilation, and photovoltaic energy generation, where the energy savings potentials for each proposed intervention were studied. The simulation proved a possible reduction of 36.5% in the cooling, heating and lighting energy consumption as well as generated 74.7% of the energy required for cooling, heating and lighting from renewable energy sources.


2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Supattra Sroypetch ◽  
Neil Carr ◽  
Tara Duncan

This paper examines host and backpacker perceptions of the environmental impacts of backpacker tourism on local communities in less-developed countries. The discussion is based on data collected in 2011 via surveys and interviews with host and backpacker populations in the Yasawa Islands of Fiji. The results suggest that there is a significant difference between the perceptions of hosts and their guests towards the environmental impacts of backpacker tourism. Backpackers believe that they generate a higher extent of negative environmental impacts on the destination than those perceived by their hosts. This study broadens the understanding of the impacts of backpacker tourism from dual perspectives – both the hosts and guests.


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