March 17, 2020

By Tim Ha

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South Korea’s ruling political party on Monday announced its ambition for the nation to adopt a Green New Deal and deliver net zero carbon emissions by 2050. If the plan goes through, the country—the world’s seventh-largest emitter—will be the first in East Asia to set a timeframe to end its contribution to climate change.

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In its manifesto for the upcoming legislative elections, the liberal Democratic Party of Korea outlined policies geared towards shrinking the country’s vast climate impacts. They include a carbon tax, a phase-out of domestic and overseas coal project financing, and large-scale investment in renewable energy.

January 01, 2020

Advisor to Re-Imagining Foundation, Albert Bicol has created a Net-Zero Energy (NZE) Newsletter intended to share NZE projects around the world to show that these projects are achievable to assist in reducing the 2-degree temperature rise in our plant and the fight against climate change.  To date they have been part of 54 NZE projects around the world.  

They also provide valuable tips and examples on how to reduce energy demand to achieve a NZE Building or development. 

If you wish to subscribe to this newsletter, please click the link below and click "subscribe" at the top left page of the newsletter.

January 08, 2019

By Peter Newman

The 2019 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is underway in Las Vegas, and tech companies of all stripes are unveiling their latest smart home devices.

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The show offers these companies a platform to lay out their vision for the future of the connected home ecosystem and to broadcast how they're planning to evolve their devices to anticipate and meet customer demand.

November 05, 2018

By Alexander Maxham

Zego has announced that it is teaming up with S2 Capital and Amazon to modernize about 30,000 apartments in Texas, that will now be smart apartments. Zego is going to be extending its smart apartment platform to over 30,000 apartment units owned by S2 Capital, over the next three years. It'll be using Zego's solution that integrates smart home devices into a single app, making it much easier to control your smart home without having to add more apps to your smartphone and using them to control everything. The app is also going to allow tenants to connect with property staff, and there is also a marketplace of products and local services included. 

December 07, 2018

Press Release by UN Environment
 

Dramatic action will be needed by governments, cities and business if the global buildings and construction sector is to cut its carbon footprint in line with international agreements, according to a new report released today by the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction.
 

There is good news. The 2018 Global Status Report - Towards a Zero-Emission, Efficient and Resilient Buildings and Construction Sector, (the PDF of which can be found in our "Downloadable PDFs" page) highlights that emissions from buildings and construction may have peaked in the past few years, with energy efficiency gains in areas such as heating, lighting and cooking and with more offices and homes being powered by cleaner forms of energy. The study was written by the International Energy Agency and UN Environment.

December 04, 2018

By Cheryl Arcibal

...Chungha Cha, founder and chief executive officer of Seoul-based non-profit Re-Imagining Cities Foundation, said the project was worth emulating.

Globally, he said, architects have been conceptualising “greener and smarter projects” for the people to enjoy.
 

“I personally like the idea of the vertical forest, but this only works in certain areas where the indigenous plants can survive on the building without too much trouble,” Cha said, adding that there are several ways to bring back nature into cities.

January 01, 2020

by Builtworlds Insights

A guide to companies paving the way for the connected buildings of the future in 10 categories:
Windows, Lighting, Energy, Roof Systems, Building Management, Water, Structural Monitoring, Safety & Security, Mobility, and Tenant Services.

What can we expect from this rapidly developing, multidisciplinary field of smart buildings? These are the four most important trends and focus-points in 2018 according to the Mapiq team.

1. Suggestion-based technology
2. Rise of the platform 
3. Getting WELL (certification)
4. Better ad-hoc meeting support
 

Construction21 is a collaborative platform dedicated to building professionals, to help them discover and develop new ways of sustainable building. Initially developed with the support of European Union (IEE project), Construction21 platforms are managed by non-profit and academic organizations closely linked to building sector in each country.

October 11, 2018

By JLL Staff Reporter

From the use of solar panels and energy-efficient glass, to combining design with forestry, sustainable architecture is reaching new heights in Asia.
 

High-rise towers have long been common in the region. But in recent years, eco-friendly skyscrapers have been gaining traction, noticeably in China, as governments tackle rapid urbanization and its impact on the environment, says Eric Lee, head of JLL’s Greater China Property and Asset Management business.
 

“While tall structures typically served as landmarks, they are also increasingly used to showcase businesses’ corporate environmental responsibility,” Lee says.
 

“Many project owners and developers seek green accreditations such as LEED (Leaders in Energy and Environmental Design) in order to attract businesses and talent who have sustainability goals,” he says.
 

Another primary driver of the trend is cost reduction. Tall buildings with sustainability features use less energy and water, helping businesses to save on operating costs.

January 26, 2018

By Kurt Schlosser

The idea of meeting, working or relaxing among 40,000 plants from more than 30 countries, in an enclosed tropical climate in the middle of Seattle, was conceived as a way to help Amazonians “think differently” — to get away from traditional workspaces and get up close to nature.

Many of those traditional workspaces loom over the Spheres in Amazon’s high-rise Doppler and Day 1 towers which bookend the Spheres at Lenora Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues in the city’s Denny Triangle neighborhood. The transformation of this part of the city, stretching north throughout South Lake Union, is part of Amazon’s effort to rethink how corporate campuses are built in an urban setting.

March 20, 2018

By Nicole Jewell

Prolific firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) just unveiled plans for Charenton-Bercy, a net-zero Paris skyscraper that’s designed to be one of the most sustainable buildings in Europe. The 180-meter tower would include multiple green features, including rainwater harvesting, greywater recycling, green roofs, and waste-to-energy conversion systems. As part of its “garden in the sky” design, the project would also feature a band of vegetation running the length of the tower’s facade, leading into a tree-filled plaza at the tower’s base.

September 08, 2017

By Terry Wills, CEO of WorldGBC
 

Buildings are responsible for around 30 percent of global energy consumption, 30 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions and, on average, a massive 50 percent of all emissions in major cities.

That’s why, along with international experts, the World Green Building Council is calling on governments, businesses and individuals to commit to ensuring that every single building produces no carbon emissions by 2050 – a future of net zero buildings...

Net zero carbon buildings are highly energy-efficient buildings that operate on renewable energy, that’s produced on-site or off-site, to achieve net zero carbon emissions annually in operation. In order to meet the ambitious targets of the Paris Agreement, all new buildings must operate at net zero carbon by 2030 and 100 percent of buildings must operate at net zero carbon by 2050.

September 07, 2017

By Lara O'Keefe

Building automation would allow facility managers to monitor, measure and control capabilities of equipment and indoor environments, 75f reports. This means inefficiencies and necessary repairs could be caught and managed in a timely manner, saving both money and time. This could also prevent potential tenant complaints.

August 10, 2017

Architecture 2030 and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, have partnered to support the international architecture and building community in designing zero net carbon (ZNC)buildings worldwide.

May 31, 2017

From Thousands to Billions - Coordinated Action towards 100% Net Zero Carbon Buildings By 2050, a report made by the World Green Building Council, calls for a dramatic and ambitious transformation towards a completely net zero carbon built environment, through the dual goals of:
- All new buildings must operate at net zero carbon from 2030
- 100% of buildings must operate at net zero carbon by 2050

 

April 06, 2017

By Nat Levy

Aaron Holm, Amazon's ex-product manager noticed that developers in the Seattle area struggled to build enough housing to keep up with demand of incoming newcomers. This scarcity contributed to rising rents and played a role in Seattle’s issues of homelessness and housing affordability.

This and Holm's long-held fascination with shipping container construction, gave him the motivation to leave the online retail giant to start his own company, Blokable. The Seattle startup focuses on manufactured housing, with goals of speeding up production, cutting costs for builders and making a dent in housing affordability.

December 19, 2016

By Re!magining Cities Foundation

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Below are some noteworthy changes to look for in Korea's green building sector:

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-Seoul city will enact its "Green Building Standard" (녹색건축물 설계기준) this January and will require all new construction to be zero energy by 2023
-Seoul City will also make BEMS energy management systems mandatory for all buildings with high energy usage of over 21 floors and greater than 100,000 square meters
-MOLIT announced a "Building Energy Performance Improvement Initiative" (건축물 에너지 성능 개선방안) that aims to support the construction of residential buildings that reduces cooling and heating energy by 90% compared 2009 levels.
-MOLIT is also officially beginning its zero energy certification system next year, providing incentives including tax cuts and subsidies for installment of renewable energy technologies. They have also set a target to reduce greenhouse gases from the building sector by 26.9% in 2020

December 12, 2016

Zero Energy Project

Retrofitting existing homes to net zero or getting them on the path to zero is as important as building new zero energy homes. This TED Talk explains why. More and more builders are showing that it is feasible to retrofit an older home to zero or close to zero. Retrofits provide the construction industry with business during economic downturns, improve the indoor health and comfort of your customers, increase the value of their homes, create jobs by employing a wide range of workers, and help reduce carbon emissions.

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Click the button below to learn about 12 cost-effective steps to zero energy retrofits!

December 06, 2016

By Zero Energy Project 

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This renovation transformed this building from an energy guzzler to a resilient and healthy spacious 2-family, designed to use less energy than it produces. Careful planning resulted in high efficiency of the building envelop, of the heating, cooling and ventilation systems. The solar panels provide the energy needed to run this two family.

This is important because:

• Existing structures, outnumbering new housing nearly 300-to-1

• “The greenest building is the one that’s already built, in almost every case.”

• There are 130million housing units that already exist. 80 % will still be here in 2050. This is where many of our efforts should be.

December 05, 2016

By Corinne Drobot

Anica Landreneau, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP, leads HOK’s sustainable design initiatives and sustainability consulting practice. In addition to her firm-wide leadership roles, Landreneau works to make her home city of Washington, D.C., one of the world’s most sustainable municipalities by contributing to green building policies, codes and implementation.

November 01, 2016

By Re!Imagining Cities Foundation

Better Build Green is the World Green Building Council’s new campaign in the lead up to UN climate change negotiations - COP21 - in Paris.

The campaign, unveiled at the 2015 World GBC Congress in Hong Kong, aims to promote that green buildings offer one of the best and most cost-effective ways to tackle climate change and help keep global temperature rises within the two degrees limit.

September 19, 2016

By Triple Pundit

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...Although studies show a correlation between green building certification and higher rent and occupancy, their methodologies typically lacked rigor—in part because there was not enough history to make a fair comparison. Past studies have also compared average rental rates of green and non-green buildings without taking into account the cost of tenant concessions, which can be substantial. Having access to that usually-private information enabled the researchers to better measure green ROI.

September 09, 2016

By Hannah Koh, Eco-Business

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Leading minds of the building and construction industry peered into their crystal balls on Wednesday at the International Green Building Conference (IGBC) in Singapore as they discussed the challenges and opportunities that awaited the green building sector in the next 10 years.

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The conference, themed “Build green: the next decade” was opened by Singapore’s Minister for National Development Lawrence Wong at the Marina Bay Sands Expo & Convention Centre.

August 16, 2016

Despite the spur of growth in green buildings across Asia, the shift towards more sustainable goals still lags in different countries due to a number of key challenges. An online poll conducted by AsiaGreenBuildings in 2016 found that readers see Government Incentives and Regulations as the main challenge for green building development in Asia, followed by High Capital Costs and Green Funds (23,6%), Market Awareness (16,7%), Resource and Skill Gap (5,6) and other (2,8%).

July 04, 2016

From Business Green

By 2050 all buildings will have zero impact on the climate, thanks to a combination of energy efficiency measures and clean energy generation.

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That is the vision of a major new project from the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC), which yesterday announced plans to rapidly accelerate the trend towards 'net zero' certified buildings.

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Entitled Advancing Net Zero, the project will initially see Green Building Councils from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Netherlands, South Africa, and Sweden work with NGO Architecture 2030 to develop net zero certification standards and promote building technologies and techniques that drastically reduce emissions across the construction and property sectors.

An energy-efficient building where, on a source energy basis, the actual annual delivered energy is less than or equal to the on-site renewable exported energy. 

While there are many different definitions of green building out there, it is generally accepted as the planning, design, construction, and operations of buildings with several central, foremost considerations: energy use, water use, indoor environmental quality, material section and the building's effects on its site. 

Pictured: Naver Green Factory in South Korea, highest-scoring LEED Platinum Building in the world (Naver Corp)