Relationship between green public procurement criteria and sustainability assessment tools applied to office buildings.

Green Public Procurement (GPP) plays an important role in facing the challenge of reducing the environmental impacts from construction sector-related products, services and works, and creating environmental and innovative value for society in favour of a greener and more sustainable economy. The European Commission recently developed GPP criteria for the “office buildings” category. In parallel, Building Sustainability Assessment (BSA) tools help estimate a building’s impact on the environment based on a life cycle approach. Many of the aspects and measurable indicators included in BSA tools are clearly related to the criteria covered by GPP. However, other important ones are missing and should be integrated to ensure green procurement initiatives. This study critically reviews the GPP criteria proposed for office buildings and crosschecks them with the sustainability indicators included in three BSA tools to reinforce the GPP framework for the office buildings sector. It provides, on the one hand, an evaluation of the rate of improvement achieved in the tools when applying GPP criteria and, on the other, a proposal for a weighting system for awarding points to the offers in tenders. The results will help contracting authorities to introduce more objectivity into the tendering process and to make informed decisions while evaluating bidders’ proposals

Survivability under Overheating

The present book discusses three significant challenges of the built environment, namely regional and global climate change, vulnerability, and survivability under the changing climate. Synergies between local climate change, energy consumption of buildings and energy poverty, and health risks highlight the necessity to develop mitigation strategies to counterbalance overheating impacts. The studies presented here assess the underlying issues related to urban overheating. Further, the impacts of temperature extremes on the low-income population and increased morbidity and mortality have been discussed. The increasing intensity, duration, and frequency of heatwaves due to human-caused climate change is shown to affect underserved populations. Thus, housing policies on resident exposure to intra-urban heat have been assessed. Finally, opportunities to mitigate urban overheating have been proposed and discussed

Understanding the Built Environment of Shelter Homes for Survivors of Domestic Violence

Across the world, 20-25% of all women are victims of domestic violence or abused by their partners. Survivors are abused where they should be the most secure their own homes. In such situations, they turn to shelter homes for safety and security. There are around 1,800 shelters programs across the entire United States (National Network to End Domestic Violence, 2015) but are often crowded, involve communal living, offer little or no privacy, and include numerous restrictions that come with such a living condition. The spatial qualities and setting of shelter homes should have a positive impact on health, recovery, and well-being of the survivor, but it is clearly evident in the literature that the existing facilities do not promote healing. The aim of this study was to explore qualities of the physical environment of shelters that influence and support the survivors in recovering from this traumatic experience. Four facilities were identified within the state and a study conducted to understand needs of the victims, the problems they face, their perspective, services offered in the shelter homes, and the behavioral implications of the built environment on the residents through surveys, interviews, and observations. Each facility was assessed based on the design objective derived from the literature (framework of dignity comprising of safety and security; privacy and control; and comfort). The study focused on defining the objectives, developing a set of design considerations, and creating a toolkit for studying the design of shelter homes

Instructions on how to make an Outbreak of American Cutaneous Leishmaniasis

Outbreaks of American Cutaneous Leishmaniasis (ACL) are triggered by the confluence of multidimensional biological, climate, and social factors: the eco-epidemiological momentum. Despite the diversity of epidemiological scenarios, there are common “Ingredients for the recipe” to make an ACL outbreak. To describe the “Where”, “When”, and “Why” of this momentum could contribute to the understanding of the causes of epidemics, preventing their occurrence, and to define better strategies to control them. Typically, due to sylvatic-rural transmission, most urban ACL are still related in time and space to peripheral city deforestations, riparian forest, and green patches within the cities. Therefore, the “Where” of the ACL outbreaks could be characterized in the space as an edge effect, and afterwards the “When” of this edge could be categorized as an ephemeral, transient or permanent. The “Why” question is far more complex, as it includes the exposure of humans to vector due to anthropic activities in each edge scenario. The evidence for ACL outbreak control strategies: barricading the edge by chemical and physical barriers, environmental management, and individual prevention, were reviewed. Answers to questions regarding these “Where”, “When”, “Why”, and “How to control” guided the content of the questions to be asked in the new focus of ACL transmission, not only to mitigate current transmission and prevent future outbreaks, but also to highlight the biological factors that might contribute to the possibility of an epidemic, and those conditions that modulate its actual probability, the climate and the social determination of risk.Fil: Salomón, Oscar Daniel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Ministerio de Salud. Instituto Nacional de Medicina Tropical; Argentin