Stantec Office Sustainability Improvement Guide

Stantec has been developing its sustainable affairs both internally and externally. With the hiring of an internal sustainability coordinator in 2006, the company has been encouraging its offices to pursue sustainable efforts, especially those that aim towards LEED certification. While offices have been given a framework for developing, organizing, managing, and budgeting a sustainability committee, there is currently no general methodology for approaching sustainable office changes from within the company. This report assists in developing such a framework/methodology for pursuing sustainable changes that consider both the internal operations of Stantec and relevant external matters that must be considered for pursuing sustainable changes in the office environment

The mediating effect of job satisfaction on work environment and productivity of the public petrochemical companies in Libya

Companies must step outside their traditional roles and comfort zones to look at new ways of working. The primary purpose of this study is to assess the impact of physical and behavioral environments on workers’ productivity in Libya. The secondary problem is concerned with how job satisfaction mediates and affects the relationship between work environment and productivity. This study provides a basis for those who are seriously searching for the reasons that cause productivity to be low. Therefore, this study examines the physical and behavioral environments and their relationship with workers’ productivity. It aims to provide critical recommendations to policy-makers in Libya to overcome this issue and improve the work environment towards boosting productivity. To achieve the objectives of this study, a questionnaire was administered. Multiple regressions were used to test the hypotheses. In line with that and to satisfy the objective of the analysis, the researcher used “stepwise regression” and "standard regression" in this study. In general, the results of the linear regression analysis reveal that all the variables under the physical environments are negatively and significantly related to workers’ productivity, whereas behavioral environment has significant mixed results in relation to workers’ productivity. These findings can be linked with Maslow’s Need Hierarchy and Herzberg Theory. In addition, the mediating effect of job satisfaction on both physical and behavioral environments on workers’ productivity indicates partial mediation, and one has perfect mediation (mistreatment behavior) as supported by the Social Exchange Theory which states that job satisfaction functions as a mediator. In relation to the practical and theoretical contributions, so far, to the best of the researcher’s knowledge, no scientific research has been found regarding the physical and behavioral environments and their effects on workers’ productivity by utilizing job satisfaction as a mediation between work environment and productivity. This study will help policy-makers, managers and the Libyan government to look into this phenomeno

Screening of energy efficient technologies for industrial buildings' retrofit

This chapter discusses screening of energy efficient technologies for industrial buildings' retrofit

Training of Crisis Mappers and Map Production from Multi-sensor Data: Vernazza Case Study (Cinque Terre National Park, Italy)

This aim of paper is to presents the development of a multidisciplinary project carried out by the cooperation between Politecnico di Torino and ITHACA (Information Technology for Humanitarian Assistance, Cooperation and Action). The goal of the project was the training in geospatial data acquiring and processing for students attending Architecture and Engineering Courses, in order to start up a team of "volunteer mappers". Indeed, the project is aimed to document the environmental and built heritage subject to disaster; the purpose is to improve the capabilities of the actors involved in the activities connected in geospatial data collection, integration and sharing. The proposed area for testing the training activities is the Cinque Terre National Park, registered in the World Heritage List since 1997. The area was affected by flood on the 25th of October 2011. According to other international experiences, the group is expected to be active after emergencies in order to upgrade maps, using data acquired by typical geomatic methods and techniques such as terrestrial and aerial Lidar, close-range and aerial photogrammetry, topographic and GNSS instruments etc.; or by non conventional systems and instruments such us UAV, mobile mapping etc. The ultimate goal is to implement a WebGIS platform to share all the data collected with local authorities and the Civil Protectio

Trade in the balance: reconciling trade and climate policy: report of the Working Group on Trade, Investment, and Climate Policy

This repository item contains a report published by the Working Group on Trade, Investment, and Climate Policy at The Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future at Boston University, and the Global Economic Governance Initiative at Boston University.This report outlines the general tensions between the trade and investment regime and climate policy, and outlines a framework toward making trade and investment rules more climate friendly. Members of the working group have contributed short pieces addressing a range of issues related to the intersection of trade and climate policy. The first two are by natural scientists. Anthony Janetos discusses the need to address the effects of international trade on efforts to limit the increase in global annual temperature to no more than 2oC over preindustrial levels. James J. Corbett examines the failure of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) to adequately address the environmental implications of shipping and maritime transport. The next two pieces are by economists who examine economic aspects of the trade-climate linkage. Irene Monasterolo and Marco Raberto discuss the potential impacts of including fossil fuel subsidies reduction under the TTIP. Frank Ackerman explores the economic costs of efforts to promote convergence of regulatory standards between the United States and the European Union under the TTIP. The following two contributions are by legal scholars. Brooke Güven and Lise Johnson explore the potential for international investment treaties to redirect investment flows to support climate change mitigation and adaptation, particularly with regard to China and India. Matt Porterfield provides an overview of the ways in which both existing and proposed trade and investment agreements could have either “climate positive” or “climate negative” effects on mitigation policies. The final article is by Tao Hu, a former WTO trade and environment expert advisor for China and currently at the World Wildlife Fund, arguing that the definition of environmental goods and services’ under the WTO negotiations needs to be expanded to better incorporate climate change

UMass Amherst Green Building Guidelines v.2 and LEEDv4

Facilities & Campus Services supports sustainability and energy conservation initiatives by providing in-house resources to campus staff as well as designers, contractors and other consultants working with the University. The UMass Amherst Green Building Guidelines v2 and LEED v4 provide a framework for approaching new construction and major renovation projects at UMass Amherst that are undergoing LEED v4 certification by focusing the conversation on those green building aspects that are most important to the campus. They are intended to be the beginning of a dynamic conversation between designers, environmental consultants and constructors, university stakeholders, and users of new high performance buildings

Achieving energy efficient districts: contributions through large-scale characterization and demand side management.

Buildings are increasingly expected to be more efficient and sustainable since they are essential to energy policies and climate change mitigation efforts. For this reason, it is very important to develop new energy models, with special attention to the residential sector. The present Thesis aims to justify the selection of the district scale as the optimal one to improve the energy performance of the built environment. In this way, renewable energy integration may be increased and innovative approaches such as demand side management may be carried out through the accurate characterization of districts. Several applications are shown to evaluate the solar potentials and the energy demands for entire regions by using 3D city models. The advantages offered by demand side management approaches in buildings and districts are investigated, presenting two applications that benefit from dynamic pricing strategies or the participation in reserve markets. The drawbacks of most current approaches on a large scale are highlighted, and a new tool capable of performing dynamic simulations of whole districts in a user-friendly and accurate way is presented. In addition, a methodology for a proper characterization of districts through monitoring is developed, validated, and used for two applications. The first one characterizes a district consisting of buildings with a limited use of air-conditioning, and the second one evaluates the benefits that could be obtained from the exploitation of the synergies between the buildings of a district. As a last contribution of this Thesis, a new comprehensive methodology for the characterization and optimization of any existing district is proposed.Se espera que los edificios sean cada vez más eficientes y sostenibles, puesto que son esenciales para las políticas energéticas y los esfuerzos hacia la mitigación del cambio climático. Por esta razón, es muy importante desarrollar nuevos modelos energéticos, con especial atención al sector residencial. La presente Tesis parte de que la escala de distrito es la óptima para mejorar el comportamiento de la edificación. Además, permite aumentar la integración de energías renovables y llevar a cabo planteamientos innovadores como la gestión de la demanda a través de una precisa caracterización de los distritos. Se muestran varias aplicaciones para la evaluación de los potenciales solares y las demandas energéticas de regiones enteras, usando modelos 3D de ciudades. Las ventajas ofrecidas por los procedimientos de gestión de la demanda en edificios y distritos también son investigadas, presentando dos aplicaciones que se benefician de estrategias de tarificación dinámica o de la participación en los mercados de reserva. Las desventajas de la mayoría de procedimientos actuales a gran escala también son destacadas, y se presenta una nueva herramienta capaz de llevar a cabo simulaciones dinámicas de distritos completos de forma simple y precisa. Además, se desarrolla una metodología para la caracterización apropiada de distritos a través de monitorización, validada y empleada en dos aplicaciones. La primera trata la caracterización un distrito compuesto por edificios con un uso limitado de la climatización, y la segunda la evaluación de los beneficios que podrían obtenerse de la explotación de las sinergias entre los edificios de un distrito. Como última contribución de la Tesis, se propone una nueva metodología completa para la caracterización y optimización de cualquier distrito existente.Premio Extraordinario de Doctorado U

Liveability analysis of gated and non-gated low middle income communities in kuala lumpur, Malaysia

The aim of this paper is to examine the liveability conditions in gated and non-gated low middle income communities in Kuala Lumpur where rapid urban growth has led to many disruptions in the urban living environment. Hence, a livability framework was developed with dimensions from housing condition, economic condition, functional environment, social relations and community safety towards achieving the research objectives of – a) to study the liveability level in gated and non-gated communities, b) to compare the level of liveability between gated and non-gated communities, and c) to determine the dimensions and indicators which influence the level of liveability in both communities. Residents’ views were collected through a questionnaire survey which consisted of twenty-four indicators of liveability belonging to five dimensions from three communities in Kuala Lumpur. Two communities belong to non-gated and one community had gated living status. The findings of the research revealed that gated community has a better living conditions compared to the non-gated community. Thus, this research can be used as a turning point to improve the living environment of both gated and non-gated communit

Human experience in the natural and built environment : implications for research policy and practice

22nd IAPS conference. Edited book of abstracts. 427 pp. University of Strathclyde, Sheffield and West of Scotland Publication. ISBN: 978-0-94-764988-3