A GHG Metric Methodology to Assess Onsite Buildings Non-Potable Water System for Outdoor Landscape Use

This paper documents a water:energy greenhouse gas (GHG) metric methodology for a decentralized non-potable water system that was developed as part of a Professional Doctorate in Engineering (DEng) research project by the first author. The project identified the need to investigate the challenges in changing the use of potable water to recycled water for landscape irrigation (LI) and for water features (WFs) at a medical facility case study (MFCS) in Abu Dhabi (AD) (the capital city of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The drivers for the research project were based on the need for AD to decrease desalinated potable water as well as reduce the environmental impact and operational costs associated with the processing and use of desalinated water. Thus, the aim of the research discussed and presented in this paper was to measure the impact of using recycled and onsite non-potable water sources at the MFCS to alleviate the use of desalinated potable water and reduce associated energy consumption, operational costs, and GHG emissions (latterly in terms of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), for LI and WFs. The analysis of three case scenarios at the MFCS compared different approaches to alleviate energy use, costs, and GHG impacts for the use of recycled water in LI and WFs against a baseline. The findings led to a proposed sustainable water conservation and reuse (SWC) strategy, which helped save 50% desalinated potable water for LI use by soil improvement, building water system audits, and alternate non-potable water reuse. The recommendations for this paper are to develop a SWC strategy forming the basis for a water protocol by the competent authority for regional medical facilities including an assessment methodology for building decentralized non-potable water systems to measure their energy, GHG emissions and financial impact

Now we are six: lessons from New Zealand’s KiwiSaver

New Zealand’s KiwiSaver was introduced on 1 July 2007. New Zealand’s success with the ‘soft compulsion’ of automatic enrolment has been and is continuing to be an influence in the design of opt-out schemes in the UK and Ireland. While there have been numerous changes to KiwiSaver as outlined in this paper, six years on, the retirement saving scheme appears well accepted by the public and membership has exceeded most expectations. New Zealand’s experience suggests that auto-enrolment and large incentives to entice people to remain opted-in may ensure initial take-up is high. It also suggests the incentives may be reduced significantly ex post with little impact on membership. Core tax-funded KiwiSaver subsidies have been both substantially reduced and not indexed while membership has continued to grow strongly. Whether this auto-enrolment scheme, featuring generous provisions for withdrawals and contributions holidays, is sufficient to ensure that those who should be saving for their retirement are saving, and saving enough, is open to debate. If KiwiSaver is made compulsory, as some powerful lobbies propose, there are large complexities to resolve, including the future role of the universal state pension, New Zealand Superannuation. Lessons from KiwiSaver on what to avoid in the design of a national retirement saving scheme may include: opening it to children; offering housing subsidies; allowing too many providers and privileging some of these as ‘default providers’; ignoring the issue of decumulation; and obscure objectives. Advantages over previous work-based retirement saving schemes include the portability of KiwiSaver accounts facilitated by the IRD’s role as a clearing house. New Zealand has also limited regressivity in the design of its very modest tax incentives, but at a cost: many save just the minimum required to maximise the subsidies. The Working Paper surveys the first six years of KiwiSaver’s evolution to July 2013. In that time, the fundamental questions around its purpose and design have not been resolved. Is its purpose to enhance access to suitable wealth accumulation vehicles for those who have missed out on traditional work-based schemes? Or is it to reduce the pressures on the economy of an ageing population; or to solve the national saving problem? Will KiwiSavers in fact have more to spend during their retirement, or will they simply reduce other savings to compensate? In the long term, what are the implications for New Zealand’s overall pensions framework, and in particular the very successful universal state pension? As 2014 is an election year, political parties are positioning themselves on KiwiSaver policy. In the meantime there is strong international interest in New Zealand’s retirement saving scheme, with its unique features such as auto-enrolment. The Retirement Policy and Research Centre is pleased to publish KiwiSaver: Now we are six. It updates earlier working papers, including Working Paper 2010 KiwiSaver: lessons for Ireland. TheviewsinthisWorkingPaper’scommentaryarethoseoftheauthors

Development of a Holistic Method to Analyse the Consumption of Energy and Technical Services in Manufacturing Facilities

This chapter describes the background to energy usage in production operations and sets out some principles, process steps and methods to provide a more holistic view of the Significant Energy Users (SEUs) and the related consumption of energy and technical services (Heat, Air, Water). A model based on direct and indirect energy analysis from a ‘product’ viewpoint is extended to identify waste or auxiliary energy in line with ‘Lean’ principles. The auxiliary energy identified represents the best opportunity to gain energy savings through operational and behavioral changes at the lowest possible cost. The proposed process mapping methodology [Value Stream Mapping (VSM)] effectively acquires production and energy data that can be modelled to provide both steady state and dynamic energy consumption and potentially provide a multidimensional hierarchical view of this energy consumption and cost directly related to production equipment. The method is one that can be updated easily to reflect changes in the production environment and to provide a holistic view of the energy and technical services in the context of the varying production activity

The use of polymer stabilised earth foundations for rammed earth construction

This paper presents a case study as part of a Professional Doctorate research project discussing an ecological approach to housing in South Africa, where polymer stabilised earth foundations have been used to support single story rammed earth walls, in a house in South Africa. Rammed earth was chosen as a construction method for its low embodied energy and thermal mass characteristics. The subsurface strata upon which the house was built comprised of clayey, gravely, sandy soils that have resulted as a result of decomposition of granitic rocks. In order to ensure solid founding conditions the foundations were excavated to a depth of one and a half metres before the excavated material was stabilised and backfilled. The material was stabilised to 600 mm below top of floor level with 2% Portland cement and above that with a 5% polymer bitumen mixture reinforced with horizontal steel reinforcing rods. This foundation avoids the use of reinforced concrete and as a result a significantly smaller carbon footprint, while fulfilling the functional requirements of supporting the building and preventing rising damp. The polymer has, as it major component is bitumen emulsion, provided a waterproof layer. Rammed earth walls of 500 mm thickness were constructed on the foundation up to 4.2 meters in height and initial observations suggest that the foundations are satisfactory with no settlement or cracking detected

A methodology for verified energy savings in manufacturing facilities through changes in operational behaviour

The manufacturing industry is increasingly accountable for the environmental impact resulting from its activities. Manufacturing operations design has shifted from a traditional strictly cost and quality approach to more recently including energy efficiency, zero waste and reduced carbon emissions. Whilst manufacturing companies have focused on reducing energy at a facilities level, research indicates that specific production processes generate a significant environmental impact through energy consumption, resource depletion and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. To understand the consumption of energy in a production environment it is important to relate the specific energy usage to the operating processes and production outputs. This allows the identification of auxiliary (non-value added) energy within production which is as the area with the greatest potential for savings through changes in operational behaviour. This paper outlines the monitoring at a factory and at machine level that can identify where and, more importantly, when waste energy occurs. The analysis of the cost of auxiliary energy is shown to be a motivational factor for company management to engage with energy efficiency measures and finally the paper discusses the eight dimensions necessary to engage employees and to drive cultural change in an organisation. The current state of practice in relation to energy in a case-study in the Precision Manufacturing Sector in Ireland was investigated and the proposed approach was applied and has been shown to successfully deliver verifiable savings with low implementation costs

Validation of the Athletic Identity Measurement Scale in Youth Academy Soccer Players

The Athletic Identity Measurement Scale (AIMS) is a popular measure of Athletic Identity (AI). The purpose of the present study was to investigate the factor structure (7-item single factor and 3 factor model; Social Identity, Exclusivity and Negative Affectivity) of the AIMS within youth academy soccer players. A total of 259 male youth academy soccer players aged 12-18 years completed the AIMS. A series of confirmatory factor analyses, independent cluster modelling indicated support for the 7-item single-factor (AI) and the three-factor models but not within the same analysis. The results support the use of AIMS for the measurement of AI in elite male youth soccer players. Practitioners seeking to explore AI in youth soccer populations should use the three-factor model to glean further insight from the three subscales to support the design of more specific interventions where appropriate

Electron Drift Velocities In Xenon

The electron drift velocity has been measured in xenon over the range of reduced field strength 1 T

Evaluation of a Landscape Irrigation Management Strategy to Support Abu Dhabi Update Its Water-Related Standards

This chapter discusses an landscape irrigation (LI) strategy to enable 100% non-potable water reuse through soil improvement, thereby reducing the environmental impacts. The case study site is a medical facility including 33,257 m2 of landscaping in Abu Dhabi (AD), the capital of the United Arab Emirates. The aim of this research is to increase net-carbon sinks, a pillar of decarbonization, as the basis for a proposed protocol to implement soil improvement techniques for the landscape architecture/agriculture industries. The interventions, based on AD soil and water recycling standards, included three different soil additives in 2016 and 2017, together with the calculation and implementation of a suitable irrigation rate to establish LI demand and reduce a five-month shortfall in air-conditioning condensate water supply. The intervention results show the case study irrigation rate was 50% less after soil improvement than the AD Municipality irrigation standard and that the LI condensate water deficit decreased by 8046 m3, a 42% reduction. The research demonstrates that carbon sinks can be increased through improved soil management; this highlights the need to update AD’s water-related standards to help the city achieve its 2030 target of a 22% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions