The Potential Contribution of Wood in Green Building Certifications: Prospects in sustainable residential buildings

The building sector has a significant impact on the environment, accounting for 36% of CO2 emissions and about half of material consumption in Europe. Residential buildings dominate the European building stock. In Finland, residential buildings account for up to 80% of the existing buildings and the rate of construction is higher compared to other building types. Therefore, residential buildings play an important role in the transition to a sustainable built environment. A number of studies show that increasing the use of wood can lower the life cycle environmental impacts of buildings. In Scandinavia, the use of wood in small houses is well established, used in 90% of cases. Furthermore, the increasing number of high-rise wooden buildings suggests a growing interest in the potential of wood in large-scale buildings. Green building certification provides criteria to assess the sustainability level of buildings and is expected to influence the building sector in the near future, by promoting the use of sustainable technologies. The aim of this study was to investigate how green building certification schemes assess wood materials and how wood materials can help fulfil sustainability criteria for green buildings. We analyse the sustainability criteria adopted by the most common certification schemes in Finland, BREEAM, LEED and the Nordic Swan Ecolabel, as well as the upcoming Level(s) certification promoted by the European Commission. The analysis shows that the contribution of wood materials to the overall score of green building certifications accounts for between 10 and 36%. Wood is advantageous as a renewable and low-carbon material. Furthermore, wood can offer indirect benefits due to its recycling potential and to water saving in the construction stage. However, wood materials have to comply with some requirements, such as sustainable forest management and low volatile organic compound content. The new European certification suggests a comprehensive assessment including circular material life cycles

Rethinking social housing: behavioural patterns and technological innovations

The building sector accounts for 40% of energy use and 25% of CO2 emissions, mainly due to inefficient building practices and energy consumption during the operational phase of buildings. Social housing accounts for a significant proportion of the European building stock and about 50% of the existing buildings are likely to require large-scale renovations in the coming years, meeting the current EPBD directive. This could represent an opportunity to renovate the affordable building stock, often characterized by premature disrepair, resulting in a bad perception from inhabitants and community. Significant European experiences have already shown the importance of an integrated approach finalized to the construction or renovation of social housing, leveraging on environmental sustainability, creating urban identity, adopting measures to face social disadvantage, offering at the same time quality housing standard. In this regard, it seems necessary to match technological advancements and knowledge in energy retrofitting with social needs and habits. The implementation of energy-efficiency improvements in social housing requests support and participation of the final energy consumer. The paper investigates how to deal with knowledge gaps in the relationship between retrofit technologies and users\u2019 behaviour and possible strategic measures to increase awareness between tenants through two case studies

environmental assessment tools toward an interlinked sustainable design of cities and buildings the cases of vado ligure and altare municipalities italy

The present paper aims at highlighting the connections between the environmental assessment of urban planning and building design activities at different scales. Environmental assessment is a multi-scale and inter/trans disciplinary process, which considers the city through an ecological approach. Environmental assessment includes different tools depending on the planning and design phase, with links and overlaps but also with contradictions. Four different evaluation fields are discussed - land use, water management, local resources, energy - also concerning the case of two Environmental Reports for Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) processes of municipal urban plans for two Italian municipalities, Vado Ligure and Altare. The analysis of case studies shows that SEA is not always an effective tool for strategic urban planning, as it includes similar assessment criteria to building scale ones, causing overlaps and contradictions

Life Cycle Assessment for Taller Timber Buildings Summer School

COST Action CA20139 - Holistic Design of Taller Timber buildings (HELEN) – organized its 2nd Training School that took place in Zagreb, Croatia, from the 19th to the 21st of June 2024. The HELEN Action Training School represents an important endeavor that promises to reshape how insights are shared and collaborative networks are cultivated within the HELEN Action community. Designed primarily for early career investigators, Ph.D. students, and post-doc researchers, the Training School focuses on providing practical insights from WG4 Sustainability topics to foster their scientific and professional growth. At the heart of the Training School is an engaging learning environment that encourages active participation. Through a balanced mixture of discussions, presentations, exercises, and lectures, participants were introduced to new ideas and practical LCA techniques. This approach not only introduces novel concepts but also offers a platform to apply these insights through real-world case studies, promoting a hands-on understanding.311. Sustainable cities and communities4. Quality education13. Climate actio

State of the art of 18F-FDG PET/CT application in inflammation and infection: a guide for image acquisition and interpretation

Aim The diagnosis, severity and extent of a sterile inflammation or a septic infection could be challenging since there is not one single test able to achieve an accurate diagnosis. The clinical use of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose ([F-18]FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) imaging in the assessment of inflammation and infection is increasing worldwide. The purpose of this paper is to achieve an Italian consensus document on [F-18]FDG PET/CT or PET/MRI in inflammatory and infectious diseases, such as osteomyelitis (OM), prosthetic joint infections (PJI), infective endocarditis (IE), prosthetic valve endocarditis (PVE), cardiac implantable electronic device infections (CIEDI), systemic and cardiac sarcoidosis (SS/CS), diabetic foot (DF), fungal infections (FI), tuberculosis (TBC), fever and inflammation of unknown origin (FUO/IUO), pediatric infections (PI), inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), spine infections (SI), vascular graft infections (VGI), large vessel vasculitis (LVV), retroperitoneal fibrosis (RF) and COVID-19 infections. Methods In September 2020, the inflammatory and infectious diseases focus group (IIFG) of the Italian Association of Nuclear Medicine (AIMN) proposed to realize a procedural paper about the clinical applications of [F-18]FDG PET/CT or PET/MRI in inflammatory and infectious diseases. The project was carried out thanks to the collaboration of 13 Italian nuclear medicine centers, with a consolidate experience in this field. With the endorsement of AIMN, IIFG contacted each center, and the pediatric diseases focus group (PDFC). IIFG provided for each team involved, a draft with essential information regarding the execution of [F-18]FDG PET/CT or PET/MRI scan (i.e., indications, patient preparation, standard or specific acquisition modalities, interpretation criteria, reporting methods, pitfalls and artifacts), by limiting the literature research to the last 20 years. Moreover, some clinical cases were required from each center, to underline the teaching points. Time for the collection of each report was from October to December 2020. Results Overall, we summarized 291 scientific papers and guidelines published between 1998 and 2021. Papers were divided in several sub-topics and summarized in the following paragraphs: clinical indications, image interpretation criteria, future perspectivess and new trends (for each single disease), while patient preparation, image acquisition, possible pitfalls and reporting modalities were described afterwards. Moreover, a specific section was dedicated to pediatric and PET/MRI indications. A collection of images was described for each indication. Conclusions Currently, [F-18]FDG PET/CT in oncology is globally accepted and standardized in main diagnostic algorithms for neoplasms. In recent years, the ever-closer collaboration among different European associations has tried to overcome the absence of a standardization also in the field of inflammation and infections. The collaboration of several nuclear medicine centers with a long experience in this field, as well as among different AIMN focus groups represents a further attempt in this direction. We hope that this document will be the basis for a "common nuclear physicians' language" throughout all the country

Notulae to the Italian flora of algae, bryophytes, fungi and lichens: 14

In this contribution, new data concerning bryophytes, fungi and lichens of the Italian flora are presented. It includes new records and confirmations for the algal genus Chara, for the bryophyte genera Bryum, Grimmia, Cephaloziella, Hypnum, Nogopterium, Physcomitrium, Polytrichastrum, Rhynchostegiella, Saelania, and Schistostega, the fungal genera Cortinarius, Lentinellus, Omphalina, and Xerophorus, and the lichen genera Acarospora, Agonimia, Candelariella, Cladonia, Graphis, Gyalolechia, Hypogymnia, Lichinella, Megalaria, Nephroma, Ochrolechia, Opegrapha, Peltigera, Placidium, Ramalina, Rhizoplaca, Ropalospora, Strangospora, Toniniopsis, Usnea, and Zahlbrucknerell