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02490 Monitoring for sustainable development: a systemic framework
16 Energy (energy conservation) is primarily concerned with the flow of knowledge and its impact on economic growth, it makes sense to approach the presence of collective knowledge in a region with a tendency to stimulate spatial clustering of innovation. Sweden, in the international context, is an exemplar country in terms of social and economic development, presenting special performance in intensive knowledge sectors. In this paper, information and communication technology cluster-enabling technology for sustainability is illustrated from the Stockholm region experience. It also discusses the relations between innovation, knowledge, clustering and the integration of these aspects into potentially regional systems of innovation.
06/02489 MIPS analysis of natural resource consumption in two university buildings Sinivuori, P. and Saari, A. Building and Environment, 2006, 41, (5), 657668. This article presents the findings of a study to investigate the scale and content of natural resource consumption in two Finnish university buildings, as well as the sensitivity of these calculations to the particular assumptions used. The calculations were made using the MIPS method. In the Physicum building, the main factors contributing to abiotic natural resource consumption were, in order of importance, use-phase electrical energy, mechanical and electrical services, rock excavation, the building's frame and use-phase heating. In the Viikki information centre building, the role of heating was less significant. Consumption of biotic natural resources was marginal. In both buildings the majority of water resource consumption was the result of use-phase electrical energy use. Air consumption was mainly the result of the building's heating and electricity use. For abiotic natural resource consumption, the calculations were most sensitive to a halving of the service life of the building. The consumption of water and air was strongly influenced by the type of power plant from which the building's energy sources originated. Reducing the natural resource consumption of a building is something that should be targeted right from the start, at the design stage. Since most of a building's natural resource use is attributable to just a few factors, the calculation and control activities should focus on these very factors, such as use-phase energy, earthworks, the building's frame and copper-containing mechanical and electrical services.
06/02490 Monitoring for sustainable development: a systemic framework Bagheri, A. and Hjorth, P. International Journal o/" Sustainable Development, 2005, 8, (4), 280-301. "Sustainable development' is a widely used, but less practised, complex term. Using the idea of 'viability loops' (VL) based on a system dynamics (SD) approach and considering sustainability as an ideal for development efforts, this paper argues that sustainable development should be considered as an unending process rather than a state. Thus, a systemic framework is proposed to 'monitor' systems for sustainable development, rather than 'measuring' their sustainability. Then, it is shown that a set of theoretically anticipated VL, in the form of a market-technology balancing mechanism, do not function in practice owing to a lack and/or distortion of information.
06/02491 Polices for increasing energy efficiency: thirty years of experience in OECD countries Geller, H. et al. Energy Policy, 2006, 34, (5), 556-573. Energy efficiency improvement was an important phenomenon in the global energy balance over the past 30 years. Without energy efficiency improvements, the OECD nations would have used approximately 49% more energy than was actually consumed as of 1998. This paper first reviews energy intensity trends for the major OECD nations since 1973, considering how much of the overall reduction in E/GDP was due to energy efficiency improvement and how much was due to structural change. The bulk of the paper examines the energy efficiency policies and programmes adopted in Japan, USA, and Western Europe, commenting on their effectiveness and energy savings impacts where possible. The paper also reviews the energy efficiency policies and programs adopted in California. This experience shows that welldesigned policies can result in substantial energy savings, as demonstrated in the USA where nine specific policies and programmes reduced primary energy use in 2002 by approximately 11%. Substantial energy savings also occurred in Japan, some European countries, and in the electricity sector in California.
06/02492 Review of compliance with EU-2010 targets on renewable energy in Galicia (Spain) Miguez, J. L. et al. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2006, 10, (3), 225-247. The use of renewable energy offers a range of exceptional benefits, including: a decrease in external energy dependence; a boost to local and regional component manufacturing industries; promotion of regional engineering and consultancy services specializing in the use of renewable energy; increased R&D, decrease in impact of electricity
production and transformation; increase in the level of services for the rural population; creation of employment, etc. To achieve these benefits, a series of actions are required, among which the following are particularly important: creation of a suitable climate for performing R&D, training of technicians in design, production and maintenance of equipment; motivation for establishing a new market; proper financing; fostering of appropriate technologies; practical demonstration of results, etc. This article reviews the progress made in the Autonomous Community of Galicia in terms of the introduction of renewable energy technologies and examines the possibility of meeting a target of 90% coverage (practical electrical self-sufficiency) by 2010, of which 51% would come from wind power, with a saving of 4000 ktoe of primary energy, and prevented emissions of 12x106 t of COz per year.
06/02493 Sustainable human resource management in China: a study of a German multinational corporation Rehu, M. et al. World Review of Entrepreneurs/@. Management and Sustainable Development, 2006, 2, (1 2), 57 72. The authors propose three building blocks of sustainability regarding h u m a n resource management: attracting employees, managing their needs and encouraging the workforce to put forth effort by creating motivating incentives. These fundamental aspects of sustainability are examined in the context of a German multinational corporation that has established an operating facility in the People's Republic of China. Based upon a questionnaire, it was found that information on (1) the importance of work-related goals, (2) individual preferences for particular management styles, and (3) performance-reward rankings may be usefully employed to organize these building blocks of sustainability considering the different institutional frameworks.
06/02494 Weathering of building stones and its relationship to the sustainable management of the aggregate resources in Gaza Strip, Palestine Al-Agha, M. R. Building and Environment, 2006, 41, 15), 676-686. In the past decade, the Gaza Strip witnessed a revolutionary breakthrough in the field of building construction associated with the political development in the aftermath of Oslo agreement. Towers (buildings composed of more than five floors) were, for the first time being built in the region in its modern history. Environmental conditions have deteriorating weathering impacts on the buildings of about 40 years old. This article aims at investigating such impacts and their features as well as the different types of weathering on the buildings. Chemical, mechanical and biological parameters of weathering were reported to work together in the old buildings. Differential weathering was also reported in some buildings either within the stone itself or the cementing material between the stone blocks. The geographic location along the coast is believed to speed up the weathering process as aerosols and rainwater contain high chloride content, which in turn reacts with the stone components. Baladi stones show higher resistance to weathering than the Israeli stone-type. Weathering rate was calculated and found to have an average of about 0.1 cm per annum. Some measures are taken to protect the buildings from the weathering attack; these include 2-3 layers (about 1 cm thick each) of plastering for about 1 m of the lower part of the external walls of the buildings. These measures are not commonly applied, and if so, they show several types of weathering. Taking protective measures is a necessary step for better sustainable management of the aggregate resources in the Gaza Strip.
06/02495 Wok design: thermal-performance influencing parameters Zhao, Z. et al. Applied Energy, 2006, 83, (4), 387 400. Experimental studies have been performed to investigate the thermal performances of woks fabricated from materials with different thermal conductivities and surface emissivities. A pre-mixed air/butane flame impinged vertically upwards upon a flat impingement-plate's (to simulate the wok's flat-bottom) surface under laminar-flow conditions. The operation parameters of the premixed flame were kept constant (i.e. Reynolds number = 1200; equivalence ratio = 1, and nozzle-toplate distance = 5). In order to examine the effect of conduction, three materials, namely red brass (k 61 W/InK), bronze (k = 26 W/mK) and stainless steel (k = 14.9 W/mK), were considered. Because of the lower thermal-conductivity and hence higher conduction resistance, a significantly lower heat-flux would ensue over the stagnation region for the stainless-steel wok. However, there were no significant differences in the heat-flux distributions in the wall-jet regions for the stainlesssteel, bronze and red-brass impingement plates. To examine the effects of radiation, three red-brass impingement plates with surface-emissivities of either 0.1, 0.38 or 0.98 were tested experimentally. Different surface-emissivities have only slight impact, on the heat-flux distributions on the wok's surface. In addition, there were only insignificant differences in the heat-flux and temperature distributions in the wall-jet regions of the impingement plates fabricated of the same material but with different surface-emissivities.
Fuel and Energy Abstracts
September 2006
375
06/02489 MIPS analysis of natural resource consumption in two university buildings Sinivuori, P. and Saari, A. Building and Environment, 2006, 41, (5), 657668. This article presents the findings of a study to investigate the scale and content of natural resource consumption in two Finnish university buildings, as well as the sensitivity of these calculations to the particular assumptions used. The calculations were made using the MIPS method. In the Physicum building, the main factors contributing to abiotic natural resource consumption were, in order of importance, use-phase electrical energy, mechanical and electrical services, rock excavation, the building's frame and use-phase heating. In the Viikki information centre building, the role of heating was less significant. Consumption of biotic natural resources was marginal. In both buildings the majority of water resource consumption was the result of use-phase electrical energy use. Air consumption was mainly the result of the building's heating and electricity use. For abiotic natural resource consumption, the calculations were most sensitive to a halving of the service life of the building. The consumption of water and air was strongly influenced by the type of power plant from which the building's energy sources originated. Reducing the natural resource consumption of a building is something that should be targeted right from the start, at the design stage. Since most of a building's natural resource use is attributable to just a few factors, the calculation and control activities should focus on these very factors, such as use-phase energy, earthworks, the building's frame and copper-containing mechanical and electrical services.
06/02490 Monitoring for sustainable development: a systemic framework Bagheri, A. and Hjorth, P. International Journal o/" Sustainable Development, 2005, 8, (4), 280-301. "Sustainable development' is a widely used, but less practised, complex term. Using the idea of 'viability loops' (VL) based on a system dynamics (SD) approach and considering sustainability as an ideal for development efforts, this paper argues that sustainable development should be considered as an unending process rather than a state. Thus, a systemic framework is proposed to 'monitor' systems for sustainable development, rather than 'measuring' their sustainability. Then, it is shown that a set of theoretically anticipated VL, in the form of a market-technology balancing mechanism, do not function in practice owing to a lack and/or distortion of information.
06/02491 Polices for increasing energy efficiency: thirty years of experience in OECD countries Geller, H. et al. Energy Policy, 2006, 34, (5), 556-573. Energy efficiency improvement was an important phenomenon in the global energy balance over the past 30 years. Without energy efficiency improvements, the OECD nations would have used approximately 49% more energy than was actually consumed as of 1998. This paper first reviews energy intensity trends for the major OECD nations since 1973, considering how much of the overall reduction in E/GDP was due to energy efficiency improvement and how much was due to structural change. The bulk of the paper examines the energy efficiency policies and programmes adopted in Japan, USA, and Western Europe, commenting on their effectiveness and energy savings impacts where possible. The paper also reviews the energy efficiency policies and programs adopted in California. This experience shows that welldesigned policies can result in substantial energy savings, as demonstrated in the USA where nine specific policies and programmes reduced primary energy use in 2002 by approximately 11%. Substantial energy savings also occurred in Japan, some European countries, and in the electricity sector in California.
06/02492 Review of compliance with EU-2010 targets on renewable energy in Galicia (Spain) Miguez, J. L. et al. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2006, 10, (3), 225-247. The use of renewable energy offers a range of exceptional benefits, including: a decrease in external energy dependence; a boost to local and regional component manufacturing industries; promotion of regional engineering and consultancy services specializing in the use of renewable energy; increased R&D, decrease in impact of electricity
production and transformation; increase in the level of services for the rural population; creation of employment, etc. To achieve these benefits, a series of actions are required, among which the following are particularly important: creation of a suitable climate for performing R&D, training of technicians in design, production and maintenance of equipment; motivation for establishing a new market; proper financing; fostering of appropriate technologies; practical demonstration of results, etc. This article reviews the progress made in the Autonomous Community of Galicia in terms of the introduction of renewable energy technologies and examines the possibility of meeting a target of 90% coverage (practical electrical self-sufficiency) by 2010, of which 51% would come from wind power, with a saving of 4000 ktoe of primary energy, and prevented emissions of 12x106 t of COz per year.
06/02493 Sustainable human resource management in China: a study of a German multinational corporation Rehu, M. et al. World Review of Entrepreneurs/@. Management and Sustainable Development, 2006, 2, (1 2), 57 72. The authors propose three building blocks of sustainability regarding h u m a n resource management: attracting employees, managing their needs and encouraging the workforce to put forth effort by creating motivating incentives. These fundamental aspects of sustainability are examined in the context of a German multinational corporation that has established an operating facility in the People's Republic of China. Based upon a questionnaire, it was found that information on (1) the importance of work-related goals, (2) individual preferences for particular management styles, and (3) performance-reward rankings may be usefully employed to organize these building blocks of sustainability considering the different institutional frameworks.
06/02494 Weathering of building stones and its relationship to the sustainable management of the aggregate resources in Gaza Strip, Palestine Al-Agha, M. R. Building and Environment, 2006, 41, 15), 676-686. In the past decade, the Gaza Strip witnessed a revolutionary breakthrough in the field of building construction associated with the political development in the aftermath of Oslo agreement. Towers (buildings composed of more than five floors) were, for the first time being built in the region in its modern history. Environmental conditions have deteriorating weathering impacts on the buildings of about 40 years old. This article aims at investigating such impacts and their features as well as the different types of weathering on the buildings. Chemical, mechanical and biological parameters of weathering were reported to work together in the old buildings. Differential weathering was also reported in some buildings either within the stone itself or the cementing material between the stone blocks. The geographic location along the coast is believed to speed up the weathering process as aerosols and rainwater contain high chloride content, which in turn reacts with the stone components. Baladi stones show higher resistance to weathering than the Israeli stone-type. Weathering rate was calculated and found to have an average of about 0.1 cm per annum. Some measures are taken to protect the buildings from the weathering attack; these include 2-3 layers (about 1 cm thick each) of plastering for about 1 m of the lower part of the external walls of the buildings. These measures are not commonly applied, and if so, they show several types of weathering. Taking protective measures is a necessary step for better sustainable management of the aggregate resources in the Gaza Strip.
06/02495 Wok design: thermal-performance influencing parameters Zhao, Z. et al. Applied Energy, 2006, 83, (4), 387 400. Experimental studies have been performed to investigate the thermal performances of woks fabricated from materials with different thermal conductivities and surface emissivities. A pre-mixed air/butane flame impinged vertically upwards upon a flat impingement-plate's (to simulate the wok's flat-bottom) surface under laminar-flow conditions. The operation parameters of the premixed flame were kept constant (i.e. Reynolds number = 1200; equivalence ratio = 1, and nozzle-toplate distance = 5). In order to examine the effect of conduction, three materials, namely red brass (k 61 W/InK), bronze (k = 26 W/mK) and stainless steel (k = 14.9 W/mK), were considered. Because of the lower thermal-conductivity and hence higher conduction resistance, a significantly lower heat-flux would ensue over the stagnation region for the stainless-steel wok. However, there were no significant differences in the heat-flux distributions in the wall-jet regions for the stainlesssteel, bronze and red-brass impingement plates. To examine the effects of radiation, three red-brass impingement plates with surface-emissivities of either 0.1, 0.38 or 0.98 were tested experimentally. Different surface-emissivities have only slight impact, on the heat-flux distributions on the wok's surface. In addition, there were only insignificant differences in the heat-flux and temperature distributions in the wall-jet regions of the impingement plates fabricated of the same material but with different surface-emissivities.
Fuel and Energy Abstracts
September 2006
375