Personal control and environmental user satisfaction in office buildings: Results of case studies in the Netherlands

Personal control is one of the influential factors for user satisfaction and environmental comfort due to its physical and psychological impacts. This paper aims to identify the relationship between the degree of personal control over indoor environmental conditions and user satisfaction with thermal and visual comfort. Trying to answer the...

From Problems to Potentials: The Urban Energy Transition of Gruž, Dubrovnik

IIn the challenge for a sustainable society, carbon-neutrality is a critical objective for all cities in the coming decades. In the EU City-zen project, academic partners collaborate to develop an urban energy transition methodology, which supports cities in making the energy transition to sustainable lifestyles and carbon neutrality. As part of...

A review of green systems within the indoor environment

This paper reviews the state of art of vegetation systems and their effect on the indoor environmental quality (IEQ), based on scientific studies from the past 30 years. Some studies have shown that biophilic workspaces and interaction with plants may change human attitudes, behaviours, improve productivity and the overall well-being....

Early-Stage Design Considerations for the Energy-Efficiency of High-Rise Office Buildings

Decisions made at early stages of the design are of the utmost importance for the energy-efficiency of buildings. Wrong decisions and design failures related to a building’s general layout, shape, façade transparency or orientation can increase the operational energy tremendously. These failures can be avoided in advance through simple changes...

Green air conditioning: Using indoor living wall systems as a climate control method

The Effect of Geometry Parameters on Energy and Thermal Performance of School Buildings in Cold Climates of China

This paper discusses the role of geometry parameters including building shape, window to wall ratio, room depth, and orientation on the energy use and thermal comfort of school buildings in cold climates of China. The annual total energy demand and summer thermal discomfort time were compared through computer simulations with DesignBuilder....

Using satellite imagery analysis to classify and redesign provincial parks for a better cooling effect on cities: The case study of South Holland

The purpose of this research is to analyse the thermal behaviour of South Holland provincial parks during heat waves, in order to provide design adaptation guidelines to increase their cooling capacity over the hotspots present in their urban surroundings. This research analyses the thermal behaviour of different land use patches (forests,...

Validating the Need to Include the Economic Returns of Graduates as a Metric of a Higher Education Institutions Level of Sustainability

Higher education institutions play an important role in sustainability, in their own management and operation, in research and education, and in the undergraduate and graduate degrees they deliver. Often ignored, economic sustainability and future perspectives of students are important indicators too. The research presented in this paper...

An assessment of energy-saving solutions for the envelope design of high-rise buildings in temperate climates: A case study in the Netherlands

The building envelope is the interface between the interior of the building and the outdoor environment. A building's energy consumption to a large extent depends on certain envelope design elements. As a consequence, for achieving high levels of energy-saving in buildings, design measures with high impact should be firstly defined and then...

Integrating Urban Heat Assessment in Urban Plans

The world is increasingly concerned with sustainability issues. Climate change is not the least of these concerns. The complexity of these issues is such that data and information management form an important means of making the right decisions. Nowadays, however, the sheer quantity of data is overwhelming; large quantities of data demand...

Is Higher Education Economically Unsustainable?: An Exploration of Factors that Undermine Sustainability Assessments of Higher Education

As students continue to review the sustainability of higher education institutions, there is a growing need to understand the economic returns of degrees as a function of a sustainable institution. This paper reviews a range of international research to summarize the economic drivers of higher education attainment. Although the cost inputs to...

Surface thermal analysis of North Brabant cities and neighbourhoods during heat waves

The urban heat island effect is often associated with large metropolises. However, in the Netherlands even small cities will be affected by the phenomenon in the future (Hove et al., 2011), due to the dispersed or mosaic urbanisation patterns in particularly the southern part of the country: the province of North Brabant. This study analyses the...

Sustainability in Higher Education: Analysis and Selection of Assessment Systems

There is a noticeable increase in interest with regards to sustainability in higher education. As institutions investigate, implement and market sustainability efforts, there is a myriad of sustainability assessment methodologies currently available. Although these assessment systems were created with the intention of helping sustainability in...

World Elephant Centre

In toenemende mate worden olifanten geconfronteerd met tal van bedreigingen, variërend van stroperij en illegale ivoorhandel tot het verlies van hun leefgebied. Om dit te veranderen moeten we de dieren niet alleen beschermen, maar ook met ze samenleven, door onze houding te veranderen via onderwijs en informatie. Het World Elephant Center in...