Collective action within the pharmaceutical sector and lessons on taking effective climate action to reduce emissions: A case study on Johnson & Johnson

Situation<br/>The constant increase in global temperatures is becoming more and more concerning for the future of our planet. The health of the planet is crucial for our existence and for the health of humanity, which is why we need to maintain and care for our environment. The pharmaceutical sector contributes to a lot of greenhouse gas...

Carbon net-zero urban area developments in the Netherlands: A framework for developers to influence carbon offsets

To prevent global warming, CO2 emissions must be reduced by 95%. The <br/>building and construction industries account for over 15% of all direct CO2<br/>emissions. However, currently there are no regulations for carbon net-zero <br/>developments. Investors adhere to current sustainability requirements because<br/>there are many barriers develop...

Embodied carbon: the hidden challenge for real estate developers: Achieving net-zero carbon building ambitions by steering on including embodied carbon during the early design process

Purpose:<br/>Given the urgent need to decarbonize the building and construction industry to prevent a catastrophic climate breakdown. The United Nations has called for action from industry leaders to drastically decrease their carbon footprint, and bring it to zero by 2050 at the latest. Efforts to decrease operational carbon emissions...

Aan Tafel!: Redesigning North-West Europe's food system for zero-carbon food-print

North-western European countries play an important role in the global food system, by providing 80 percent of the whole European production. The current production system is focused on profit, has a yearly emission of 1250 megatons of CO₂ equivalent in North-western Europe and produces pollutants in the soil, water, and air. This results in an...

Barriers and opportunities for the deployment of CO₂ electrolysis in net-zero emissions energy systems

As energy systems across the globe transition toward net-zero emissions, the decarbonization of hard-to-decarbonize sectors, e.g., industry and transportation, is becoming more crucial. Renewable power-driven carbon dioxide (CO₂) electrolysis has the potential to facilitate this transition by (1) substituting carbon-intensive...

Circular economy implementation in railway systems beyond net zero

A comparative evaluation of the sustainability of alternative aeration strategies in biological wastewater treatment to support net-zero future

In the plight for sustainable development and to support net zero ambitions for climate change mitigation, a broad range of aeration strategies have been developed with the hope of improving efficiency to minimize environmental and economic costs associated with the wastewater treatment processes. However, a balance is levied between reducing...

Decarbonisation pathways for the cement industry

This thesis aims to develop an energy transition scenario for the cement industry using a simulation model that models energy flows to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. The model's decarbonisation pathways are constructed with assumptions about the country's socio-economic conditions, energy efficiency, fuel share, and technology share. The...

Architectural Photovoltaic Applications: Lessons Learnt and Perceptions from Architects

Researchers have reported that despite technological development in photovoltaic technology and substantial cost reduction, there is still a narrow interest in architectural photovoltaic applications (APA). Lack of interest is correlated to various bottlenecks, and one of them is a lack of knowledge among architects on the possibilities and...

Retrofit at scale: accelerating capabilities for domestic building stocks

Retrofitting domestic buildings is essential for meeting targets to mitigate the catastrophic impacts of our changing climate. Current rates of retrofitting are far lower than necessary for achieving global net zero climate targets. To date in privately owned homes, policymakers have largely relied on piecemeal activity and often short-lived...

Post-War Refurbishment: Making post-war era houses sustainable

The Netherlands faces climate change due to global warming and earthquakes due to gas production. To decrease both earthquakes and CO2 production, the government aims to half the gas production in the coming four years and aims for an entire stop by 2030. Over 80% of Dutch houses are heated with gas; 20% were built in the late post-war era (1960...

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...

Net-zero energy refurbishment with circular building materials at the TU Delft

The objective of this research is to decrease the energy and material consumption of TU Delft’s building stock, by providing the university with a refurbishment method. Refurbishments can have a large impact on the energy and material consumption of the Built Environment, as it focuses on the majority of the Built Environment. By designing net...

A Governance Perspective on Net Zero Energy Building Niche Development in India: The Case of New Delhi

The net zero-energy building (NZEB) concept has recently gained prominence worldwide. Large scale adoption and implementation of NZEBs would potentially contribute greatly to greening of the building sector. However, it is still at a nascent stage of niche formation. This paper aims to assess the governance context for adoption and uptake of...

The ENergy Roof

This report describes the development of the ENergy Roof: a new concept for the Nul-op-de-Meter (NoM) renovation of single family dwellings in the Netherlands. The ENergy Roof consists of innovative technology, namely a solar assisted heat pump (SAHP) connected to photovoltaic solar panels that operates as evaporator (PV-DX). Furthermore the...

The Value of Net Zero Energy Renovations

There are more and more smart technological solutions on the market for the Net Zero Energy Refurbishment of the current building stock. The Delft University of Technology developed a Net Zero Energy Renovation (NZER) concept as part of the Solar Decathlon Europe 2014 competition: Prêt-à-Loger. Many other NZER concepts are developed within...

Creating the Business Case for the Zero Energy Refurbishment of Commercial Buildings

Net zero energy is already an ambitious target for several buildings, especially since the DIRECTIVE 2010/31/EU that requires increasing the number of nearly zero-energy buildings. The existing commercial building stock needs to be included, in order to achieve the 2020 EU environmental targets. The main barriers of zero-energy refurbishment of...

Business case study for the zero energy refurbishment of commercial buildings

Net zero energy is already an ambitious target for several buildings, especially since the DIRECTIVE 2010/31/EU that requires increasing the number of nearly zero energy buildings. The existing commercial building stock needs to be included in order to achieve the 2020 EU environmental targets. The main barriers of zero energy refurbishment of...