6th of March, in Ternto, the offical launch of GBC Italia Home, a step forward in the sustainability of residential buildings. We really hope it will become a tool for Municipalities to build ‘SMART’ building regulations, and for citizens who can finally measure the real sustainability of their propoerties. Take a look!
The 20th of January 2012. the Steering Committee (Council) of GBC Italia appointed three new members of the Executive Board. The function of the Executive Board is “to develop the plan of activities and the related budget in order to actuate the strategic plan decided by the steering committee” (statute art.18). President Mario Zoccatelli and Vice-President Marco Mari will therefore be supported by three other members of the Council: Francesco Bedeschi, Gianluca Padula and Mauro Roglieri.
Emissions Trading
‘Zero impact’ does not exist. Human activities have always had an impact on the environment, since they involve the consumption of resources and energy. Over the centuries, industrial and technological development have dramatically improved our living standard and guaranteed us health, well being, protection from extreme events, food supply and boundless mobility. At which price. Our impact on the environment and climate has increased more and more, reaching today a level which is not sustainable anymore for our planet.
Policy Development
Governments around the world agree that there is an urgent need of a change in this trend. Many policies have been developed at national, European or international level aiming at the broad adoption of best practices which make our activities more sustainable.
Change is not easy though, because it requires us to change our habits as producers and as consumers too. But we need to act, and we need to do it quickly.
Green Building Council (GBC) Italia, always engaged in actions to promote the consensus on green building issues, attended the workshop held in Brussels on January 9th, 2012 in the framework of the implementation activities of the European Directive on Energy Performance of Buildings (Directive 2010/31/EU, EPBD recast). The purpose of the workshop was the presentation by DG Energy to the business stakeholders of the progress in the definition of a “voluntary common EU certification scheme for energy performance of non-residential buildings”. Mauro Roglieri, member of the GBC Italia board, represented the interests and the contribution of the association.
The first short version (“for evaluation purposes”) of the new GBC Italy Home protocol, which contains the guidelines for “design, build and restore residential buildings”, is now available for download on GBC Italia web site.
In Italy, where it represents a primary asset for the population, as well as a real and symbolic value, a house can be considered a preferential place and tool to spread the culture of sustainability, with the direct application of concepts such as energy conservation, water management, quality of the indoor environment, healthiness, sustainable materials, comfort and connection with the territory.
After making a version of the 2009 New Construction and Renovations LEED Protocol for the national market, the undertaking of GBC Italia has been to produce a new tool addressed to the residential market.
On the basis of the American LEED ® for Homes Protocol, the document has been redrafted taking into consideration the Italian building peculiarities and construction models.
Info: www.gbcitalia.org
Copyright: GBC Italia
Bruxelles: “The EU Climate Policy Tracker (EU CPT – www.climatepolicytracker.eu) 2011, a newly updated and revised version of the 2010 study, reveals that despite improvements by nine Member States over the past year, some have achieved a worse score than last year.” “The average scoring remains low, warning that EU climate and energy policy is failing to put the EU on a course to 2050 decarbonisation.”
Published in September 2011, the Guidelines on Carbon Management for Italian Universities are one of the main results of a project funded by the Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea, as part of the Carbon Management Policy for the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.
The project idea is that higher education institutions can take a leader position in turning sustainability into action by stimulating sustainable processes, practices and behaviors to be applied both in their field and to the whole community.
An effective policy on carbon management within a college allows to reduce the emissions of a large real estate assets, to contract the energy consumption and costs, and thus to improve the economic balance of the universities, with the opportunity to invest differently any saving.
It also has a significant educational relapse on students, who can endorse the concepts related to energy and environmental sustainability at first by experiencing them directly during their university years, and then offering them in the professional roles they will play in companies or public bodies.
Through its previous experience in Thetis SpA, Mauro Roglieri, among the main authors of the paper, has contributed to the project ideation working in team with engineers of the Ministry for the Environment and Project Managers of the Ca’ Foscari University.
