Sustainable housing - strategies for existing and new buildings based on 25 years of experiences and visions from

Denmark 

Associate Professor and Science Shop co-ordinator Michael Søgaard Jørgensen

Department of Management EngineeringTechnical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark

E-mail: msj@man.dtu.dk

Overview  of presentation

• Historical overview of Danish strategies for reduction of climate impact from housing

• Renovation of existing houses• New sustainable housing projects• Local climate co-operation involving DTU, local city and local NGO

Approaches to sustainable housing in Denmark during the last 35 years 

• Green buildings as energy-saving devices as a strategy after the oil crisis in 1973 – Technologies and regulation supporting the implementation

• Ecological alternatives, often as new rural settlements, emerging from the grassroots – A radical critique of the modern society

• Subsidized large-scale urban projects as a public drive towards green buildings following the Brundtland report– Projects under the Danish Urban Renewal Act

• Green buildings in a market approach, where green labels recently have been developed – Development of sustainable buildings as individual consumer products 

Not based on public subsidies

Next step:Planned, substantial efforts

• Climate plan from Danish Society of Engineers• 2050: 94% reduction of climate impact. 50% reduction of energy consumption

• Combination of renewable energy, energy savings and changes in ways of meeting needs

• Existing buildings:– 60% reduction of energy for heating and water– 50% reduction of electricity consumption

• New houses as active houses: energy neutral on annual base

Energy use within EU

• 33% of all energy in EU is used for transport

• 26% of all energy in EU is used by industry

• 41% of all energy in EU is used by buildings– 66% is used for heating and cooling.– 80% of energy consumption is used in small buildings < 1000 m2

Kilde: J. S. Møller, DTU Byg, 2008 

Important definitions and concepts for buildings and energy (1)

• Climate shell• Activities i building (persons, equipment)• Infrastructure (energy, water, waste, transport etc.)

Important definitions and concepts for buildings and energy (2)

• New visions for buildings as energy producing, energy storing and energy consuming

• Distributed energy production from solar energy (’active houses’)

• Energy savings from reducing energy consumption, including the need for cooling

• Planning the energy consumption to the production and consumption of others (’smart grid’)

• Energy storage of energy from renewable energy e.g. batteries in electrical cars

The Co-operative Community in Hjortshøj8 groups of houses established or planned since beginning 1990s

Mixture of forms of ownership (private, co-operative renting)

Include community houses and local workplaces

Long phase of gaining building permits and construction planning.  

Group 2: • All the houses incorporate passive solar heating by having en enclosed glass room in connection with the rest of the house. • The outer walls are covered with red cedar and insulated with granulated paper • Common walls between the houses are made up of compressed clay bricks from a mixture of the clay dug up from the surrounding area. • A large wood chip furnace supplies central heating. 

During the 1990s:A few demonstration projects in Copenhagen with  combination of quality and environmental refurbishment

Financed by urban renewal funds

Hestestaldskarreen in the Western part of the city center

15 different houses with their own resident boardDeveloped project to gether with municipal adviserPlan. Not all was implemented

Solar cells on some of the walls. Covering a small part of the energy consumption: for the common lighting in the court yard and for the regulation and pumps in the energy and water system

Constructing the joint rain water collection tanks. Used for flushing the toilets. Not all houses use the system

Common technical system for regulating heat and water

Next step:Planned, substantial efforts

• Climate plan from Danish Society of Engineers• 2050: 94% reduction of climate impact. 50% reduction of energy consumption

• Combination of renewable energy, energy savings and changes in ways of meeting needs

• Existing buildings:– 60% reduction of energy for heating and water– 50% reduction of electricity consumption

• New houses as active houses: energy neutral on annual base

Refurbishment of one-family house from 1970s:Insulation of facade, foundation and loftRenovation of part of the roofRenovation and change of windows and external doorsChange of gas boilerInstalling ventilation system (with re-use of energy!?)

No results yet, but investments are substantial

Need to be combined with (planned) renovation

Thermography – a new tool in the identification of energy renovation needs

Building component companies engage in experiments:looking for new market opportunities

Older houses – also a challenge:• Quality different: good or bad

• May have aesthetical values that need to be protected

Integration of renewable energy in buildings

Thermal solar energy for heating:50% on houses

50% on heat and power plant buildings

Need for tailor-made energy renovation concepts:Energy refurbishment of private semi-detached

houses

Energy renovation concepts need to fit to the technical and social aspects of the buildings and their infrastructure

Private owned, old row houses - a social and technical challenge

• Not much space => outdoor changes best• Aesthetically protected• The municipal administration allows only outdoor 

changes made collectively, but houses are private owned

• Co-operation between municipal administration, local house owners’ association, researcher, energy company 

• => concepts for cheaper joint refurbishment => too expensive proposals  => joint case project stopped => experiences important

Co-operative housing: Also a challengeLimits to rent. Residential democracy. Lack of funding

Kirsten Gram-Hanssen, SBI- AaU

Big differences in energy consumption in same type of houses

Electricity:The bigger household – the higher total consumptionBut lower consumption per personBig differences: - Those that like to save- Those that like to consume

Heating:Type of house importantUser habits importantYoung and elderly persons use the most

Research on new sustainable housing projects

• A number of new sustainable housing projects– Although the existing buildings are more important…

• What type of actors are initiating this kind of housing projects and why?

• What type of actors and entities are involved in the planning of the houses – Interactions taking place?– New or existing relations? 

• What role has standards played in the planning of the houses? 

• What issues in relation to resource consumption and environmental impact have been addressed? What strategies were developed for these issues? 

Different initiators to new sustainable housing projects:

• Municipal administrative staff in order to influence future construction of houses in the local area

• Local green intermediary in order to make sustainable houses which may attract ordinary citizens

• Building component company in order to initiate development of new building concepts

• Co-operative housing association to support development of more sustainable housing concepts

One of the types of eco-labelled houses

The area where the houses are built or planned  to be built

Website organised by the local Agenda21 center which initiated the project

Enrolling actors in housing projects

• Enrolling politicians• Enrolling construction companies• Enrolling citizens• Shaped by other agendas:– Attraction of strong citizens to local area– Demand and supply within the housing market

The role of standards, concepts etc.

• The new Danish construction guidelines for new houses with stronger demands for the energy consumption and efficiency 

• The new Nordic eco-labeling guidelines for family houses 

• Local guidelines for housing projects • Internal company standards for houses: focus on existing suppliers => maybe new solutions

• The passive house concept (‘active house’)

Sustainability focus

• Mainly energy focus• Some focus on building materials and their environmental and health impacts (PVC etc.)

Type of innovation

• Sticking to existing concept that is modified as little as possible 

• Enrolling foreign architect in order to get beyond ’the too traditional Danish architects’

• Need for more research in the mechanisms of innovation and diffusion

What environmental advantages are achieved?

• Achieving the predicted low energy consumption was difficult in a project

• Another project showed attempts from the construction company to ensure the predicted low energy consumption– Providing instructions for use and maintenance

• Need for more detailed studies of the citizens’ actual domestication of new sustainable houses– Design-in-use– Description of the developed script for a housing

project

Participants in local climate co-operation

• Local municipal administration where university is located

• Local branch of national environmental NGO• The Science Shop at the university• Employees and managers in municipal administration and service

• Citizens• Students• Researchers at university

Focus of the co-operation

• The municipal administration as entity– Food and transportation

• The municipality as geographic area => including the activities of the citizens and businesses– Housing and businesses

CO2 pyramid for food ingredient choice

Lavet af: Philip Giødesen Lund og Lars Krogsgaard Madsen  i samarbejde med Videnskabsbutikken, DTU

Food items

Assessing 10 recipes for heart healthy menus: often also climate friendly

Projekt lavet af Kenneth Barnett, Derek Eggiman, Jesse Sawyer, WPI på DTU

Local businesses’ climate impact

• Life cycle activities (materials and products) or local activities (energy consumption)

• Survey of knowledge resources• Survey of practice and interest in networking among different types of businesses

• Civil society up til now only involved via the co-ordination group

The (urban) company in context: Four types of corporate network relations

Local network 1: Workforce, supply, local regulation etc.

Supplier A Supplier B Customer1

Regulatory network X: Government, civil society organization etc.

Regulatory network 1: Government, civil society organization etc.

Local network X: Workforce, supply, local regulation etc.

Company

Developmental network: Here also involving supplier and customer

Final user

Product chain:The daily flows of information, capital and material resources

In the city

Maybe also in the city

Mapping municipal staff’s transportation habits

• On-line questionnaire to staff in municipal administration about transportation to and from work

• No dialogue with staff so far

Civil society protests against the big consumption of coal used for energy in Denmark. Windturbines cover only around 20% of the electricity production

Phasing in renewable energy means phasing out non-renewable energy

Smart grid – a new buzz word within energy production and consumption