Radon: Facts, Exposure and Effects
- Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive element
- Radon is heavier and denser than air so often accumulates in basements.
- Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer after smoking.
Infrastructure Resources
Urban Design for Planners
Courses from Planetizen that teach you "urban design plans, models and graphics using GIS, SketchUp, and graphics editing software"
How to improve infrastructure project selection
A report from the Economic Policy Institute that outlines the problems with popular methods of infrastructure planning and proposes more efficient, cost effective and environmentally sustainable methods.
Delivering on sustainable infrastructure for better development and better climate
A report from the Brookings Institute which presents ways to build and plan resilient and sustainable infrastructure.
Case Studies in Sustainable Infrastructure
Examples of sustainable infrastructure projects from all across Canada.
Courses For Architects and Planners
Planetizen Learning Paths
Courses for anyone interested in the built environment. They include learning technical skills, planning ideas, design, and climate change issues.
Ecodesign for Cities and Suburbs
An online course by UBC where you can "learn how ecology can guide urban design to avert environmental disasters and improve people’s lives."
Green Building and Community Sustainability Certificate
Harvard extension school's certificate program which can be completed online.
Reducing the Environmental Impact of Concrete
USGBC course which "covers reducing the environmental impact of concrete by implementing recommended stategies including replacing cement with supplemenatry cementitious material."
Architects & Firms Working for a Better World
Whether you want to learn from their example, connect with them or work with them you have a wealth of places to look at as an architect who wants to make the world a better place
The Top 50 Firms in Business, Sustainability, and Design 2017- The Journal of the American Institute of Architects
Top 100 Green Building Contractors and Design Firms 2017 - Engineering News-Record
Top 15 Sustainable Architecture Firms 2015 - National Council of Architectural Registration Boards
Humanitarian Architecture: The Top 21 Architects, Websites and Resources - Build Abroad
Courses with the UK Green Building Council
Get your skills up to date with courses provided by the UKGBC who are leaders in the field of green architecture and buildings.
Videos: Planning Parks
Need some inspiration?
Sit back and watch these lectures, talks and short films about sustainable park design and public space.
Those of you interested in parks and public space will want to watch this.
This is a fascinating project to revive and save forest and waterways and reintroducing and protecting wildlife.
Interesting examples of public spaces activated not just by the designers of the space but by the users.
Videos: Architecture & Social Impact
Cities Fighting Climate Change
Cities worldwide have taken the initiative to create programmes and plans to tackle the very serious threat of climate change. Here are some examples that other city planners, activists and leaders can learn from:
Aligning New York City with The Paris Climate Agreement
"This plan is the rst of its kind and lays out the pace, scale, and impact of the work we must do by 2020 to achieve this goal. It also commits us to work with other cities to develop a protocol to reduce our carbon footprint to zero" Mayor Bill de Blasio
Los Angeles - The Sustainable City pLAn
"The Sustainable City pLAn is a roadmap for a Los Angeles that is environmentally healthy, economically prosperous, and equitable in opportunity for all – now and over the next 20 years." - The pLAn
Paris Climate Action Plan
"The aim is to act rather than passively endure climate change, to obtain a better knowledge and understanding of the challenges in order to strengthen the resilience of the Parisian territory" - Climate Action Plan
Copenhagen Climate Adaptation Plan
"There is a need for extensive investments and thorough planning to meet the challenges that the changes in the climate pose for Copenhagen. But by acting at the right time we can minimise ex- penditure on preventing and rectifying damage, and climate adaptation may help to create green growth for Copenhagen" - Copenhagen Climate Adaptation Plan
Mexico City Climate Action Program
"Mexico City has assumed a forefront and leadership position on a national and global level in the design of tools and instruments focused on tackling the climate change challenge and reducing the social, environmental and economic risks" - Dr. Miguel A. Mancera Espinosa Head of Government of Mexico City
Further Resources For Cities
C40 Cities: Global Action Data
"C40 maintains a database of nearly 10,000 unique city climate actions spread across 11 city sectors, with approximately 3,000 actions reported in 2015 alone. The Global Action Data portal allows access to this data like never before" - C40
Deadline 2020
"The ambition of the Paris Agreement and of Deadline 2020 is to limit warming to 1.5 degrees, but the risk of further increases in temperature remains signi cant. Unless preventative action is taken, climate change-related natural disasters have been estimated to put at risk 1.3 billion people by 2050 and assets worth $158 trillion – double the total annual output of the global economy."- C40
Megacities Project
"The Megacities Carbon Project will develop and test methods for monitoring the greenhouse gas emissions of the largest human contributors to climate change: cities and their power plants"
- NASA/JPL
NAZCA - Non-State Actor Zone for Climate Action
"NAZCA aims to track the mobilization and action that are helping countries achieve and exceed their national commitments to address climate change" - UNFCCC
Covenant of Mayors for Climate Energy
"Heralded as the “world’s biggest urban climate and energy initiative” by Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete, the Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy brings together thousands of local and regional authorities voluntarily committed to implementing EU climate and energy objectives on their territory." - Covenant of Mayors for Climate Energy
12 major cities sign declaration to promote clean transit
"By pledging zero-emissions vehicles and more clean transit, participating cities will not only reduce GHG emissions, but could also make cities more physically attractive"
Articles: Construction & Building Emissions
Here are some articles on construction and its relationship to emissions. How bad is it and what is being done to mitigate the problems? Start your exploration here and maybe begin to improve and innovate where you are.
Construction sector views on low carbon building materials
Why it's important:
"The principal objective of this study was to understand the economic, technical, practical and cultural barriers preventing construction professionals from selecting a variety of materials commonly identified as being lower in embodied carbon. It also sought to understand the role for regulation, professional institutions and advocacy groups in overcoming these barriers."
Operational vs. embodied emissions in buildings—A review of current trends
Why it is important:
"studies have revealed the growing significance of embodied emissions in buildings but its importance is often underestimated in lifecycle emissions analysis"
Building governance and climate change: roles for regulation and related polices
Why it is important:
"With buildings lasting between 50 and 300 years, they have to respond to current and future needs. Effective governance of the building stock needs to account for change over time and incorporate future scenarios into the requirements for today’s buildings"
Alternative building emission-reduction measure: outcomes from the Tokyo Cap-and-Trade Program
Why it is important:
"the Tokyo Cap-and-Trade Program (TCTP), implemented since 2010, is an important measure to accelerate the building sector’s emission reduction to achieve Tokyo’s greenhouse gas target, 25% reduction by 2020 from a year 2000 baseline level"
Climate policies for buildings
Why it is important:
"A fundamental question is whether there is sufficient ‘policy literacy’ within the built environment community to convincingly engage with policy-makers and policy formulation to play an active role in generating, explaining and evaluating policy options"
Too Few Cities Are Developing Effective Strategies To Protect Their Residents From Climate Change
Why it is important:
" cities are falling short in two areas: preparing for the likely impacts of climate change and cutting their own greenhouse gas emissions by reducing fossil fuel use"
Paper: Transforming building regulatory systems to address climate change
Transforming building regulatory systems to address climate change
by David A. Eisenberg in Building Research & Information - Volume 44, 2016 - Issue 5-6: Building governance and climate change: regulation and related policies - Pages 468-473 | Published online: 28 Jan 2016
Excerpt:
"An examination of the regulatory challenges inherent in addressing climate change will reveal the need to rethink the goals and mechanisms of regulatory response and responsibility. The reality that hazards of significant scope and seriousness can escape regulatory attention and response for so long raises the question of why this occurs" Keep Reading