/pdf/economics-of-natural-resources-and-the-environment-43k62iyyte.pdf

Economics of natural resources and the environment

Historically, management theory has ignored the constraints imposed by the biophysical (natural) environment. Building upon resource-based theory, this article attempts to fill this void by proposing a natural-resource-based view of the firm—a theory of competitive advantage based upon the firm's relationship to the natural environment. It is composed of three interconnected strategies: pollution prevention, product stewardship, and sustainable development. Propositions are advanced for each of these strategies regarding key resource requirements and their contributions to sustained competitive advantage.

A natural resource-based view of the firm

Green building is one of measures been put forward to mitigate significant impacts of the building stock on the environment, society and economy. However, there is lack of a systematic review of this large number of studies that is critical for the future endeavor. The last decades have witnessed rapid growing number of studies on green building. This paper reports a critical review of the existing body of knowledge of researches related to green building. The common research themes and methodology were identified. These common themes are the definition and scope of green building; quantification of benefits of green buildings compared to conventional buildings; and various approaches to achieve green buildings. It is found that the existing studies played predominately focus on the environmental aspect of green building. Other dimensions of sustainability of green building, especially the social sustainability is largely overlooked. Future research opportunities were identified such as effects of climatic conditions on the effectiveness of green building assessment tools, validation of real performance of green buildings, unique demands of specific population, and future proofing.

Green building research–current status and future agenda: A review

Strong spatial variation of rupture characteristics in the moment magnitude (Mw) 9.0 Tohoku-Oki megathrust earthquake controlled both the strength of shaking and the size of the tsunami that followed. Finite-source imaging reveals that the rupture consisted of a small initial phase, deep rupture for up to 40 seconds, extensive shallow rupture at 60 to 70 seconds, and continuing deep rupture lasting more than 100 seconds. A combination of a shallow dipping fault and a compliant hanging wall may have enabled large shallow slip near the trench. Normal faulting aftershocks in the area of high slip suggest dynamic overshoot on the fault. Despite prodigious total slip, shallower parts of the rupture weakly radiated at high frequencies, whereas deeper parts of the rupture radiated strongly at high frequencies.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/332/6036/1426.full.pdf

Shallow Dynamic Overshoot and Energetic Deep Rupture in the 2011 Mw 9.0 Tohoku-Oki Earthquake

１ Ｂａｓｉｃ ｎｅｐｈｒｏｌｏｇｙ（生理；免疫・病理；分子生物学；検査・診断） ２ Ｃｌｉｎｉｃａｌ ｎｅｐｈｒｏｌｏｇｙ（糸球体障害；尿細管・間質障害；全身性疾患と腎障害；水電解質異常；腎不全）

Annual review 腎臓

Architectural design is often associated with aesthetics and style, but it is also very important to building performance and sustainability. There are some studies associating architectural design to the choice for materials from sustainable sources, to indoor air quality, to energy efficiency and productivity. This article takes a step further to analyse how the use of efficient interior design techniques can impact the habitable space in order to improve building sustainability in land use. Smart interior design, a current trend related to the use of efficient and flexible furniture and movable walls in tiny or compact apartments, is analysed. A building with a standard design is used as a case study reference building and compared to a proposed theoretical design alternative using smart interior design techniques. In order to correctly assess sustainability performance, a quantifiable and verified method is used. Results showed that the use of smart interior design techniques can greatly reduc...

/pdf/smart-interior-design-of-buildings-and-its-relationship-to-yk7cnfvp07.pdf

Smart interior design of buildings and its relationship to land use

EDER funds through the Competitivity and Inter-nationalization Operational Programme (POCI) and by national funds through FCT–Foundation for Science and Technologywithin the scope of the project with the reference POCI-01-0145-FEDER-029328, and of the PhD grant with the reference PD/BD/113641/2015, that were fundamental for the development of this study. The authors also wish to thank the construction companyfor providing the life cycle inventory data and supporting this research work

/pdf/environmental-life-cycle-analysis-of-earthen-building-2nikq0l1lu.pdf

Environmental life cycle analysis of earthen building materials

Globalmente, a construção de edifícios é responsável pelo consumo de 40% dos recursos minerais (pedra, brita, areia, etc.), 25% da madeira, 40% da energia e 16% da água consumidos anualmente (Roodman, 1995). Em Portugal, apesar de existirem enviezamentos significativos entre os dados estatísticos e a realidade, estima-se que os edifícios (habitação e serviços) durante a fase de utilização são responsáveis pelo consumo de cerca de 20% dos recursos energéticos nacionais, 6,7% do consumo de água e pela produção anual de 420 milhões de metros cúbicos de águas residuais (DGE, 2000 e INE, 2002). De acordo com o Instituto Nacional de Estatística, a indústria da construção é responsável pela produção anual de cerca de 7,5 milhões de toneladas de resíduos sólidos. Esta realidade traduz-se em significativos impactes ambientais, sociais e económicos, com grande potencialidade de virem a ser diminuídos.

https://repositorium.sdum.uminho.pt/bitstream/1822/7333/1/Avalia%c3%a7%c3%a3o%20da%20Sustentabilidade%20da%20Constru%c3%a7%c3%a3o_Desenvolvimento%20de%20uma%20Metodologia%20para%20a%20Avalia%c3%a7%c3%a3o%20da%20Sustentabilidade%20de%20Solu%c3%a7%c3%b5es%20Construtivas.pdf

Avaliação da sustentabilidade da construção: desenvolvimento de uma metodologia para a avaliação a sustentabilidade de soluções construtivas

The few available sustainability assessment tools applicable in Portugal are oriented for residential buildings. Nevertheless, the impacts of office buildings have been rising mainly due to an increase in the energy consumption for cooling and heating. This way, due to the growing environmental impact of office buildings, the development of Building Sustainability Assessment (BSA) tools to assess the sustainability of this type of buildings is necessary and important to guide and to boost the construction sector towards sustainable development. The main objective of this work was to develop a sustainability assessment tool aimed at office buildings based in SBToolPT-H. The work includes the definition of the tool's framework and assessment method, as well as the Portuguese benchmarks and weighting system used in the aggregation. In order to promote the practical use of this tool, an evaluation guide was also developed in which there is detailed information about calculation methods and aggregation models....

Adaptation of SBToolPT to office buildings

https://repositorium.sdum.uminho.pt/bitstream/1822/8023/2/C25%20-%20assessement%20of%20building.pdf

Ricardo Mateus

Papers

Smart interior design of buildings and its relationship to land use

Environmental life cycle analysis of earthen building materials

Avaliação da sustentabilidade da construção: desenvolvimento de uma metodologia para a avaliação a sustentabilidade de soluções construtivas

Adaptation of SBToolPT to office buildings

Assessment of building sustainability