/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

Financiamento atribuido pela
Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia e o programa POPH/
FSE com a referencia SFRH/BD/77959/2011

/pdf/estrategia-para-a-incorporacao-de-impactes-ambientais-180c2ge2k3.pdf

Estratégia para a incorporação de impactes ambientais, sociais e económicos específicos num método de Avaliação da Sustentabilidade de Edifícios de Saúde (HBSA method)

The building sector plays a significant role in reducing global energy use and carbon emissions. In the European Union (EU), the building stock represents 40% of total energy use and in which cooling and heating systems represent over 50%. Portugal is one of the EU countries where the consequences of energy poverty are most evident due to the families' financial inability to adequately climate their homes. The reasons are several, but they are mainly linked to buildings' poor passive thermal performance, resulting from inadequate adaptation to the climatic context and reduced thermal insulation. Thus, it is necessary to develop solutions to increase buildings’ thermal performance and reduce their potential environmental impact, which arises mainly from the significant use of active systems. In this sense, natural building materials are a promising solution, reducing energy use and carbon emissions related to buildings. This research studies the potential use of reed found in Portugal ( Arundo d onax ) as a thermal insulation material. Its physical characterisation and the influence of geometry configuration on its thermal performance are evaluated. Its durability was studied too. Reed stalks were used to carry out the physical and durability tests. A reed board (150 x 150 mm) was built, and its thermal performance was tested in a hotbox. According to the results, the characteristics of reeds found in Portugal make it suitable to be used as a building material. Furthermore, regardless of the configuration studied, the reeds have a satisfactory thermal performance to be used as thermal insulation, under the requirements defined by Portuguese thermal regulation, Re ≥ 0.30 (m 2 .oC)/W. There is a trend to the mould growth in the reed, but only under favourable conditions. Additionally, considering the abundance of reed throughout the Portuguese territory, this is an eco-friendly and low-cost option that gathers all requirements to be more used in the construction market. 

/pdf/reed-as-a-thermal-insulation-material-experimental-272so031.pdf

Reed as a Thermal Insulation Material: Experimental Characterisation of the Physical and Thermal Properties

Resumo. A industria de construcao tem como principal objetivo a concepcao de um produto que satisfaca a funcionalidade para a qual foi projetado, que se revele economicamente viavel, que contenha as condicoes de seguranca desejadas e que possua as caracteristicas de durabilidade fundamentais para a reducao da sua deterioracao ao longo do seu ciclo de vida. Tendo em atencao o conceito de desenvolvimento sustentavel, o produto final desta industria deve ainda ser compativel com a sua envolvente e traduzir-se no menor impacte ambiental possivel. Todos estes principios e pressupostos traduzem-se no conceito de construcao sustentavel, o qual comporta uma panoplia de intervenientes multidisciplinares. Conjugando esta preocupacao com a questao da humanizacao dos hospitais, que tem vindo a ser constantemente estudada por varios autores, surge a importância de se compreender o que e um edificio hospitalar sustentavel, quais sao as melhores praticas sustentaveis de projeto e qual a melhor forma de se garantir a sua aplicacao.

https://repositorium.sdum.uminho.pt/bitstream/1822/22212/1/CC2012_Castro_Mateus_Braganca.pdf

Indicadores de sustentabilidade no projeto de edifícios hospitalares

The design of a hospital environment involves many concerns related to the satisfaction and wellbeing of the medical personnel, patients, and administrators, and at the same time requires strong social responsibility and has a high impact on a city. Currently, it seems that the majority of this type of building is not designed or used in a sustainable way, although some tools have already been developed to support decision-making to optimize building sustainability. Based on this context, the aim of this article is to discuss the barriers to the dissemination of sustainable practices in healthcare buildings, and to propose the structure of a methodology that facilitates the incorporation of sustainability principles during the different life-cycle stages of a hospital building while overcoming some of the identified barriers. The structure presented is oriented to the Portuguese context and is based on the work done to date by the ISO and CEN organizations and other international sustainability assessment schemes already available on the market.

Estratégia para a incorporação de impactes ambientais, sociais e económicos específicos num método de avaliação da sustentabilidade de edifícios de saúde (hbsa method) a strategy for the incorporation of specific environmental, social and economic impacts into a healthcare building sustainability assessment (hbsa)

As it has been observed along the years, the unsustainability of the built environment is due to the high resources consumption and low indoor air quality of the existing building stock. In order to support the sustainable refurbishment design of buildings, and to meet European goal to achieve nearly zero-energy consumption standards in buildings in 2020, it is urgent to define guidelines that can be implemented since the earlier stages of the design. This paper defines guidelines to optimize the sustainability of a residential building and presents the process of sustainable building refurbishment, applied to a case study. To achieve this goal, the definition and evaluation of a group of procedures to be implemented, and a cost-benefit analysis applied to a case study was performed.

https://repositorium.sdum.uminho.pt/bitstream/1822/32265/1/2026-MCRS_IMateus_RMateus_SMSilva.pdf

Ricardo Mateus

Papers

Estratégia para a incorporação de impactes ambientais, sociais e económicos específicos num método de Avaliação da Sustentabilidade de Edifícios de Saúde (HBSA method)

Reed as a Thermal Insulation Material: Experimental Characterisation of the Physical and Thermal Properties

Indicadores de sustentabilidade no projeto de edifícios hospitalares

Optimization of the sustainability during the refurbishment design phase of a residential building using SBToolpt-H