Green Panels added to test location

Today the Green Panels were added to the fake roof. The green panels are long trenches with 6 cm depth and sedum vegetation, and are compared to a fake roof without green panels. 

The slope is about 45 degrees, and the angle towards the sun is mostly SE 141 degrees. The tested materials as substrate are rock wool, recycled fabric, a combination of rock wool and recycled fabric, and regular soil as a reference. This leads to 5 different test locations: the first four are tested in the trays on the left hand side, and the last being the control area on the right hand side.

Making a roof on a roof

Today was the start of construction for our first Green Panel performance test. During this phase the fake roof (sloped) was made on top of the existing roof (flat) of our engineering technology faculty of University Twente, on the Horst building.

The fake roof is angled towards the SE where we expect to get the most sunlight, and sloped at and angle of 45 degrees. Additional wood was needed to ensure sufficient support for the sloped angle of the setup, which we obtained from the building's waste center to recycle. This week the roof tiles are added along with solar panel guiding rails. Next week it's time to fit the Green Panels on top and place sensors.

World Environment Day

Today is World Environment Day. This year the goal is 'Beat Plastic Pollution'. How can we apply this in our research project? We follow these steps, based on this publication on 'Solving confusion around new conceptions of circularity by synthesising and re-organising the 3R's concept into a 10R hierarchy'.

The 10R hierarchy: R0 = Refuse R1 = Reduce R2 = Resell, Reuse R3 = Repair R4 = Refurbish R5 = Remanufacture R6 = Re-purpose R7 = Recycle materials R8 = Recover energy R9 = Re-mine

0. Refuse. Avoid using plastics. What you don't use, won't pollute.

1. Reduce. We assess whether we really need to purchase/use plastics in every material involved, and ask producers to not use additional plastic packaging before sending products if possible.

2. Resell, reuse. Starting from applying reused or second hand products, the materials used during the project, once they reach their end of life, might be resold.   

3. Repair. Nothing is broken yet but the intention is to not by new if a product fails during its lifetime, but to repair it where possible. This extends the life of used plastics.

4. Refurbish. After the project finishes, if someone else can use the materials, sensors, or green infrastructure for another purpose, this should be made possible. 

5. Re-manufacture. Similar to above.

6. Re-purpose. Similar to above.

7. Recycle materials. When plastic cannot be safely reused or repurposed, it is recycled in the correct waste stream. University Twente has separate trash cans for smaller plastics for this purpose, all over campus.

8. Recover energy. This is part of the municipality Enschede's waste management scheme.

9. Re-mine. This concerns landfills and is also beyond the scope of this project, but part of waste treatment. 

 

Bonus: Help solve the problems already caused. During the well-being weeks, you can sign up for a lunch walk (free lunch!) and help to pick garbage during the walk. See the link below to sign up.

TUE - Lunchwalk "Care for the environment"

Date: 27 June 2023 
Time: Start between 12:00 and 12:30  
Location: Start HEAD 

During these Well-Being Weeks, every lunch walk has its own theme! The last lunch walk has the theme “Care for the environment”. Since the theme of these well-being weeks is “Together we care” we would like to encourage you to talk about your opinion regarding different topics. In the previous Lunch walks, you were able to reflect on your own well-being and that of others. This time, it is possible to do something about the well-being of the environment. At the start of the lunch walk, you will receive a garbage bag and garbage picker to collect garbage during your walk and clean the environment. At the end of the walk, there will be a lunch waiting for you!

Visit to Groendak

Today a group of students working on the Green Panels and myself visited Groendak.nl in Scherpenzeel. We received a lot of detailed information about the materials applied in different types of green roofs, which can be used for developing our prototypes and for considerations of the entire life cycle. 

Flat roof, from top to bottom:

• Local vegetation - Heath, Dune grass, Peat grass. Sedum also possible.
• Soil - Potting soil (Netherlands)
  
• Substrate - Lava rocks, aerated by holes so water can pass through and nutrition is caught (Germany, Eiffel area)
  
• Filtration layer - Filtration fleece, water can pass but particles are caught (Belgium)
  
• Drainage layer - plastic, water can go underneath or stored inside meaning plants are irrigated for 6 to 8 weeks (Germany)
  
• Protective layer - Fleece (Belgium)
• Roof
• The net for edges to prevent wind blowing the layers off the roof is made from recycled plastic (Netherlands)

These materials work well in all climates. The plant species will not perform well in all climates. We also received information for sloped roofs and green tiles, and performance measurements, which I will save for a later post.