Example of GI - schoolyard wadi

This is a photo of a schoolyard wadi in action at the elementary school De Saller in Losser. Normally this area is empty of water and there is an old tree trunk at the bottom for children to play with. Many schools have used subsidies from the province to reconstruct their schoolyards in a similar manner. Aside from flood preventation and somewhat of a water storage against droughts, the wadi gives children the chance to experience and learn about climate adaptation measures up close. The ecosystem benefits might be less compared to the benefits to humans due to the temporary water storage, but birds and insects can still enjoy the water once the children have gone home. 

European week for waste reduction

This entire week from 16-24 November it is the European week for waste reduction, which also has a Dutch website.The aim is to encourage all Europeans make others aware of renewable sources and recycling options. 

While the one entry listed for the Netherlands is a clothing swap in The Hague, our own campus also regularly has clothing swaps, the latest during the sustainability week. 

As for awareness, I still think the best publication with options along the entire supply chain was: Circular Economy 3.0 - Solving confusion around new conceptions of circularity by synthesising and re-organising the 3R's concept into a 10R hierarchy.This shows the following ten options, and the first 4 (R0-R3) and R7 are specifically for consumers to consider, and can really help with rethinking choices for circularity in our own lives.

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

 

Article on environmental migrants in coastal Bangladesh published

The journal Habitat International has published an article I co-authored with my colleague Md. Nasif Ahsan and other co-authors, titled: ‘Displaced by nature, driven by choice: Exploring the factors influencing environmental migrants' habitat preferences in coastal Bangladesh'.

You can access it for free until December 20 2024 here:https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1k0wSiuWnJ3Lj 

The abstract reads as follows: 

"This study examines the factors influencing environmental migrants’ habitat preferences in southwestern Bangladesh. Using a multi-stage sampling technique, we selected 408 households in rural and urban areas, who had moved to their current locations due to climatic extremes. We applied relevant regression models to analyze the complex interplay of socioeconomic, environmental, and institutional factors shaping migration decisions. Our empirical results suggest that, despite having greater access to services in cities, migrants reported lower levels of well-being than their rural counterparts, which could be attributed to reduced social cohesion and limited opportunities for participation in decision-making. Disaster preparedness, early warning access, and prolonged exposure to environmental hazards significantly influence migration decisions and well-being. Protracted post-disaster suffering increases the likelihood of migration to urban slums, emphasizing the vulnerability of rural populations. Men are more likely than women to migrate to urban areas, possibly due to perceived employment opportunities. Surprisingly, while slum dwellers have better service access, their well-being scores are lower than rural residents. Access to education, healthcare, safe drinking water, and early warning systems are all crucial determinants of well-being. Policy recommendations include improving disaster preparedness and early warning systems in rural areas, developing targeted interventions for urban slum migrants focused on social cohesion and income diversification, and implementing gender-specific support programs. This research contributes to understanding environmental migration dynamics in Bangladesh and informs policymakers about sustainable resettlement strategies. Future studies should explore non-linear relationships and expand to diverse geographical contexts."

National energy week

The week of 14 to 20 October is national energy week in the Netherlands. This is aimed at government and business stakeholders and has 4 different trade shows throughout the country on the topic, and promotes the energy transition. 

Our Dutch climate agreement has as aim to cut CO2 emissions in half by 2030 (compared to 1990) by 5 goals:

• Built environment: by 2050 7 million houses and 1 million buildings should be disconnected from gas
• Mobility (traffic and transport): by 2050 there are no emissions
• Industry: circular by 2050 and close to no GHG
• Agriculture and land use: climate neutral by 2050
• Electricity: by 2030 all electricity comes from renewable sources

A lot of this agreement focuses on energy related technologies. But there are still technologies costing energy that we don't think about too much in our daily lives. Starting from using less, here are some things we could consider.

Email and attachments: 20 mails a day (no attachments) is the equivalent of driving 1000 km a year. The mails are stored on a server and only if you delete them from your trash, will they stop costing server space and thereby energy (and water for cooling). A 1MB attachment in an email supposedly costs 15g CO2 emissions. So it is better to send a link to a shared file than the attachment itself. As example, if you would send 25 MB per week, you could save over 19 kg.

Email signatures: "An average email signature that features a profile picture and company logo" could be 0.08 MB, which doesn't seem a lot. Depending on how many mails you send, it could add up quickly. According to this link it could become e.g. 10 emails per day * 1.2 grams CO2 * 255 working days = over 3 kg of CO2 emissions. So it is good to reconsider if you need to send the company logo to everyone you mail, or any other text/links in every mail. Does the recipient already know you? Best leave it out.

Saving files on a drive/dropbbox/other online server/cloud: Again, the data centers require energy and water to maintain access to your files. The larger the files, the more resources required. While it is not much, cumulative it becomes a lot and it is good practice to remove files you no longer need, also for security reasons. In 2021 3.7 TWh electricity was provided to data centers, 3.3% of total Dutch electricity use. 

According to milieucentraal an average Dutch household emits 18,500 kg CO2 per year. Yes, it is not much to save around 1/1000th of your annual emissions, or 1/500th, assuming there are 2 people in the household that might reduce these emissions. But times all households in the Netherlands, this becomes a much larger share once more. As these are mostly automated steps that cost little time to set up or adjust, it is an easy change to implement, and all small bits help.

new project to compare the performance of solar panels with and without green roofs

This is a translation of the summary of our proposal to study the performance of solar panels with and without green roofs. It is a project initiated by VU Amsterdam and conducted at the TU Delft Green Village and involved 4 small/medium enterprises as implementation partners. 

The Netherlands has more and more roofs. Those roofs get hot, which causes energy consumption and heat stress. But roofs also offer enormous opportunities, for example for generating renewable energy, and biodiversity. In this project we lay the building blocks for market creation for, and transition to, integrally sustainable roofs. We focus on integral sustainable roofs with indigenous (rather than non-indigenous) greenery (planting), in combination with circular solar panels. We focus on native greenery because it requires less maintenance, water, and fertilization, and because it increases biodiversity. We focus on circular solar panels because they are easier to reuse, and therefore create less waste. This project consists of three activities: measurement, collaboration, and knowledge dissemination. These activities lead to knowledge, partnerships, and shared support, three building blocks for market creation for, and a transition to, integrally sustainable roofs. We measure whether a native green roof cools the solar panels, the roof, and the building in the summer, and keeps the roof and building warm in the winter. 

We also measure the yield of solar panels on a green roof, and whether it is greater (due to cooling) than the yield of solar panels on a black roof (without greenery). In collaboration with various practical partners and knowledge institutions, we explore the financial feasibility and scalability of integrally sustainable roofs, gather what needs there are in education, and see what knowledge and skills for integrally sustainable roofs are lacking. We disseminate this knowledge to education, research and practice. The insights are translated into three educational modules (business administration, policy, built environment) and one educational method (nature-inclusive education). The knowledge questions serve as the basis for new practice-based research that uses citizen science. We share the results with practical organizations that can stimulate an integrally sustainable roof market, such as governments, project developers and building owners. This way we create a shared support for an integrally sustainable roof landscape.

SDG action day

Today it is SDG action day, part of a whole week full of action to promote and implement projects supporting reaching the SDG targets. The Dutch website has a report of all the speakers at the main event in Utrecht today who share their knowledge and stories in SDG Talks.

For the SDGs, it is important to keep in mind that while their are 17 separate goals with each their own targets, they should not be thought of as separate items to check off of a list. We can see the global progress per country for most of the targets of the goals. But investing in one goal means another goal might be affected negatively or positively, something that projects should think about beforehand. Synergies may be possible.

For our LILa project the most important SDG to contribute to is 11, Sustainable cities and communities. Other strongly related goals are:

• 4 Quality education
• 6 Clean water and sanitation
• 7 Affordable and clean energy 
• 9 Industry, innovation, and infrastructure
• 12 Responsible production and consumption
  
• 13 Climate Action
  

 

We intend to keep track on how the project contributes to each of these SDGs.