Blog Entry | April 4, 2014Recently, Arup published a paper about Green Infrastructure, “Cities Alive | Rethinking Green Infrastructure”. I think it’s a great report that highlights the need to integrate natural and built environments to address the challenges of population growth and climate change in our cities, and in a way that delivers both social and economic benefits. They focus on a green-infrastructure-led design approach that promotes the use of nature.
It’s consistent with the approach that we continue to advocate that suggests the value of your real estate assets are being undervalued.
Running water, heat sinks, access to sunlight, to name a few, are natural characteristics to be utilized in the day to day operations of the use of a site. It’s not to suggest that every site should be focused on energy generation, but every site should maximize its energy potential first and foremost before it looks to bring power in from the grid or other fuels for that matter.
Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Energy (WISE) has embarked on additional concepts of its Smart Energy Networks (SENS). The most recent report: https://wise.uwaterloo.ca/documents/jatin-nathwani/documentsofinterest/conceptdevelopmentforsmartenergynetworks111201nathwanipdf
WISE is putting the concept to work in attempting to create some working models in Canada.
Another organization, in which I am an active participant, is Quality Urban Energy Systems of Tomorrow (QUEST), and they are educating and supporting the roll out of integrated community energy systems across Canada. You can find one of their videos on our website. www.sustainco.ca.
The market is certainly growing with respect to developing and operating community energy systems, but the challenges I pose to those involved is whether or not the systems are as sustainable as can be, and do they incorporate the natural assets surrounding them?
I look forward to your comments on the reports or on how we generate more successes.
Sincerely,
Frank Carnevale
Thought Leader
[email protected]