Mini-course: How to do eco-design?

This two-session online course clarifies the basis for developing and understanding Life Cycle Assessments and Eco-Design of Buildings and their energy use (Session 1) and provides a practical application of these principles (Session 2).

Developing economic well-being and preserving a healthy environment are not opposed forces, but do, on the contrary, have a primary relationship and require a similar way of thinking. Maximising the efficiency of a product over its life cycle will minimise its total financial cost as well as the total environmental impact over its life cycle.

LCA is a methodology used for assessing the impact over a product's complete life cycle on major environmental parameters. It requires a large amount of input data, often from many different players, and calculations quickly become extensive. Eco-design uses life cycle thinking to develop and assess different design options that should benefit the environment over the life cycle of the product.

Leonardo ENERGY has developed an Ecodesign Toolbox with an interface designed to overcome this complexity and facilitate the use of the models by non-LCA experts. At the click of a button, it quantifies major environmental discharges and produces related environmental impact reports, based on technical input parameters and a comprehensive database.

The case studies Evaluating Environmental Performance in Low-Carbon Energy Systems were developed to substantiate this Life-Cycle-Thinking by delivering high-level messages to support decision making on the sustainable energy arena – selected ones will be demonstrated in session two.

Session 1 - Eco-design for buildings and their energy needs

21 April 2010

• What are the most important aspects of eco-design in the context of buildings in use?
• From theory to practicality: translating aspects into technical parameters
• Ecodesign analyses of all important aspects of manufacture and use of buildings in one shell

Session 2 - Practical case-studies

29 April 2010

Practical examples of applying LCA (problem formulation, system definition, toolbox settings, results and analysis)to the following cases:

1. Power grid mix today and in the future
2. Investment into green Power Generation and energy use
3. Investment into Efficient Housing

 Speakers for both sessions: Flora Vadas, Constantin Herrmann and Alexander Stoffregen; from PE INTERNATIONAL.