Learning from Chicago, Montréal, Paris

Bepos: quand les bâtiments positivent!

par  STEFAN LOUILLAT, Le Monde.fr, 5 juin 2014

Les Bepos kesako ? Cet acronyme désigne les bâtiments à énergie positive. Seuls 30 Bepos sont construits chaque année en France. Quels avantages présentent ces bâtiments? À quels critères doivent-ils répondre ? Comment peuvent-ils se généraliser ? Quelles sont leurs limites? Éléments de réponse avec Stéfan Louillat de l’Ademe (Agence de l’environnement et de la maîtrise de l’énergie).

Des bâtiments qui produisent plus d’énergie qu’ils n’en consomment. Voilà le challenge que devra relever tous les bâtiments construits après 2020. Selon la règlementation européenne, les bâtiments à Energie Positive (les Bepos) devront donc afficher une “énergie nette presque nulle”. Si les détails de ce bilan positif sont encore à définir, les grands principes sont, eux, connus. Le bilan s’entend en moyennes annuelles et la production doit être supérieure aux consommations dues au chauffage, à la climatisation, à la production d’eau chaude sanitaire et à l’éclairage.

Plusieurs dizaines de réalisations ont été accompagnées en Ile-de-France par l’Ademe depuis cinq ans notamment par l’intermédiaire d’appels à projets pour des bâtiments démonstrateurs. Parmi eux, l’école de Saint Exupéry à Pantin. Composée de trois volumes compacts, l’école est dotée de plus de 1000 m2 de capteurs photovoltaïques. Cet équipement, couplé à des matériaux bien précis, lui permet de produire plus d’électricité qu’elle n’en consomme en chauffage, éclairage et ventilation. Les salles de classe, bureaux et espaces de loisirs sont également équipés de sondes photoélectriques afin d’optimiser la gestion de l’éclairage.

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Les gagnants du « Concours Génération Développement Durable » 2014

par ADEME Presse, 22 mai 2014

Cette année, le « Concours Génération Développement Durable » fête ses 10 ans !

Idées, projets, solutions concrètes pour repenser l’usage des biens de consommation, économiser de l’énergie, réduire nos émissions de CO2… le « Concours Génération Développement Durable » récompense en la matière les étudiants aux plus belles initiatives.

Visuel Micr’HomeAujourd’hui, La Recherche, l’ADEME et Bouygues Immobilier sont heureux de vous annoncer les lauréats de cette édition 2014.

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Vegetated roofs sprouting up across North America

by Construction Canada, May 21, 2014

Green Roofs for Healthy Cities’ (GRHC’s) new survey suggests a 10 per cent growth in vegetated roofing assemblies across North America.

Data is collected from GRHC’s members on the size, location, and type of green roofs that have been installed within the year.

“We are pleased to see the continued expansion of the green roof market,” GRHC president Steven W. Peck said. “The industry’s continued growth is fuelled by the multiple public and private benefits green roofs bring, such as stormwater management, reducing the urban heat island, energy savings, and green jobs.”

Overall, responses demonstrate 596,580 m2 (6,421,538 sf) of green roofing was installed last year on 950 projects. Toronto, Montréal, and Calgary made the top 10, with Washington, D.C., taking the first spot.

Read the 2013 Annual Green Roof Industry Survey

Read the original story

Cover story: The magical rooftops of New York

by  MINA KANEKO and FRANCOISE MOULY, The New Yorker, May 12, 2014

“I painted a future that’s completely achievable,” Eric Drooker says of this week’s cover, “A Bright Future.” “All the technology for it already exists,” he adds. “What’s lacking is the political power to make it happen. In New York especially, the city has so much potential. When you fly overhead, you see that New York’s mostly a sea of flat, empty rooftops, with the streets in between as small alleys.”

“That was one of the things I loved best about being a kid in New York, spending time on rooftops. No one ever used them, which was amazing to me. You’d think that people would hang out there and grow gardens. You have these amazing views, and you have the whole city to yourself; it’s a magical place.”

Cover of the May 19, 2014 edition of The New Yorker Image: Eric Drooker Source: www.newyorker.com

Cover of the May 19, 2014 edition of The New Yorker
Image: Eric Drooker
Source: www.newyorker.com

See more covers celebrating New York rooftops and read the original story 

Wounded veteran gets rooftop support

by JAMES MILLER, The Marion Star, May 14, 2014

Mike Zucker enjoys the view from atop his four-story building on South Main Street Photo: James Miller/The Marion Star Source: www.marionstar.com

Mike Zucker enjoys the view from atop his four-story building on South Main Street
Photo: James Miller/The Marion Star
Source: www.marionstar.com

MARION — Mike Zucker settled into his new digs high atop a downtown four-story building at noon Tuesday.

“I’m just soaking up the sun and living the dream,” said Zucker, owner of Zucker Insurance and the 50-foot-tall building at 196 S. Main St., where his rooftop encampment rests.

“When I come down, whenever that is, I’ll know I’ve done something to help the cause,” he said from his cellphone.

Zucker’s self-imposed isolation is an attempt to remind people about the upcoming Operation Steel Warrior benefit concert Saturday at Veterans Memorial Coliseum. The event will benefit U.S. Army Capt. Ben Harrow, who lost both legs and part of his right arm while serving in Afghanistan.

The concert is sponsored by Nucor Steel, and the proceeds will go to Building America’s Bravest, an organization that builds “smart homes” for military veterans with disabilities like Harrow.

Zucker’s goal is to sell 1,000 tickets for Saturday’s show, which will feature local country acts Fogery Run and Steel Creek. Nashville recording artist Colton James will headline the show.

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Rooftop play area proposed for Primary school

by JOHN-PAUL HOLDEN, Edinburgh Evening News, May 15, 2014

Plans for the garden space Image: comp Source: www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com

Plans for the garden space Image: comp
Source: www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com

PUPILS are to go “up on the roof” in a bid to ease the Capital’s schools crush.

Education chiefs have proposed building a rooftop playground at Flora Stevenson Primary, which has been lined up for emergency expansion work amid soaring demand for spots in overcrowded classrooms.

The unique “rooftop garden” would be situated on top of a new teaching block set to be erected to reduce acute accommodation pressure caused by rising rolls.

City bosses hope the development will allow new classrooms to be provided while averting a reduction in overall playground space.

Parents at the Victorian-era school have welcomed the plans, which draw inspiration from similar projects in Japan, Germany, Scandinavia and England.

Lindsay Law, who has children in P3 and P5 at Flora Stevenson, and is parent representative on the city’s education committee, said: “I think we’re all excited that the council are looking at other possibilities to make up for the loss of playground space when the new classrooms are built.

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