1. The document discusses technical aspects of sustainability in the built environment, including passive design strategies like daylighting and natural ventilation to reduce energy usage. 2. It also covers active systems like smart buildings that can optimize energy generation and usage through automation, demand response, and renewable energy integration. 3. Life cycle cost analyses and life cycle assessments are presented as tools to evaluate the long-term economic and environmental impacts of different building design and technology choices.

1. Technical Aspects
and Sustainability
Aalto University
23.2.2015

3. • Real Estate Consulting
• Energy and Environment
• HVAC & Plumbing
• Building Controls
• Electrical
Granlund 500+ people
Leading building services expert in Finland

4. Offices
• Helsinki
• Riihimäki
• Lahti
• Tampere
• Vaasa
• Seinäjoki
• Kuopio
• Joensuu
• St Petersburg
• Espoo
• Lappeenranta

7. Macroview Sustainability
When we think of the technicalities of sustainability we should focus
on more than just energy……………..
Social Economic Environmental
Inspiring
architecture
Company image /
Brand
Transport
emissions
Natural light Attracting
employees
Embodied energy
of materials
Outdoor
connection
Reduced
maintenance
Waste generation
Increased fresh air Building value Water
Acoustics Vacancy rates Light pollution
Safety Energy savings Noise pollution
Art Material cost Energy use

8. One thought to consider….
Who / what is driving innovation in the sustainable built
environment today?
 Cities or municipalities who own land or who give planning
permissions and want to reduce environmental impact
 Corporate clients / developers who want to create a green image
 Corporate clients / developers who want to save money
 Corporate clients who want a long lasting durable product
 Consumers who demand green products
 Others

9. Social Sustainabiliy:
Inspiration and Interaction

10. Inspirational Architecture
Guggenheim Museum, in Bilbao
 First 3 years, almost 4 million tourists visited, estimated they
generated approximately €500 million in economic activity

11. Community Interaction
Commonwealth Bank Place (1)
 Mixed-use complex in downtown Sydney, Australia
 Aimed to maximise use
by the local community
 Children's Theatre:
 Picnic park
 Retail Terrace: bars,
restaurants, cafes and
stores
 Artistic lighting with
nighttime playground with
low energy lighting

12. Community Interaction
Commonwealth Bank Place (2)
 Western façade is a interactive
digital canvas with low energy
lights and solar power
 Visitors can turn on lights from
the park
 Large number of return visitors
 Retail terrace is now open at
night
 Link: http://tinyurl.com/cgoj23r

13. Maximise Use
Make use of the built environment outside of conventional hours
 Community enterprises
 Car parks that become
sports facilities
 Office spaces that become
teaching spaces
 Office restaurants that
become study halls

14. Inspirational Architecture
Green Roofs
 High efficiency roof
u-value
 Increases site
green area and
biodiversity
 Absorbs rainwater
 Reduce roof heat
gain in warm
countries

15. Simulation Technology:
Optimising Design

16. Passive & Social Sustainable Design
Should daylighting be promoted in Finland?
 Standard depth of a wing in Finnish offices is 18m
18m 18m 15m In Germany a
depth of 12m is
maximum by law
 Daylight reduces
electricity but
increases heat loss
 Daylit buildings
also provide a
strong connection
to the outside

17. Passive & Social Sustainable Design
Daylighting
 Pie chart: Rehva
estimation of primary
energy consumption in
European buildings in
2020
 Does this mean that in
the long term reducing
electricity is more
important than heating?

18. Social Sustainable Design
Benefits of daylit buildings
© World GBC: The business
case for green buildings

19. Social Sustainable Design
Daylighting
 Daylight factor for Helsinki, south facing, variable window
widths, room depth = 6m

20. Passive & Social Sustainable Design
Natural Ventilation
 Should we use natural ventilation to cool our buildings in
summer?
 This is done in many countries such as Germany which does
not have a hotter summer than Finland
 The building would be heated as
normal in winter but instead of
adding cooling in summer we
would provide openings
 Problem occurs due to cold air
leakage into the building in winter

21. Passive & Social Sustainable Design
Natural ventilation
 Temperature analysis for an external temperature of 22oC

22. Passive & Social Sustainable Design
Natural ventilation
 Age of air analysis for an external temperature of 22oC

23. GSW, Berlin: Daylighting & Natural Ventilation

24. Design software
CFD
 Amount of air suplied
can be reduced to a
minimum
BIM
 Dramatically reducing
waste and errors during
the construction process

25. CFD – Validation against measurements

34. Water Efficient:
Technologies

35. Water Efficiency
Reducing water consumption
 Not a Finnish priority (187, 888 lakes)
 Low water using fittings
Difficult with building regulations D1
 Water recycling
 Rainwater harvesting
 Greywater recycling
 Blackwater recycling
 1 Bligh Street, Sydney
 Approx. 100,000 litres of water will be saved per day

36. Water Efficiency
Water recycling
 For every 1 litre of rainwater / greywater used:
 Mains water reduced by 1 litre
 Waste water reduced by 1 litre

37. Service Innovations
For Environmental Impact Reduction

38. x
x

39. Service Innovations…….Smartups…………
We already have enough constructed area, how do we use it better?
- avoiding urban sprawl
- reducing peoples commuting time
- reducing the environmental impact of new construction
How can we use sharing to reduce to….?
- save money for consumers
- reduce environmental impact of using goods
- enable more efficient goods to be affordable for consumers
Gamification: how can games be used to educate of to change
peoples behaviour ?

40. Service Innovations…….Smartups…………
Sharing and built environment
- AirBnB spare room
- AirBnB short-term work space rentals
- Residential downsizing service
Sharing and mobility
- car sharing / car clubs
- ride sharing
Community hubs
- Local co-working spaces (reducing transport emissions)
- Low carbon community lunch restaurants
- Product as a service viable model for long life consumer products
Gamification
- feedback loops, educational aids, user behaviour change

41. x
x
Bundles.nl
Greenely.com
Citycarclub.fi

42. Car sharing facts

43. x
x

44. Innovations:
Built Environment

45. Service Industry CSR
Microsoft
 Business units pay a penalty charge for all carbon emissions
from offices and data centers
 Majority of emissions from electricity and air travel
 Assuming an estimated price of renewable energy certificates
and carbon offsets per tonne = €16
 Total cost per year to offset the carbon emissions = €24
million based on 2011 emissions
© Microsoft

46. Systemic Change
Balfour Beatty
 Construction of a new highway near Bedford, UK
 Aim: Use local materials
 Alternative materials used
o 400,000 recycled tyres
o 375,000 tonnes of power station ash
 Substantial cost savings and approx. 50,000 tonnes of CO2
 €57 million saved and diverted nearly 8 million tonnes of waste
material

47. Technical Aspects:
For Energy Reduction

48. Energy Reduction
nZEB: nearly Zero Energy Buildings
 European Performance of Buildings Directive (EBPD)
 European Union member States shall ensure that by 31
December 2020 all new buildings are nearly zero-energy
buildings
 In Finland this is expected to be fully defined in 2015 but an
educated guess is that it will be approximately 30 – 50% of the
average consumption of today’s new buildings.
 It is also expected that renewable energy generation will not
strictly need to be on the site of the nZEB. It can be a
community / municipal energy generation system.

49. Energy Reduction
Finnish nZEB case study
 Helsinki University, Ympäristötalo
 Energy efficient
building fabric
 Energy efficient
equipment selection
 Renewable energy
from solar and wind
 Demand management
 Extra construction
costs of 3–4%

50. Electricity Generation
Traditional Electricity Grid
 Customers consume electricity and electricity companies
generate electricity to match the demand
© Fortum

51. Electricity Generation
Smart Grid
 Electricity companies shall try to influence WHEN and HOW MUCH
consumers use electricity
© Fortum

52. Electricity Generation
3 Important Elements
 Electricity generators will
operate more efficiently
 Energy consumers will have a
new method of pricing
 Private energy generators can
sell back to the grid more
easily
© Fortum

53. Electricity Generation: Inefficient Load
American example of electricty generation for 1 day
© Data from NIST
0
0,2
0,4
0,6
0,8
1
1,2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Normalizedelectricsystemload
Hour of day

54. Energy Energy Energy
Time Time Time
Energy Reduction Load shifting Peak Shaving
• Renewable energy
• Energy reduction
measures
• Smart appliances
• Task scheduling
• React to energy prices by
turning systems on or off
• Reduce internal conditions
• Advanced presence
detection
Options: Options: Options:
Reducing Energy Consumption

55. Energy Energy
Time Time
Load shifting Peak Shaving
• Smart appliances
• Task scheduling
• React to energy prices by
turning systems on or off
• Reduce internal conditions
• Advanced presence
detection
Options: Options:
Demand Management

56. Smart Buildings for a Smart Grid
Load shifting
 Electric car charging at night
 Smart appliances: dishwashing machine, clothes washing machine
Peak shaving
 Winter peak: turn off night-time lighting or to dim advertisement
lighting when prices are particularly high
 Summer peak: less cooling, target temperature rises from 21oC to
24oC
High supply
 Plenty of wind, take advantage of low energy prices:
 industrial processes that require large amounts of electricity may
be automatically performed
 cheaper to use expensive home systems such as sauna
©Zumawire

57. Energy
consumption
patterns
How to
reduce
consumption
by demand
managemet
What solutions
are needed to
reduce
consumption
Automatic off
of systems
RAU – sensors
and building
management
system
Automation
Consumption
information
feedback
systems
Behaviuor Change
behaviour
Demand Management Concept

58. “the wind is blowing in Denmark so maybe we will have a sauna”

59. Smart Buildings
VTT test apartment in Oulu
 Opened 2012
 Electric car
 Electricity storage
 5.5 kW wind power plant
 20 m2 of solar cells generating 4 kW
 Graphical displays to monitor the electricity
consumption
© VTT
© VTT© VTT

60. Smart Buildings
Adjutantti
 Apartment building Energy class A
 136 m2 solar panles
 Building energy feedback system
 Apartment specific
measurement, monitoring and
adjustment system
 Feedback based on the users
actions

61. Smart Buildings
Airut, Jätkäsaari, Helsinki
 To open 2015
 Solar power, geothermal heating
 Dashboard:
 smart appliances
 showing energy consumption
 comparing energy consumption with the building average
 booking system for shared cars
 booking system for community sauna
 public transport timetables
© Sitra
© Sitra

62. © Sitra

63. Airut, Jätkäsaari
Locking system:
- Turns energy systems off
- Heating reduced
- Non-essential circuit off
- Lighting off
- Kitchen stove off
- Sauna off
- Ventilation off
Heating system:
- Radiators with remote controlers
- Pay the heating you use not per m2
© Sitra
Low2No Smart Systems Selections
Showers:
- Water meter per apartment
- Pay the heating you use not per m2
Information and control dashboard
- Laptop / ipad / phone
- Link to smart software
- Feedback from meters
- Control heating and ventilation
- Link to community information
Additional metering:
- Electrical (per circuit)
- Heating (space / water)

64. Smart Buildings
San Francisco Public Utility Commission (SFPUC)
 Opened 2011
 26 000 m2
 450 dashboards providing all building users
with:
• energy consumption
• water consumption
• carbon footprint © SFPUC
©Smart Buildings, LLC

65. Smart Buildings
NASA Ames Research Center
 Opened 2012
 4 750 m2
 5 000 wireless sensors:
 temperature
 carbon dioxide levels
 natural lighting
 air flow
 Construction costs were only 6% more than a traditional
building
 also includes solar panels and geothermal cooling
© io9.com

66. Smart Buildings
Bridesburg Metalworks, Pennsylvania
• Operate 0700 – 1500
• US electricity peak is in summer
• The are paid to turn off metal melting machines
• Melting employees move to the packaging department
• They are earning an extra $25 000 per year
© opower

67. Life Cycle:
Analysis and Cost Analysis

68. Sustainable Design
LCC: Life Cycle Cost Analysis to promote long term investments
LCA: Life Cycle Analysis for embodied environmental impact
 Embodied energy (J)
 Embodied carbon (kg CO2)

69. Sustainable Design
LCA Stages:
 Cradle to Gate
Raw materials extraction
Manufacturing
Cradle to Site
Cradle to gate PLUS
Transport to building site
Cradle to Grave
Cradle to Site PLUS
Building Operations
Demolition & Disposal

70. xx
 xx
LCA of Beer

71. LCA Comparison
The following shows the comparison of two similar buildings
 Kauppakeskus ABC
 Steel structure building
 Reference Kauppakeskus
 Concrete structure
The steel structure allowed for more environmentally friendly
materials selections to be made in this case compared to
standard concrete construction

72. LCA: Embodied Elemental Breakdown
ABC

73. Life Cycle Cost Analysis
Demand Based Beam System (DBEAM)

74. Life Cycle Cost Analysis
Variable Air Volume System (VAV)

75. Life Cycle Cost Analysis
Fancoil System (FANCOIL)

76. Life Cycle Cost Analysis
Chilled Beam System (CBEAM)

77. Life Cycle Cost Analysis
CAV IAQ Based System (CAV)

78. Life Cycle Cost Analysis
CAV with Minimum Air Flows (CAV min) 
Lower indoor air quality

79. Life Cycle Cost for Stockholm
System Net Present Value Cost Difference
DBEAM
177 €/m²
± 0 %
VAV
228 €/m²
29 %
FANCOIL
189 €/m²
7 %
CBEAM
187 €/m²
6 %
CAV
220 €/m²
24 %
CAV min
115 €/m²
(- 35 %)

80. Life Cycle Cost for Stockholm
System Net Present Value Cost Difference
DBEAM
177 €/m²
± 0 %
VAV
228 €/m²
29 %
FANCOIL
189 €/m²
7 %
CBEAM
187 €/m²
6 %
CAV
220 €/m²
24 %
CAV min
115 €/m²
(- 35 %)
0,0
5,0
10,0
15,0
20,0
25,0
30,0
DBEAM VAV FANCOIL CBEAM CAV CAV MIN
€/m²,a
Annual Cost
Investmentcosts Energy costs Maintenance costs

81. Economical and immeasurable effects
Feature DBEAM VAV FCOIL CBEAM CAV CAV min
Construction - Investment Costs + - + + +/- (+)
Energy - Costs and environmental effects + + - + -- (+)
Life Cycle - Costs + + - + + (+)
Life Cycle - Maintenance requirements + -- - + -- (+)
Operational behaviour - Failure risks + - +/- + + (+)
Operational behaviour - Sound level + - +/- + - (+)
Operational behaviour - Draught + - + + - (-)
Operational behaviour - Heating & cooling + +/- + ++ + (-)
Operational behaviour - Air Quality + +/- + ++ +/- (-)
Other effects