R&D INSIGHT
Study demonstrates value of green spaces to society
E
very pound invested in parks and nature
reserves contributes £30
towards health and wellbeing benefits and £23 towards
community safety. Those are the findings uncovered by
national land management charity, the Land
Trust, which commissioned an
independent study to assess the value of the green spaces in its portfolio. The study also found that for every £1
spent by the Land Trust in maintaining its parks and nature reserves; people value this as two and a half times higher. The study measured the impact of Land Trust services to identify the value that
people place on their local green space as well as to estimate the financial value it contributes to the health and social sectors. The results were emphatic,
demonstrating that green spaces are not just good for the environment, they are good for society. Among those surveyed, nine out of 10
people visiting Land Trust’s spaces felt that they play a positive part in their happiness and wellbeing. This action will lengthen Coordinated
Universal Time (UTC) and our legal time, currently Central European Summer Time (CEST) by one second.
IN BRIEF
Lower oil prices: higher CO2 emissions
Two Spanish scientists have claimed that when the price of oil increases, carbon dioxide emissions decrease after comparing air pollution and economic development by using Spanish oil prices between 1874 and 2011. In the 1970s, environmentalists warned that air pollution was a result of our production and consumption patterns. At the time, economists argued that an improvement in per capita income would reduce the level of environmental degradation; later studies would show that they were right. New energy taxes have been called for.
Scottish Government’s new energy efficiency rules
Regulations requiring the owners of non- domestic property in Scotland to carry out energy efficiency improvements before they can sell or lease the premises will not be incorporated into the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) regime, according to a published draft. An earlier draft would have combined the new requirements with updated EPC regulations however the Scottish Government has redrafted the proposals as a separate statutory instrument in order to “enable implementation of domestic and EU policy on emissions and energy reduction to be managed more effectively”.
UNStudio / Ben van Berkel complete first project in Brussels
Designed for ProWinko in collaboration with Jaspers-Eyers Architects, Le Toison d’Or is a hybridisation of a traditional building-block typology and a mixed-use development with a retail podium.
Located on the Avenue de la Toison d’Or, the complex fits into its urban surroundings, whilst simultaneously merging a retail and residential programme. Le Toison d’Or contains 72 apartments (from 50 to 750 m2), 13,000 m2 of commercial space, a 1040 m2 crèche, 330 parking spaces and an elevated city garden of 2,950 m2.
www.projectsmagazine.eu.com The apartments in Le Toison d’Or vary in
size from small to large, enabling a varied demographic of city residents. Le Toison d’Or has been developed with high standards of sustainability. Main features are the excellent thermic isolation of the façade (including triple glazing), a high standard of acoustic insulation, an inventive cogeneration installation system for both the apartments and the retail units and the use of glass-fiber reinforced concrete.
Photos © Hufton+Crow / Eva Bloem 9
Facebook’s energy efficient Irish data centre
Facebook are set to open their second data centre outside of the US, in Cork, Ireland with CEO Mark Zuckerberg saying it will be one of the “most advanced and energy efficient data centres in the world.” Clonee is a small village just outside Dublin and a 30-minute drive from the company’s international headquarters in the city. The centre, which will cost 200 million euros and employee 2,000 people during its construction phase, will become operational in early 2018.
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