Session 1 - Montefiore

PLEA2012 - 28th Conference, Opportunities, Limits & Needs Towards an environmentally responsible architecture Lima, Perú 7-9 November 2012
THE SPECIFICATION SHEETS
Eighteen specifications sheets complete the website by
providing the user with static information about energy
efficiency. These sheets are classified around four main
themes: (1) general and urban sprawl; (2) energy
efficiency in the transportation sector (mobility); (3)
energy efficiency in the building sector (building) and (4)
energy efficiency at the district scale (urban form).
These specification sheets not only present the
methods, assumptions and data used in the online
interactive tool but also practical hints to improve energy
efficiency at the household scale and at the
neighbourhood scale. Life-cycle assessments of
buildings, the importance of the heating system, the
impact of location on mobility patterns and the use of
renewable energies are also investigated.
TESTS AND ADVERTISING
To test the relevance and the applicability of the
interactive tool, several test-sessions were organized with
different focus groups (secondary schools, students in
urban planning, government officers, architects,
researchers in sustainable architecture and a nonspecialized
audience). The feedbacks were quite positive,
especially from government officers who lack evaluation
tools dealing with both the transportation and building
sectors and minor amendments were made to improve
the tool. Two formations were organized and several
general-interest papers were published to ensure a wide
diffusion of the tool. The tool is currently online and
used by citizens. An assessment will further be organized
to identify its impact on everyday behaviour of users.
DISCUSSIONS
Like any other scientific work, this online interactive tool
suffers from several limitations. Currently, results only
take into account the energy consumption for home-towork
and home-to-school travels and for the heating of
the house. The building database contents only suburban
types of buildings. These two limitations will however be
addressed soon thanks to a new research project
(Solutions for Low Energy Neighbourhoods - SOLEN)
that will allow to take into account rural and urban types
of buildings but also to address energy consumption for
leisure and shopping travels. The energy consumption for
hot water and appliances and the use of renewable energy
of energy will be integrated in the project and in the
updated version of the online interactive tool.
Finally, the online interactive tool is only available in
French, for the Walloon region of Belgium. Methods,
tools and data used to develop the tool are however
sufficiently general for application in many other areas in
Europe and beyond, by adjusting parameters, such as
those relating to climate, vehicles performances or
characteristics of the building.
CONCLUSIONS
This paper presented a new online interactive tool
(www.safe-energie.be) which enables citizens, local
authorities and developers (1) to assess the energy
consumption in the transportation and in the building
sectors, at the individual, household and neighbourhood
scales; (2) to compare them and (3) to find relevant and
personalized hints to reduce their energy consumptions.
It makes the main results of an important three-year
scientific research accessible to a large non-specialized
audience.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. This research was funded
by the Walloon region (Belgium) under the “Suburban
Areas Favoring Energy efficiency” project (SAFE). We
thank Julien Winant for the web development of the tool.
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