In-session activities are the series of lectures provided by the course itself. The lectures cover a wide range of knowledge and information from various speakers with different backgrounds. The following table shows complete list of the lectures provided by this course.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is interesting to have lectures from both practitioners and academicians. By having lecturers from various backgrounds, I learned different views on sustainability related to energy and the built environment. Each lecturer has his/her own roles in their specific industry. They are the experts in their field. Digesting their knowledge and selecting which knowledge is more important to my future works is my main approach in attending the lectures.

 

Post-session activities were functioned the same way as pre-session activities. The only difference is that these post-session activities were conducted after the class. The first-week post-session activity was individual project proposal. The next three post-session activities were critical reviews on three different articles. The rests are related to the group project and reviews on provided readings/materials.

 

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Week 1 Post-Session Activity: Preliminary Proposal for Individual Project

 

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Week 2 – Week 4 Post-Session Activities: Critical Reviews

 

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Week 5 Post-Session Activity: Group Project

 

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Week 6 Post-Session Activity: Group Project

 

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Week 7 Post-Session Activity: Group Project

 

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Week 8 Post-Session Activity: Group Project and Developed Draft of Individual Project

 

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Week 10 Post-Session Activity: Reflections on Alex Bruce’s article “Building a low carbon house – more stars or Life Cycle Design?”

 

Alex begins his article by requestioning the definition of low carbon building and “low carbon” itself. He continued with global warming potential impact of Australian houses which is significantly exceeding the standard. He then noted the relevance of having 10 star performance on NatHERS’s Star rating to the actual “low carbon” definition. He argued that having more stars is still fair way from realization of actual low carbon house. The stars that you have are not always representing your carbon footprint reduction.

 

Having net-zero operational carbon doesn’t mean it is low carbon. There’s still something called “embodied carbon”. Life Cycle Design (LCD) is the way to assess the overall environmental impacts caused by a built environment throughout its life cycle. It shows quantified impacts of your house in real numbers. Life Cycle Cost (LCC) is another powerful addition to LCD to achieve best environmental performance with the most cost-effective strategy.

 

Alex noted that LCD is a must to achieve a low carbon design. He suggested it has nothing to do with social benefits. However, there’s a growing methodology called Social-LCA which can be utilized into design practise to get even a much more comprehensive sustainability overview of a house project.

 

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Week 11 Post-Session Activity: Reflections on “Net Zero and Living Building Challenge Financial Study: A cost comparison report for buildings in the district of Columbia”

 

The report proposes recommendations on energy policy that can be implemented by the district government. It highlights existing energy policy framework by revealing key elements of several major energy policy drivers such as: sustainable DC Plan, Green Building Act of 2006, Energy Codes, Net Metering, Building Height Restrictions, Historic Buildings, DC Sustainable Energy Utility (DC SEU) as well as DC PACE Commercial programs.

 

The report then recommends additional policy approaches to be evaluated and integrated into existing and incoming policies. The goal is clear: to effectively achieve net zero buildings. The District needs to create a framework on several key themes: focusing on energy efficiency, encouraging renewable energy systems, and considering district approaches.

 

The report provides 6 recommendations the District need to apply in relation to their energy policies:

Recommendation 1 – Define Net Zero Energy

Recommendation 2 – Encourage Transition to Outcome-Based Energy Targets

Recommendation 3 – Promote the Evolution of energy codes

Recommendation 4 – Advance Incentives for Energy Efficiency

Recommendation 5 – Revise Net Metering Policies and Acknowledge changing role of utilities

Recommendation 6 – Balance Competing Goals

 

Based on these energy recommendations, the District is encouraged and expected to provide directions for owners and developers to achieve successful implementations of net zero. The recommendations also suggested deepening the definition of net zero energy to include district energy systems, instead of relying on individual buildings.

 

This approach of seeing a more holistic district-wide net zero energy is relevant to the concept of “smart grid”. In Australia, an initiative called “Smart Grid, Smart City” was launched to create more efficient and more intelligent electricity supply system. More information about this can be found at http://www.smartgridsmartcity.com.au/

 

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Week 12 Post-Session Activity: self-reflections

 

1. What are the energy/emission related impacts of your actions and lifestyle currently? What do they mean to you?

 

The home I live, my daily use of water and electricity (including the computer I use to write this reflection), the food I eat, the stuff I use, the outfit I’m wearing. All of these have impacts. Other than that, I can’t think of anything else.

 

2. Which areas are of particular concern to you? Why?

 

Cities in Australia (and other parts of the world) are cities designed for cars. For example, Sydney density is very low, and public transport network doesn’t cover all area. This condition encourages the use of personal cars for people to commute. Sustainable urban planning and design is one of my main concerns at the moment because the way a city operates could give a significant impact on the environment.

 

My other concerns are including renewable energy development, regenerative built environment, and celebrating local potential as an approach to more sustainable demand-supply operation. In this more globalized world, parts of a product can be sourced from different parts of the world, creating a large environmental impact in the way they are produced and transported. A video titled “Story of Stuff” is good way of explaining this situation. The video can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GorqroigqM

 

3. What have you already done in response to these energy/emission impacts and your concerns?

 

Simple stuffs in my daily life. I stay nearby the campus, so that I walk to school every time. I turn off the lights when they’re not being used. Back home in Indonesia before I came here, I practised as an architect and I tried to implement sustainability approach to my designs.

 

4. What are you currently working on or would like to do in the future in response to the remaining issues? What is preventing you? How will you overcome them?

 

I was working for 5 years as an architect prior to studying here. My plan after I graduated is to go back to Indonesia and start a company focusing on development of renewable energy and sustainable built environment. My biggest challenge would be the acceptance of the people to the idea of sustainability. Indonesia is a developing country. For most of the people, financial benefits are still main objectives instead of environmental (or even social) impacts. How to overcome this is to show and prove that sustainability practise is the only way to achieve long-term financial benefits.

 

5.What other positive impacts do you see yourself making beyond your immediate personal lifestyle? How?

 

To promote sustainability, my office and my home should be a sustainable one (regenerative, if possible). Once I establish my company, it should practise sustainability within its own operation. I have many ideas in my mind to apply in the future and I’m excited to start working on them, start making positive impacts.

 

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Week 13 Post-Session Activity: course feedback and submission of individual project and e-portfolio