This interactive “Policy Tool for Renovation” facilitates the comparison and analysis of twelve renovation policy packages for residential buildings from Europe and the United States. Fourteen specially developed criteria have been developed, with the support of a panel of international experts, to enable this analysis.

The tool allows for:

1. Compare policy packages based on different criteria by selecting and deselecting criteria in the interactive tool above.

This page visualised the key data for the Green Growth Indicators report, by allowing users to compare the air pollution, carbon production, land resources and green innovation in between OECD countries.

Addressing energy use in the built environment is just one aspect of the carbon reduction challenge, according to The Footprint Company chief executive Dr Caroline Noller. Addressing the embodied carbon in building materials is also vital.

Dr Noller told The Fifth Estate international data showed that more than 50 per cent of global carbon emissions ended up in a building or infrastructure material of some kind.

Covering roofs and walls of buildings with vegetation is a good way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. And these green roofs and walls make cities look nicer. Toronto’s central business district adopted a policy of establishing green roofs on around half of all city buildings in 2009. Research shows this could reduce maximum city temperatures by up to 5℃.

Read the full article on The Conversation.