Building sector is contributing to the 36% of the C02 emissions in Europe, and consurning the 40% of final energy consurnption. In this context this paper presents a new approach developed under the ENCOURAGE project to carry out the user awareness. The proposed user awareness is based on a set of KPls, and done at two levels: energy mangers and university campus users. The KPfs are displayed to the energy managers using a web-platform. With that information energy managers are able to identify actions and control algorithms to reduce the energy consun1ption. In the other hand, the university campus users awareness it is done sending messages to the user through the Twitter platform. A set of messages are defined, andan algorithm decides which messages have to be published in each moment. The aim is to promote good practices in the use ofpublic buildings. fNTRODUCTIONBuildings worldwide consume more than 20% of total energy produced (Pérez-Lombard et. al 2008). In Europe nearly 40% of final energy consumption and 36% of the green house emissions are in the buildings (EC 2013), and is expected that this percentage is bound to increase (Gangolells et. al 2012).According to the Buildings Performance Institute Europe (201 O), residential buildings comprise the largest portion ofthe European buildings stock (75%) and they are responsible for 68% of the total final energy use in buildings. In the other hand, Nonresidential buildings account for the remaining 25% ofthe total stock in Europe, being responsible for 32% ofthe total final energy use in buildings.Within this context, the need for achieving high energy and greenhouse gas emissions savings in the buildings sector has been widely advocated. In this way, the ENCOURAGE project aims to develop embedded intelligence and integration technologies that will directly optimize energy use in buildings and enable active participation in the future smart grids and achieve 20% of energy savings. The overall strategic objectives defined in the ENCOURAGE project are: a) Jncrease energy efficiency at device-level, building-leve!, district-level; b) Effective in-teraction with externa] actors; c) Effective monitor-ing and control; d) Good user comfort levels; e) Economic optimization; f) Raise awareness.The primary application domains of the EN-COURAGE project are non-residential buildings and campuses, but the project has relevancy al so to residential buildings and neighborhoods. This paper presents the experiences ofENCOURAGE project in the UPC 637 campus demonstrator, whose challenges focus on the energy efficiency improvement in buildings. lt is intended to increase university campus users and building managers' energy awareness by means of an energy information platform that will provide to the users detailed figures about the carbon footprint, the energy consurnpticm and the energy costs derived from their own activities in the campus.Although energy efficiency is a central target for energy policy and a keystone for sustainable development, an accurate enough...

No abstract

No abstract

Molts dels problemes i obstacles que més freqüentment han d’encarar les empreses constructores durant el procés d’implementació i ús de sistemes integrats de gestió mediambiental i de seguretat i salut estan relacionats amb les peculiaritats pròpies del sector de la construcció. D’acord amb investigacions prèvies realitzades per diferents autors, una de les qüestions que tradicionalment comporta un major grau d’incertesa és la integració dels instruments de planificació i control, on s’inclouen els elements per a la identificació i l’avaluació dels impactes ambientals i dels riscos de seguretat i salut i l’aplicació de les subseqüents mesures de control. Aquesta tesi doctoral contribueix a la implementació i ús de sistemes integrats de gestió mediambiental i de seguretat i salut en empreses constructores amb un enfocament orientat al procés i emprant el risc com a factor d’integració. A nivell de projecte constructiu, aquesta recerca proposa una metodologia quantitativa per tal d’identificar i avaluar aquells riscos de salut i seguretat i impactes ambientals potencialment adversos que poden originar-se en obres residencials o d’altres tipologies similars durant les etapes pre-constructives. La metodologia desenvolupada facilita als dissenyadors la consideració de forma explícita dels impactes ambientals i la seguretat dels treballadors a l’obra durant el procés de disseny d’edificis residencials. Els dissenyadors poden comparar diferents alternatives de disseny i determinar, per a cada una de les solucions, el corresponent nivell d'impacte ambiental global així com el nivell de risc de seguretat i salut global, sense limitar el seu talent creatiu. La metodologia és especialment útil per a aquells dissenyadors menys experimentats que presenten una manca d’habilitats i coneixements per al reconeixement d’aspectes mediambientals i de riscos de seguretat i salut, ajudant-los a desenvolupar dissenys més òptims des d’aquestes perspectives. La metodologia també serveix com a eina d'avaluació per a que les empreses constructores puguin mesurar el comportament mediambiental i en termes de salut i de seguretat dels projectes constructius que duran a terme i les subseqüents activitats constructives, proporcionant una base consistent per a realitzar comparacions i per a l’establiment de futures etiquetes en termes mediambientals i de seguretat i salut entre diferents projectes de construcció i empreses constructores. La metodologia proposada també permet a les empreses constructores la optimització del seu comportament a l’obra en termes mediambientals i de salut i seguretat durant les etapes de planificació i preparació. La metodologia desenvolupada no només proporciona als dissenyadors un forma d’avaluar el comportament mediambiental i en termes de seguretat i salut dels seus dissenys residencials sinó que també ajuda a les empreses constructores a millorar el seu comportament mediambiental i en termes de seguretat i salut a l’obra. Una vegada s’ha assolit el disseny final, la metodologia subratlla aquells impactes ambientals i riscos de seguretat i salut que encara són significatius. Una millor identificació d'impactes ambientals i de riscos de seguretat i salut porta indubtablement a una gestió mediambiental i de seguretat in situ més exitosa. D’aquesta manera, es poden implementar a l’obra un conjunt d’instruccions de treball orientades a eliminar o reduir fins a un nivell acceptable els impactes ambientals i els riscos de seguretat i salut restants. Per tal de promoure el control operacional integrat a l’obra dels impactes ambientals i riscos de salut i seguretat, aquesta tesi doctoral proposa una aproximació basada en les ontologies. Entendre les relacions existents entre impactes ambientals, riscos de salut i seguretat, processos constructius i instruccions de treball proporciona una aproximació integrada que pot ajudar als contractistes a gestionar i controlar els impactes ambientals i els riscos de seguretat i salut relacionats amb el procés constructiu. Amb l’objectiu d’incrementar l'ús d'aquesta recerca, la metodologia desenvolupada s'ha implementat en un sistema web de gestió del coneixement i la informació. Per una banda, aquesta aplicació permet significativament reduir el temps dedicat a l'avaluació de cada projecte de construcció. D'altra banda, la formalització i visualització de l’aproximació basada en ontologies que s’ha desenvolupat durant la tesi confereix una guia per als contractistes en la gestió de moltes de les incidències mediambientals i de seguretat i salut que poden tenir lloc a les obres de construcció. Finalment, aquesta tesi doctoral documenta la verificació i la validació de la metodologia desenvolupada i de la corresponent eina d’implementació. La tesi doctoral conclou subratllant les principals contribucions d'aquesta investigació. Aquells temes que sobrepassen l’abast d’aquesta tesi són comentats i proposats com a futurs treballs. Most common challenges and obstacles encountered by construction organizations during the implementation process and use of integrated environmental and health and safety management systems are related to the inherent peculiarities of the construction sector. According to several research authors, one of the issues involving a higher level of uncertainty is the integration of planning and control instruments, including elements for identifying and assessing environmental impacts and health and safety risks and implementing subsequent necessary control measures. This dissertation contributes to the implementation of environmental and health and safety management systems in construction companies by proposing a process-oriented approach and using risk as an integrating factor. At a project level, this research proposes a quantitative methodology for dealing with potential adverse environmental impacts and health and safety risks during the pre-construction stages of residential buildings and other similar typologies. The strength of this methodology lies in the fact that it helps designers to explicitly consider on-site environmental impacts and construction worker safety during the design process. Designers can compare several design alternatives during the design phase and determine corresponding overall environmental impact level and overall safety risk level of a construction project without their creative talents being restricted. The methodology is especially worthwhile for those less-experienced designers who lack the skills and knowledge required to recognize environmental aspects and safety hazards, developing optimal designs. The methodology also serves as an assessment tool for construction companies to measure the environmental and health and safety performance of construction projects and its subsequent construction activities, providing a consistent basis for comparisons, future labelling and environmental and safety benchmarking among construction projects and construction companies. The suggested methodology also allows construction companies to optimize its on-site performance in the environmental and the health and safety domains during the planning and preparation stages. The developed methodology not only provides designers with a risk-analysis-based way of evaluating the environmental and safety-related performance of their residential construction designs, but also helps construction companies improve their on-site environmental and safety performance. Once a final design is reached, the methodology highlights the significant remaining environmental impacts and health and safety risks. Improved levels of environmental impacts and safety risks identification undoubtedly lead to successful on-site environmental and safety management. A range of measures can then be implemented at the construction site to eliminate the remaining impacts and risks or reduce them to an acceptable level. In order to promote the integrated operational control of on-site environmental impacts and health and safety risks, this research proposes an ontology-based approach. Understanding relationships between environmental impacts, health and safety risks, construction processes and work instructions provides an integrated approach to help contractors managing and controlling environmental impacts and health and safety risks related to the construction process. In order to increase the usability of this research, the developed methodology has been implemented in a web-based information-and knowledge-management system. On one hand, this application allows significantly reducing the time devoted to the assessment of each construction project. On the other hand, formalizing and visualizing the developed ontology-based approach offers guidance to contractors on the integrated management of many of the environmental and health and safety incidences at the construction site. Finally, this dissertation documents the verification and validation of the developed methodology and corresponding web-based implementation tool. The dissertation concludes by outlining the main contributions of this research. Those subjects that exceed this dissertation scope are commented and proposed as future work.