• Energy Research
• Closed Access close
• Restricted close
• DK close
• GB close
• US close
• CN close
• English close

Globalization has changed the way global society addresses common and global problems.

Genuine Savings (GS), also known as ‘net adjusted savings’, is a composite indicator of the sustainability of economic development. Genuine Savings reflects year-on-year changes in the total wealth or capital of a country, including net investment in produced capita, investment in human capital, depletion of natural resources, and damage caused by pollution. A negative Genuine Savings rate suggests that the stock of national wealth is declining and that future utility must be less than current utility, indicating that economic development is non-sustainable (Hamilton and Clemens, 1999). We make use of data over a 150 year period to examine the relationship between Genuine Savings and a number of indicators of well-being over time, and compare the relative changes in human, produced, and components of natural capital over the period. Overall, we find that the magnitude of genuine savings is positively related to changes in future consumption, with some evidence of a cointegrating relationship. However, the relationships between genuine savings and infant mortality or average heights are less clear.

Le Meillour & Sinet-Mathiot et al. 2024 Increasing sustainability in palaeoproteomics by optimizing digestion times for large-scale archaeological bone analyses DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.109432 MALDI-ToF MS data (raw data: mzML files, merged spectra: msd files) used for the ZooMS analysis of the bone material from Baishiya Karst Cave (China) and La Draga (Spain), along with the R codes for merging triplicates into one msd file. 

Occupant controlled lighting is known to present opportunity for energy savings1,2,3,4 and can increase occupant satisfaction with the lit environment5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Scale model and Laboratory studies suggest that the illuminance interval and the starting value provided to occupants to adjust from, have an effect on the illuminance settings chosen by the occupants 10. The illuminace interval limits the possibilities of choices and the chosen illuminances tend to be distributed in all parts of the illuminance interval. This results in the mean value of illuminance settings to approach the middle of that specific interval 11,12. The starting values act as anchors for the illuminance choices, meaning that low starting values tend to result in lower illuminance settings then high starting values6, 11, 12. The influence of illuminance interval and start value is considered in this case study on occupant controlled lighting in offices with focus on energy savings and occupant satisfaction. The case study was performed in a pharmaceutical company in Måløv, Denmark where the lighting installation was renovated in a two person office and a four person office in 2013. The fluorescent tubes were replaced with DALI controllable LED luminaires and each employee was given a task light on their desk providing 592 lx, U0 = 0.5 on the task area (60 x 60 cm2) and 87 lx, U0 = 0.2 on the surrounding area, when turned on. The lluminance intervals started from zero to the maximum of 50, 100, 200 and 500 lx with U0=0.5. The starting values were the minimum and the maximum of each interval and every interval with the different starting values was presented to the occupants in a randomized order for a total of one week. The CCT was 3000 K and the illuminance settings data was monitored online by collecting the DALI signals to the LED luminairs and the use of task light was registered by continuously measuring their power consumption. The test was performed from January to March 2014 and the weather conditions were mostly overcast sky. The occupants were informed that the lighting in their offices was being tested and at the end of each week they were asked to answer an online questionnaire about their satisfaction with the office lighting. They were further notified that they, at all times, were allowed to adjust the lighting in their office to their preference. One of the two offices reported the lighting system to malfunction when the 0 – 50 lx interval was provided, they were thereby provided with an interval of 0 to 100 lx in order to support their working environment. The adjusted illuminances for the high start values were 50 lx, 100 lx, 200 lx and 455 lx for respective maximum illuminance of 50, 100, 200 and 500 lx. The low start values resulted in illuminance settings of 50 lx, 83 lx, 163 lx and 193 lx. The energy use of the LED system is compared to the previous installed power of 80W for fluorescent tubes in each office. The illuminance settings led to 80% savings for the maximum 50 lx interval, 70 % savings for the 100 lx interval, 50 % savings for the 200 lx interval and for the 500 lx interval the savings was 50 % for a low starting value but the savings were negative by 17 % when the starting value was high. The occupants of the two person office only operated the task light when the interval provided a maximum of 100 lx, starting at a low starting value. The occupants of the four person office operated the task light 65% of their working hours when provided with a low starting value and 48% of the time when provided with high starting values. The average satisfaction ratings indicated that the occupants were most satisfied with the maximum 200 lx interval; this applies for both high and a low starting value. The interval with a maximum of 500 lx provided the most satisfied occupants and the most unsatisfied occupants.The results of this case study can be used as an argument for further exploring the potential that lies within occupant controlled lighting for energy saving and occupant satisfaction as the results from the limited amount of subjects in this study support the laboratory findings for occupant controlled lighting. Low starting values within a limited illuminance interval may provide satisfied user of energy efficient occupant controlled lighting.

ON 16 NOVEMBER 2000, the final report of the World Commission on Dams (WCD) was launched in London, in the presence of South Africa’s former president Nelson Mandela. This represented a remarkable milestone in the history of dam policy and politics. During its two-year existence, WCD had conducted the most extensive review of research and evidence regarding the planning, impacts, and management of large dams. It had engaged with numerous stakeholders around the globe. It also made comprehensive recommendations about how to improve dam planning and management.

Responses to recent climatic changes in the sediment of subarctic Lake Saanajärvi in northwestern Finnish Lapland are studied by comparison of various biological and sedimentological proxies with the 200-year long climate record, specifically reconstructed for the site using a data-set of European-wide meteorological data. The multi-proxy evidence of simultaneously changing diatom, Cladocera, and chrysophyte assemblages along with the increased rates of organic matter accumulation and pigment concentrations suggest that the lake has undergone a distinct typological change starting from the turn of the 20th century. This change, indicating an increase in lake productivity, parallels a pronounced rise in the meteorologically reconstructed mean annual and summer temperatures in the region between ca. 1850 and 1930's. We postulate that, during the Little Ice Age, the lake was not, or was only weakly, thermally stratified during summer, whereas the subsequent increase in air and hence epilimnetic water temperatures resulted in the development of the present summer stratification. The increased thermal stability of the lake created more suitable conditions for the growth of phyto- and zooplankton and changed the overall primary production from benthos to plankton. Mineral magnetic and carbonaceous particle records suggest long-distance pollution, particularly since the 1920's, yet the observed changes in lake biota and productivity can hardly be explained by this very minor background pollution; the 20th century species configurations are typical of neutral waters and do not indicate any response to pollution.