• Energy Research
• 12. Responsible consumption close

Even with the benefits of sustainability and climate change reporting, there is limited information on how municipalities are reporting on performance for external stakeholders in comparison with private sector organizations. The purpose of this research was to gain an understanding of the current state of sustainability and climate change reporting at the local level and to investigate the extent to which municipalities across Ontario, Canada, report. We used content analysis to identify the presence or non-presence of information on the websites of 38 municipalities and analyzed the results using descriptive statistics. Our analysis showed that the sample municipalities were not widely reporting on sustainability or climate change performance. Also, we identified a gap between the number of plans and reports produced by sample municipalities, with the latter being less common, indicating a need for an improved evaluation of plan implementation. Further, we found that a provincial regulation that required municipalities to make their energy conservation and demand management plans public did not guarantee publication of the plan on a municipality’s website. This study contributes to the growing field of sustainability and climate change planning and reporting by local governments and offers empirical evidence specific to Ontario, Canada.

{"references": ["Retrieved on April 12, 2013 from website http://www.peakbagger.com/range.aspx?rid=432", "Alexander, Christopher, \"Notes on the Synthesis of Form, 1st ed.\", Harvard University Press, 1964, pp. 1-224.", "Borucke, Michael, David Moore, Gemma Cranston, Kyle Gracey, Katsunori Iha, Joy Larson, Elias Lazarus, Juan Carlos Morales, Mathis Wackernagel, Alessandro Galli, 2012, \"Accounting for demand and supply of the biosphere's regenerative capacity: The National Footprint Accounts' underlying methodology and framework\", Ecological Indicators 24 (2013) 518\u2013533, Elsevier Ltd.", "Adams, W.M., \"The Future of Sustainability: Re-thinking Environment and Development in the Twenty-first Century\", 2006, Report of the IUCN Renowned Thinkers Meeting, 29\u201331 January 2006.", "Abdaei, Kaveh, Ahadollag Azami, \"Sustainability Analyses of Passive Cooling Systems in Iranian Traditional Buildings approaching Wind-Catchers\", Recent Advances in Energy, Environment and Development, pp.124-129.", "Afrasiabian, Shaghayegh, Mohammadjavad Mahdavinejad, Negar Badri, \"Nature as a Source of Sustainable Design in Architecture of Original Countries (Case Study: Traditional Architecture of Iran)\", Archi-Cultural Translations through the Silk Road 2nd International Conference, Mukogawa Women's Univ., Nishinomiya, Japan, July 14-16, 2012 Proceedings, pp.257-261.", "Azami.A, Y., \"Climate passive architecture in hot and dry regions of iran, Passive and low energy cooling for the built environment\", Greece: Santorini, 2005, pp. 613-617.", "Fardpour, Tohid, \"Analysis of Iranian Traditional Architecture Through the Lens of Kenneth Frampton's \"Critical Regionalism\"\", American Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences, 2013, 6 (2): 205-210.", "Ghobadian. Vahid, \"Climate Analysis of the Traditional Iranian Buildings\", 5th ed., Tehran: University of Tehran Press, 2008.\n[10]\tKasmai, Morteza, \"Climate & Architecture\", 4nd ed., 2006, pp. 107-130.\n[11]\tKiani, W. K., \"Cultural heritage organization of Iran\", Tehran, 1995.\n[12]\tPourvahidi, Parastoo, \"Bioclimatic Analysis of Vernacular Iranian Architecture\", Master diss., Eastern Mediterranean University, Gazimagusa, North Cyprus, 2010, 1-161.\n[13]\tPourvahidi, Parastoo, Mesut B. Ozdeniz, \"Bioclimatic analysis of Iranian climate for energy conservation in architecture\", Scientific Research and Essays, 2013, Vol. 8(1), pp. 6-16.\n[14]\tShojaei, S.A.R., Zahra khodayari, \"Sustainable Architecture In Arid Regions of Iran\", 5th Symposium on Advances in Science & Technology, May 12-17, 2011.\n[15]\tUtaberta, N., N. Sharifi, M. Surat, A. I. Che-Ani and N.M. Tawil, \"The Experience of Iranian Architecture in Direction of Urban Passages and Forming of Urban Structures to Increase Climatic Comfort\", World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, 2012, Vol. 67, pp. 637-641.\n[16]\tRetrieved on June 2, 2013 from website http://news.discovery.com/earth/global-warming/hottest-spot-on-earth-120416.htm\n[17]\tAttmann, Osman , \"Green architecture: overview\", Green architecture: advanced technologies and materials. definitions and operationalizations of green architecture, McGraw-Hill Professional, AccessEngineering, ICC (International Code Council), 2010, pp. 1-26.\n[18]\tRetrieved on May 28, 2013 from Website http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=965506\n[19]\tPirnia, Mohammad Karim, Stylistic of Iranian Architecturem, 3rd ed., 1383, pp. 32.\n[20]\tRetrieved on April 18, 2013 from website Website: http://n-a-c.blogfa.com/cat-12.aspx\n[21]\tShokouhian.M, S., \"Enviromental effect of the courtyard in sustainable architecture of Iran\", Tehran: Islamic azad university, 2007.\n[22]\tRetrieved on April 26, 2013 from website http://www.gardenhistorysociety.org/post/agenda/the-gardens-of-persia/\n[23]\tLe Corbusier \"The Modulor: A Harmonious Measure to the Human Scale, Universally Applicable to Architecture and Mechanics\". Basel & Boston: Birkh\u00e4user, (2004) (First published in two volumes in 1954 and 1958.).\n[24]\tRetrieved on May 06, 2013 from website http://ghoolabad.com/index2.asp?id=26"]} Iran Central Plateau encompasses a large proportion of this country. The weather in these flat plains is warm and arid with very little precipitation. Different attempts in architecture have been done to alleviate the weather severity of this area and create a living place compatible with humans’ comfort criteria. Investigations have showed that some of the most successful approaches in traditional architecture of the area has been forgotten or are not being used widely. As sustainability is defined as an appropriate solution for environmental, economical, and social disorders, this research is a try to demonstrate the sustainability in aforementioned architecture and based on these studies, propounds solutions for today architecture in hot arid zones.

Abstract To alleviate the shortage of natural gas resource and ease carbon emissions, a novel solar-driven combined cooling, heating and power (CCHP) system is designed and optimized using the genetic algorithm in the work. Different from the process of direct combustion in a conventional CCHP system, natural gas is firstly converted into syngas by a solar-driven natural gas reforming step, which is consumed in an efficient tri-generation system. Energy, economic and environmental evaluations on five office buildings in different climate zones in China are implemented to validate the advantages of the proposed system. Results show that the annual maximum primary energy saving, total cost saving, and CO2 emission reduction are 69.76%, 49.80%, and 71.55%, respectively. The system located in severe cold zones, where solar energy is abundant and building requires more heat load in whole year, achieves the highest benefits in comparison with separate systems. Furthermore, the sensitivities on the price fluctuations of electricity, natural gas and solar field to the system profits are investigated, which indicates that the influence of electricity price on the system performance is the most significant. Thus, a promising method for reducing the natural gas consumption and improving the utilization efficiency of solar energy is provided.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of cultivating Parachlorella kessleri and Acutodesmus obliquus, in anaerobic digestion effluent (ADE) derived from the co-digestion of end-of-life dairy products with mixtures of agro-industrial wastes. To this end, their performance under sterile and non-sterile conditions and different ADE loadings was evaluated, in terms of biomass and lipid production, nutrient removal efficiency and vitality of the photosynthetic apparatus. 10% (v/v) ADE loading inhibited growth over 9-12days of cultivation, however biomass yields of 1.1 and 1gL-1, 22.7% and 19.5% (w/w) fatty acids concentration, as well as NH3-N assimilation of 49.7mgL-1 and 32.3mgL-1 and TP removal of 84.2% and 84% were recorded for P. kessleri and A. obliquus, respectively. Among all the ADE-based treatments tested, P. kessleri outperformed A. obliquus, with no differences observed between sterilized and non-sterilized ADE.