title: Integrating occupancy density into the environmental assessment of residential buildings: Towards embodied impact reduction at both building and urban level

authors: Christoforatos, Gerasimos

subjects: LCA

abstract: Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) of buildings typically use gross floor area (GFA)-centric functional units, while urban-scale assessments use occupancy-centric ones. This mismatch reflects the dual functions of buildings (providing space and shelter) and can lead to conflicting strategies, where reducing impacts per GFA at the building level may increase impacts per occupant at the urban level. This study compares these assessment approaches and introduces a dual-functional unit approach that evaluates buildings across both functions. Eight detached houses are assessed using LCA across four impact categories and ranked using a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method for each approach. Results show significant variation in rankings among the established approaches, with several buildings having completely opposite outcomes (e.g., ranked 1st in the GFA-centric assessment but 6th in the occupancy-centric assessment), while the proposed approach produces more consistent rankings, representing both functions. Moreover, a scenario-based analysis compares the three assessments to a control (no-assessment) scenario, considering all detached houses built in Aotearoa New Zealand over the past 5 years. The GFA-centric assessment resulted in increased total impacts (mean difference +0.20% across the four impact categories) by promoting larger and less dense buildings (+0.70 m² per occupant), while the occupancy-centric assessment led to mean impact reductions of -1.98%, while significantly reducing the space per occupant by 0.98m². The proposed approach achieved even greater impact reductions (-2.22%) while reducing space by only 0.31m² per occupant. Finally, a correlation with national climate goals was made, showing the approach could achieve 71.65% of the national carbon reduction target.

text: Integrating occupancy density into the environmental assessment of residential buildings: Towards embodied impact reduction at both building and urban level Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) of buildings typically use gross floor area (GFA)-centric functional units, while urban-scale assessments use occupancy-centric ones. This mismatch reflects the dual functions of buildings (providing space and shelter) and can lead to conflicting strategies, where reducing impacts per GFA at the building level may increase impacts per occupant at the urban level. This study compares these assessment approaches and introduces a dual-functional unit approach that evaluates buildings across both functions. Eight detached houses are assessed using LCA across four impact categories and ranked using a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method for each approach. Results show significant variation in rankings among the established approaches, with several buildings having completely opposite outcomes (e.g., ranked 1st in the GFA-centric assessment but 6th in the occupancy-centric assessment), while the proposed approach produces more consistent rankings, representing both functions. Moreover, a scenario-based analysis compares the three assessments to a control (no-assessment) scenario, considering all detached houses built in Aotearoa New Zealand over the past 5 years. The GFA-centric assessment resulted in increased total impacts (mean difference +0.20% across the four impact categories) by promoting larger and less dense buildings (+0.70 m² per occupant), while the occupancy-centric assessment led to mean impact reductions of -1.98%, while significantly reducing the space per occupant by 0.98m². The proposed approach achieved even greater impact reductions (-2.22%) while reducing space by only 0.31m² per occupant. Finally, a correlation with national climate goals was made, showing the approach could achieve 71.65% of the national carbon reduction target.

year: 2025

title: Speaking and writing English

authors: Miller, Jim

abstract: The study of spoken English is exciting, challenging, and controversial: exciting, because new and unexpected constructions keep turning up; challenging, because some syntactic constructions of spoken language resist analysis; controversial, because not all researchers recognize the study of spoken language as legitimate, far less its results. The very title of this chapter is controversial, since spoken language tout court does not differ from written language and analysts recognize genres or dimensions applying to both speech and writing (see Section 27.5). Nonetheless, spontaneous spoken language (Miller Weinert 1998) or conversation (Greenbaum and Nelson 1995a) is very different from other genres and that is the focus of this chapter.

text: Speaking and writing English The study of spoken English is exciting, challenging, and controversial: exciting, because new and unexpected constructions keep turning up; challenging, because some syntactic constructions of spoken language resist analysis; controversial, because not all researchers recognize the study of spoken language as legitimate, far less its results. The very title of this chapter is controversial, since spoken language tout court does not differ from written language and analysts recognize genres or dimensions applying to both speech and writing (see Section 27.5). Nonetheless, spontaneous spoken language (Miller Weinert 1998) or conversation (Greenbaum and Nelson 1995a) is very different from other genres and that is the focus of this chapter.

year: 2020

title: Research and development absorptive capacity: a Māori perspective

authors: Ruckstuhl, Katharina

subjects: computer science

abstract: This paper presents a view of research and development absorptive capacity from a Māori perspective. The assessment is part of a case study of a longitudinal programme – Science for Technological Innovation: Kia kotahi mai – Te Ao Putaiao me te Ao Hanagarau that aims to increase Aotearoa New Zealand’s capacity to use sci-tech for economic benefit. The paper finds that while Aotearoa New Zealand’s macro policy and meso institutional levels have become more responsive to Māori research and development demands, at the micro level of the individual or the firm there are still constraints given the small numbers of Māori in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. In response to this, a novel model of Māori sci-tech capacity is under development that considers not only research and development technical capacities, but also the human and relational capacities required to accelerate absorptive capacity to respond to Māori social and economic aspirations.

text: Research and development absorptive capacity: a Māori perspective This paper presents a view of research and development absorptive capacity from a Māori perspective. The assessment is part of a case study of a longitudinal programme – Science for Technological Innovation: Kia kotahi mai – Te Ao Putaiao me te Ao Hanagarau that aims to increase Aotearoa New Zealand’s capacity to use sci-tech for economic benefit. The paper finds that while Aotearoa New Zealand’s macro policy and meso institutional levels have become more responsive to Māori research and development demands, at the micro level of the individual or the firm there are still constraints given the small numbers of Māori in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. In response to this, a novel model of Māori sci-tech capacity is under development that considers not only research and development technical capacities, but also the human and relational capacities required to accelerate absorptive capacity to respond to Māori social and economic aspirations.

year: 2019