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Tag: Treibhausgas

  • Digital solution makes progress on greenhouse gases visible

    Digital solution makes progress on greenhouse gases visible

    The Zurich-based company Integrale Planung GmbH(Intep) has launched a new emissions tracker designed to make it much easier for SMEs to get started with carbon footprinting, according to a press release. The web-based tool also visualises the results and enables a multi-year comparison. The aim is to make progress clearly visible and measurable.

    The Emission Tracker is based on the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and covers all three scopes, including indirect emissions along the value chain. The emission factors have been scientifically validated and are updated regularly. Activity and emissions data that Intep was able to collect during its project work also enables a simplified calculation methodology using industry averages.

    The visualised results provide an overview of the main sources of emissions, from energy supply to expenditure and investment. A PDF report can be used for communication and also offers practical tips for reducing emissions. With the Emission Tracker Plus, companies can also receive an additional two hours of personalised advice from Intep experts.

    “SMEs in particular often lack the financial resources, the right tools and the necessary expertise,” explains Dr Lisa Winter, Managing Director at Intep Berlin. “With the Emission Tracker, we provide them with a low-threshold introduction to greenhouse gas balancing.” Associations, municipalities and large companies can also benefit by acquiring licences for their SME network as part of the Emission Tracker partnership.

  • “Green” asphalt: a milestone towards climate-friendly road construction

    “Green” asphalt: a milestone towards climate-friendly road construction

    By 2037, Basel-Stadt aims to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions on cantonal territory to net zero. Conventional asphalt used in road construction produces greenhouse gases. The canton plans to carry out road renovations in a targeted manner and to use asphalt sparingly, in a degradable and sorted manner. In future, “green” asphalt with vegetable carbon will be used for renovations in order to reduce the CO2 footprint of road construction.

    IWB in Basel produces certified vegetable carbon from green waste in a plant under oxygen exclusion. The heat released is used for the district heating network. The remaining plant carbon contains the carbon component of the CO2 extracted during plant growth. This removes CO2 from the atmosphere in the long term. The Basel-Stadt Civil Engineering Office and the Institute for Construction Materials Technology ViaTec Basel AG have developed and tested asphalt mixtures with plant carbon. Vegetable carbon asphalt meets Swiss standards, is of high quality and durable. The costs are slightly higher than for conventional asphalt.

    Since 2022, the plant charcoal asphalt has been tested on a recycled construction material transfer site. Positive results show that one tonne of the mixture permanently binds 50 kilograms of CO2. The CO2 sequestration exceeds the release during production, transport and paving. The pavement is “CO2-negative”. The area-wide use of this technology is planned.

    The Basel-Stadt civil engineering office is working with regional pavement mixing plants to simplify the production of the mix. The civil engineering offices of Basel-Landschaft and Basel-Stadt are exchanging experiences. The Construction and Transport Department of Basel-City is planning to use vegetable charcoal asphalt throughout the country for road rehabilitation. This could save around 1,250 tonnes of CO2 equivalent annually and exceed the amount of CO2 produced by road construction by 450 tonnes.

  • New Empa and Eawag campus takes shape

    New Empa and Eawag campus takes shape

    The Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research (Empa) and the ETH Domain’s water research institute, Eawag, are expanding their campus on the Empa site in Dübendorf, which will soon go into operation under the name co-operate, according to a media release. The architecture and design of the extension are conceived as a “signpost” for climate and environmentally friendly building and show approaches for less resource consumption and minimal CO2 emissions, for more circular economy through less material consumption as well as for gaining and saving energy, it says.

    A attractive building has been erected near the entrance to the campus. The construction is a wood-concrete car park, which was realised by Implenia using a hybrid construction method. Instead of concrete ribbed ceilings, wooden beam ceilings were used over an area of 9300 square metres. As a result, the building requires considerably thinner concrete layers and reduces the consumption of cement, which is “harmful to the climate”.

    According to Kevin Olas, head of Empa’s real estate division, lighting, electrical lines and sewage pipes had to be installed with consideration for the aesthetics of the hybrid construction. In addition, the modular construction method using prefabricated parts had to be used in view of climate change. This meant that parts of the building could be converted into workshops, for example.

    In addition to building materials such as steel, concrete and wooden elements, human “raw materials” can also be recycled: urine, for example, is suitable as a raw material for fertiliser production because it contains the nutrients nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. The urine collection system NoMix-WCs installed in the laboratory building creates the raw material for the recycled fertiliser Aurin. This is marketed by the Eawag spin-off Vuna.

    Other building blocks on the campus include photovoltaics, recycled asphalt and no asphalt in the landscaping, which focuses on promoting biodiversity and provides for the planting of a diverse flora.

    Source: empa.ch