ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study determined the status, in 2012, of the implementation of Sustainable solutions (SS) to commercial buildings in the City of Johannesburg. The term “going green” was seen as an alternative approach to business, but demonstrated necessity in the property industry. As greenhouse gas emissions drive the rising average global temperature at an alarming rate, the business environment cannot only be aware of the impact that business industries have on the livelihood of the growing population, but need to act promptly to ensure sustainability. Environmental sustainability is an important topic in decision making for businesses in South Africa and this study grouped renewable energy (RE) and energy efficiency (EE) to create sustainable solutions as the main concept of environmental sustainability. Renewable energy refers to finding an energy source like the sun or wind, but the main focus is on the purpose of sustainability of the energy resource and the supply. Eskom obtains 97% of their electricity for South Africa from coal power plants, but the reality is that coal is a limited resource that will not be available indefinitely unlike renewable energy. Energy efficiency on the other hand focuses on reducing the energy requirements of commercial buildings. As this concept received sufficient attention in South Africa, the present study was conducted to obtain further information to drive energy efficient practices. With energy efficiency, making basic adjustments in the design of new buildings to use less electricity can greatly contribute to their longevity and reduce the overall running costs that in turn enhance the sustainability for organisations that own or manage properties. By gathering the principals for renewable energy from natural resources and implementing energy efficient practices, the concept of sustainable solutions was conceived. The implementation of sustainable solutions also increases the value of properties, fosters economic enhancement, fosters socioeconomic improvement and most importantly improves the environment by reducing carbon emissions.

Water shortage is one of the greatest challenges that the world faces today. International and national water initiatives are increasing simultaneously with the number of implemented drinking-water projects. The provision of sustainable safe drinking-water supply is here conceptualized through the Sustainable Livelihood Approach with the view of helping poor people secure their essential basic needs, improve their quality of health and increase their livelihood opportunities. However, a lot of drinking-water projects do not end up with satisfactory outcomes. Widespread results have demonstrated low quality water resource management, worsened access to water supply, constructions shutting down and not the least, that consumers have not been able to take advantage of their new basic drinking-water systems. Projects have often failed in remote rural areas in developing countries where strong social norms, cultural values and power structures prevail. The research is based on identifying and analyzing to what extent past drinking-water projects have addressed public participation and been aware of social, cultural and structural surrounding factors. By using Gunilla Åkesson’s sociological framework the research also addresses the role and value of sociological aspects in drinking-water projects. It is found that past projects have often failed to include public participation and lacked situational awareness to a sufficient extent. The research show the importance for projects staff, managers and technicians to take into account social behaviors, cultural norms and societal structures in the local environment and to provide local people with health awareness and education. By taking this into consideration it would enable people to change their behavior and take advantage of the improved drinking-water systems provided for them. In conclusion, there is a need to address more sociological aspects in water resource management in order to promote sustainable safe drinking-water supplies in remote rural areas in developing countries. It can be argued that this is not only applicable in drinking-water projects but also in other areas of fields within grass root development work.

Objectives: Explain ideas to achieve meaningful, synergistic partnerships in combating the opioid crisis by leveraging unique areas of healthcare expertise (i.e., medical, payer, pharmacy) in collaboration with other key healthcare and policy experts. Describe innovative, results-driven solutions in development or in the marketplace to address opioid prescribing practices from the unique perspective of providers, pharmacists, health plans, patients and caregivers. Learn about the system breakdowns from patient and family member perspectives. Share possibilities for better integrating the voice and role of individuals living with addiction and caregivers into important solutions combating the opioid crisis. Identify the greatest, most near-term opportunities for improvements or system-wide changes, generally and for PQA.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-26T13:28:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 texto completo.pdf: 3403228 bytes, checksum: 8ccd0606f89da5ea0762960e15800c76 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-09-30 / The new buildings, resulting from physical expansion of the UFV can cause impacts, particularly regarding energy demand. Seen from this perspective it is important to tailor projects to UFV that buildings are energy efficient when put into use. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate and rate the energy efficiency of buildings still in desing stage so that necessary adjustments are made before the execution of the building. Thus, the aim of this paper is to propose guidelines for the implementation of sustainable and nergy efficient solutions in buildings in the Campus of UFV/Viçosa. As the object of study hás become the Building Health, part of the works of REUNI/UFV that is in the process of implementing the Campus UFV/Viçosa since September 2009. The evaluation and classification of this building were performed using the Prescribed Method of tagging, which is a classifiction of perfomance requirements of the building of the three parts: the envelope, the lighting system anda ir conditioning system. Though this work can be seen that the Classification and Labellign of Buildins is na efficient technique to avaluate energy consumption of building and, if incorporated into the routine of preparing for construction work for the Campus UFV/Viçosa, contribute to the minimization of costs energy and performance for a more sustainable infrastructure of this instituition, and constitue na important benchmark for society. / Os novos edifícios, decorrentes da expansão física da UFV podem ocasionar impactos, principalmente quanto à demanda energética. Considerando-se essa perspectiva, é importante para a UFV adequar os projetos para que os edifícios sejam energeticamente eficientes quando postos em uso. Para tanto, é necessário avaliar e classificar a eficiência energética dos edifícios ainda na etapa de projeto, para que as adequações necessárias sejam feitas antes da execução do edifício. Nesse sentido, o objetivo geral deste trabalho é propor diretrizes para a implementação de soluções energeticamente eficientes e sustentáveis em edifícios do Campus da UFV/Viçosa. Como objeto de estudo tomou-se o Edifício da Saúde, que faz parte das obras do REUNI/UFV que se encontra em processo de execução no Campus UFV/Viçosa desde setembro de 2009. A avaliação e classificação deste edifício foram realizadas utilizando-se o Método Prescritivo de Etiquetagem, que consiste em uma classificação dos requisitos relativos ao desempenho de três partes do edifício: a envoltória, o sistema de iluminação e o sistema de condicionamento do ar. Por meio deste trabalho pode-se observar que a Etiquetagem e Classificação de Edifícios é uma eficiente técnica para avaliar consumo energético de edificações e, se incorporada à rotina de elaboração de projetos de obras para os campi da UFV, contribuirá para a minimização dos custos de energia e para um desempenho mais sustentável da infra-estrutura desta instituição, além de se constituir num importante referencial para a sociedade.

As one of the poorest countries in the world, Tanzania faces various kinds of problems. The housing situation is poor in the whole country, especially in rural areas where the main part of the population lives in mud houses. The report is focused on modern houses and is aimed at finding sustainable low cost solutions to be used as alternatives for existing techniques. The report is based on a field study in the Mamba district, Tanzania during 8 weeks in 2009. The traditional mud houses are poor and do not live up to a decent standard of living. The living conditions are extremely primitive in these houses and pose a health risk to the occupants. Modern houses provide a better standard of living and are good investments for future generations. The building design and technology can be rationalised and improved and building costs can be reduced through alternative methods. There are several ways in which building costs can be reduced. Focus should be on using local materials to minimise expensive transport costs. Cement is the single most expensive building material and should be replaced by other materials where possible. However, it is important that sustainability of the construction is not impaired. In the long term, it is better to invest in proper sustainable building structures even if the costs will increase. This study has resulted in sustainable low cost alternatives to the current building technology that the local builders can benefit from. Tradition is strong in Tanzania and changes may take long to implement. The alterations suggested and discussed in this report can be considered as a good basis for development of the current building design and technology in the Mamba district.

<p>As one of the poorest countries in the world, Tanzania faces various kinds of problems. The housing situation is poor in the whole country, especially in rural areas where the main part of the population lives in mud houses.</p><p>The report is focused on modern houses and is aimed at finding sustainable low cost solutions to be used as alternatives for existing techniques.</p><p>The report is based on a field study in the Mamba district, Tanzania during 8 weeks in 2009.</p><p>The traditional mud houses are poor and do not live up to a decent standard of living. The living conditions are extremely primitive in these houses and pose a health risk to the occupants. Modern houses provide a better standard of living and are good investments for future generations. The building design and technology can be rationalised and improved and building costs can be reduced through alternative methods.</p><p>There are several ways in which building costs can be reduced. Focus should be on using local materials to minimise expensive transport costs. Cement is the single most expensive building material and should be replaced by other materials where possible. However, it is important that sustainability of the construction is not impaired. In the long term, it is better to invest in proper sustainable building structures even if the costs will increase.</p><p>This study has resulted in sustainable low cost alternatives to the current building technology that the local builders can benefit from. Tradition is strong in Tanzania and changes may take long to implement. The alterations suggested and discussed in this report can be considered as a good basis for development of the current building design and technology in the Mamba district.</p>

In order to minimize greenhouse gas emissions and operational cost related to the ICT-infrastructure the power management method of a Radio Base Station (RBS) or Base Transceiver Station (BTS) at Ericsson is studied and modelled. The major load demand at RBS’s are due to uplink and downlink data traffic. Ericssons RBS’s contains power resources and energy storage systems that are controlled by a power controller module in order to meet load demand. Such power resources may be AC-grid, generator and photovoltaic cells etc. Using a certain power resource entails a distinct cost and emission. This thesis investigates the influence that the power controller logic has on cost and emission using two frameworks. One framework models the power resource management in the form of a hybrid dynamical system. Using this framework a new management policy is investigated and compared with the current management policy. The second framework investigates the usage of MPC for controlling the power sources during operation. Using this framework a third management policy is introduced and compared with the current implementation. The performance of the three management policies are compared by simulating a standard RBS operation scenario. The results show that during a RBS scenario where the grid will never fail the third management method using MPC outperforms the other two management policies. In the RBS scenario that the grid may fail the second management method outperforms the current implementation. The implication of these results may be that during a scenario of no grid failure it is more advantageous to decrease emission and cost by using a supervisory control method. During a scenario where grid failure may occur using the second management method, where battery is used as more than just a back-up unit, is more advantageous for decreasing emission and cost. / För att minimera utsläpp av växthusgaser och driftskostnader inom ICT-infrastrukturen studeras och modelleras effekt-hanteringen för en radiobasstation (RBS) eller Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) på Ericsson. Det stora belastningsbehovet hos en RBS beror på upplänk och nedlänksdatatrafik. Ericssons RBS innehåller kraftresurser och energi lagringssystem som styrs av en effektkontrollmodul för att möta lastbehovet. Sådana kraftresurser kan vara AC-nät, generator eller solceller etc. Användandet av en viss kraftresurs medför en distinkt driftkostnad och utsläpp. Detta examensarbete undersöker effekten som kontrollmodulens logik har på kostnad och emission genom två tillvägagångssätt. Ett tillvägagångssätt modellerar effekt-hanteringen i form av ett hybrid dynamiskt system. Med detta tillvägagångssätt utreds en ny resurs förvaltningspolicy och jämförs med den nuvarande implementerade policyn. Det andra tillvägagångssättet undersöker användningen av MPC för att styra effekt-hanteringen under drift. Detta tillvägagångssätt leder till en tredje förvaltningspolicy som jämförs med den nuvarande implementerade policyn. Prestandan av de tre förvaltningspolicyerna jämförs genom att simulera olika scenarion av RBS-drift. Resultaten visar att under ett RBS-scenario där nätet aldrig kommer att förloras överträffar den tredje förvaltningspolicyn som använder MPC, de andra två förvaltningsmetoderna. I ett RBS scenario där nätet kan förloras överträffar den andra förvaltningsmetoden den nuvarande implementeringen. Resultaten tyder på att under ett scenario utan nätfel är det mer fördelaktigt för att minska utsläpp och kostnader genom att använda den tredje förvaltningsmetoden. Under ett scenario där nätfel kan inträffa är den andra förvaltningsmetoden, där batteriet används som mer än bara en reservenhet, mer fördelaktig för att minska utsläpp och kostnader.