Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2012. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 92-98). / Residential energy efficiency in the U.S. has the potential to generate significant energy, carbon, and financial savings. Nonetheless, the market of home energy upgrades remains fragmented, and the number of homes being retrofitted remains insignificant compared to the volume of inefficient housing stock. Providing more complete information on the energy performance of homes can enable buyers and sellers to value energy efficiency and can catalyze the delivery of residential energy efficiency. To that end, the European Union and five cities in the U.S. and Australia have implemented, in recent years, the use of residential building labeling to convey home energy performance to market stakeholders. The transparency provided through such building labeling has the potential to tear down common barriers to efficiency and to provide ways for owners, tenants, homebuyers, and lenders alike to engage in home energy efficiency. However, there are numerous concerns surrounding the current approaches to building labeling, and the methods in use today are highly heterogeneous, leading to significant uncertainty surrounding this emerging policy tool. In particular, this thesis describes how building labeling can be optimized for the delivery of residential energy efficiency, focusing specifically on the type of rating that could be used and on the approach to disclosing home energy performance. To achieve this, the thesis examines literature and provides case studies of four cities in the U.S. that have implemented residential energy labeling. These case studies provide insight into the shortcomings of approaches in use today, as well as a look at the beneficial methods utilized in each city. In conjunction, the thesis examines the approach the E.U. is using, the role of the private sector, and voluntary approaches in the U.S. Based on the approaches discussed in the literature and case studies, there are several key attributes that a well-designed building labeling program should have. One key determination is that a strong labeling policy should combine asset ratings (based on an on-site assessment) and operational ratings (based on billing data) to maximize the clarity, functionality, and comparability of labels. Additionally, a well-designed labeling policy should maintain privacy while facilitating information access to the right stakeholders at the right time. Drawing on these findings, this thesis proposes a new model of disclosing residential energy performance. The model, centered on web-enabled data analysis and access, has the potential to provide timely, consistent, and visible ratings to key market actors and, in turn, provide more complete information to residential markets on building efficiency. This approach also combines multiple data sources and requirements into a single platform, in order to streamline the rating and disclosure process. This model offers several advantages for catalyzing residential energy efficiency, as compared to existing approaches. / by Nikhil S. Nadkarni. / M.C.P.

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies, 1987. / Bibliography: leaves 86-87. / by Anniken Kloster. / M.C.P.

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1985. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Bibliography: leaves 52-57. / by Manuel Amaya Orellana. / M.C.P.

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1984. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Bibliography: leaves 74-76. / Margaret Schmitt. / M.C.P.

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1984. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Bibliography: leaf [51]. / by Thomas A. Stokes. / M.C.P.

Thesis (M.C.P.)-- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning; and, (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1974. / What is a good housing environment for nurturing, a place where the physical environment reinforces the lives of both parents and child? This thesis looks at three married student housing sites in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in relation to these qualities, focussing on parents with children under four. Since the mother tends in these cases, to be the person usually spending most time at home with the child, it was their perceptions which were explored in detail. Peabody Terrace was found to be by far the most satisfactory of the three environments, and this, largely because of its location and the variety of both indoor and outdoor communal places it provides. There, mother and child can be either alone or together with other mothers and children, as well as involved in neighborhood activity. Although of the three, Peabody was by far the best, it still has some very serious shortcomings. For example, there are no physical arrangements possible for different lifestyles that are needed by families with young children. If two couples wish to share childcare and eating, the physical arrangement does not facilitate this. All three buildings work on the assumption of a completely independent, nuclear family, where the question of loneliness and physical isolation, especially of the women, has not been considered. Another important aspect, is the greater significance that the environment assumes when one spends more time at home. The qualities of comfort, visual variety, color, light, views out and personal identity, all assume greater significance. Surveilled space for child's play indoors, while parents are preoccupied with other things, such as cooking, doing the laundry, or reading, is essential, if unnecessary frustration is to be avoided. Children also learn from the environment and if, for instance, they cannot see out of their apartment, because all the windows are too high, this can be a serious inhibition. Sometimes, mothers are forced to spend a lot of time lifting the child up, allowing them the opportunity to Fee out. All these simple factors being missing, surely represent the distance between the designer (usually male) and the user of the environment. Women architects and researchers could help to create and advocate more humane and rich environments for the special needs of nurturing. / by Reena Racki. / M.Arch. / M.C.P.

Thesis: M.C.P., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, 2018. / This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. / Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 130-143). / Since 2000, Malaysia's GDP has risen by 264.4% and its population by 30.4%. The government has strongly pushed economic growth and development and aims to reach high-income status by 2020. At the same time, Malaysia has publicly committed to reduce its carbon intensity on a GDP basis by up to 45%. The outcome of this tension between Malaysia's development ambitions and its climate change goals may foreshadow the carbon trajectory for much of the rest of the developing world that will similarly seek to obtain high-income status in the coming decades. Through a series of in-country interviews in January 2018, I explored the workings of Malaysia's carbon mitigation policy ecosystem to understand what Malaysia has already done to implement its decarbonization objectives and what remains to be accomplished. I find that in three of Malaysia's core carbon mitigation policy sectors -- transportation and urban planning, renewable energy, and forestry -- the government and other actors have implemented a range of mitigation approaches. While the government, NGOs, corporations, and the public have achieved some initial successes, many barriers still inhibit mitigation efforts. I also identify cross-cutting themes from the interviews that operate within the policy sectors and the carbon mitigation policy ecosystem as a whole. These themes both enable and inhibit carbon mitigation. These include: a diversity of actors; state transfer pathways; internalization of exogenous drivers; a focus on sustainability planning and action; federal-state friction; absence of climate control hub; limited government enforcement, capacity, and regulation; and sustainability and development aspirations and constraints. I further find that both the policy sectors and these themes fit within the theories of decarbonization pathways and carbon lock-in. I conclude by offering six core recommendations to the new Malaysian government that won office on May 9, 2018 that focus on driving both carbon mitigation and economic growth: improve public transportation connectivity, maximize the efficacy of existing renewable energy policies, shift the energy system, align federal and state incentives around forest protection, improve the government's internal program management, and start adaptation efforts now. / by Griffin Smith. / M.C.P.

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1991. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 117-120). / by Josep Maria Fargas i Texidó. / M.C.P.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 74-76). / by David Collins Provost, II. / M.S.

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 110-114). / by Monica F. Pinhanez. / M.C.P.