From FORESIGHT Climate & Energy, The Urban Report is a podcast that takes a close look at how cities around the world are transitioning to net-zero. Every two weeks, host Sean Carroll has in-depth conversations with some of the most interesting minds working on sustainability in the built environment today. From making local mobility greener to improving energy efficiency in buildings, there’s never been a better time to explore the climate transition from an urban perspective.
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From FORESIGHT Climate & Energy, The Urban Report is a podcast that takes a close look at how cities around the world are transitioning to net-zero. Every two weeks, host Sean Carroll has in-depth conversations with some of the most interesting minds working on sustainability in the built environment today. From making local mobility greener to improving energy efficiency in buildings, there’s never been a better time to explore the climate transition from an urban perspective.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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While reducing emissions is a global goal, the means of doing so inevitably varies by region. Climate mitigation measures must adapt to diverse contexts, making one-size-fits-all solutions difficult to apply.
The built environment provides a particularly salient example of how drastically approaches can differ across the globe.
In Europe, it is not uncommon for people to live and work in buildings constructed many decades, even centuries, ago. The continents’ built heritage has a cultural and historical value which translates to older buildings being restored rather than demolished (with some notable exceptions).
This means that much of Europe’s efforts to cut emissions from its building stock revolves around renovation—improving the energy efficiency of existing buildings.
In Japan, by contrast, homes are generally constructed to last for only 30 years before being demolished and rebuilt. This approach of tearing down and rebuilding is partly due to the ever-present threat of destructive natural disasters facing Japan, such as earthquakes, but it is also tied to the culturally-important concept of impermanence.
As a result, the European approach of widespread renovations is less important in the Japanese context, as many buildings are not intended to be standing in a century’s time.
So, given their diversity, what can Europe and Japan teach one another about decarbonising the built environment? This episode of The Urban Report features a roundtable discussion with built environment experts hailing from Denmark and Japan.
Claus Mathiesen of Urban Partners, Signe Kongebro of Henning Larsen Architects, Jakob Norman-Hansen of BLOXHUB and noted Japanese architect Jun Mitsui join the show to examine the cultural differences in the approach to sustainability in the Nordic countries and Japan, and what it will take individually and collectively to meet our climate goals in the built environment.
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If you have any thoughts or questions about anything that has been discussed in this week’s episode, you can reach Sean at his X account: Sean Carroll
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