Building for a Hotter Future: Smart Design Solutions to Cut Building Energy Use, Particularly in the Global South

Buildings in hot climate zones face unique challenges in reducing energy use and CO₂ emissions, especially as urbanization and population growth drive new construction. This study examines how different design choices and technologies can help make buildings more energy-efficient while keeping them comfortable in high temperatures. Using computer simulations, the researchers tested five building types—ranging from homes to offices—across five hot climate regions. They explored a mix of passive design strategies (like better windows, reflective roofs, and solar shading), active cooling systems, and renewable energy options to see which solutions had the greatest impact.

The results show that simple changes, such as improving windows and adding shading, can significantly reduce cooling needs. More advanced systems, like hybrid ventilation and decentralized cooling units, further improve efficiency, while solar energy solutions help offset electricity use. The study also found that climate change will increase cooling demand in the future, making energy-efficient design even more critical. Notably, residential buildings had the greatest potential for achieving low-carbon or even zero-carbon status, while offices and hotels posed greater challenges due to their higher energy use.

To turn these insights into action, the study highlights the need for stronger policies and building codes, particularly in the Global South, where energy-efficient design is less widely implemented. The findings provide a roadmap for decision-makers to develop strategies that balance affordability with sustainability. By combining modern technology with lessons from traditional architecture, buildings in hot climates can become more efficient, reducing emissions while improving comfort and resilience in a warming world.

Overview of building types showing floorplans and basic renderings.

Citation

Österreicher, D., & Seerig, A. (2024). Buildings in hot climate zones—Quantification of energy and CO₂ reduction potential for different architecture and building services measures. Sustainability, 16(22), 9812. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16229812

Hard Truths to Muddle Through Tough Times

Here are today's quotes. Once again, there seems to be an underlying theme of impending doom. Perhaps that's a bit of an extreme take—or perhaps not.

Yaounde, Cameroon - no real connection to the content here. I just liked the photo and wanted to share.

1. Keith Payne, The Broken Ladder
   "When people escape an impoverished background, they, too, are gone forever in a sense. Even if they return, they think differently, speak differently, and even eat differently. A family member once told me she didn’t want to set up education funds for her children because people came back from college as atheists. And what good is increased earnings potential when compared to eternal damnation?"
   Goodreads

2. Stuart Brown, M.D. & Christopher Vaughan, Play
   "When we stop playing, we stop developing, and when that happens, the laws of entropy take over—things fall apart. Ultimately, we share the fate of the sea squirt and become vegetative, staying in one spot, not fully interacting with the world, more plant than animal. When we stop playing, we start dying."
   Goodreads

3. Li Yuan, China’s Police Are Preying on Small Firms in Search of Cash
   "The money grabs are a sign of just how financially desperate local governments are. The country’s housing market has unraveled. Income from land sales, which used to make up about a third of local government revenue, fell by nearly one-third last year from the peak in 2021, according to the finance ministry."
   The New York Times

4. Washington Post, What Canada’s Carbon Pricing Ruling Says About the Global Struggle Against Climate Change
   "Climate action is rife with problems—from free riders to dissenting ideology, to science denialism, to domineering capital interests, and beyond." (i.e., it is a wicked problem)
   Washington Post

5. Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Strongmen
   "On one issue, the strongman has been consistent: his drive to control and exploit everyone and everything for personal gain."
   Goodreads

Climate Action: Indicators of Progress

Bouygues Construction has partnered with Ecocem to use its low-carbon ‘ACT’ cement, which reduces CO2 emissions by 70%. After rigorous testing at facilities in France and a full-scale mock-up, Bouygues will evaluate the cement's performance under typical site conditions. Ecocem’s ACT technology, launched in 2022, replaces 70% of traditional clinker with alternative materials, marking a significant step in construction sector decarbonization. Ecocem is expanding its production capacity, with a U.S. factory planned.

Bouygues agrees to use low-carbon cement brand after testing it

Global Construction Review

January 8: Wednesday

Just quotes today - and a photo.

Quotes

"Arguably the biggest threat to our national security today is our division and inability to cooperate. We don’t want to think we are already in our day after, but the assumption we can survive as a country while mired in our political wars is a dangerous complacency." (A.B. Stoddard, The Day My Father Scared America)

"Don’t preach and hope for ownership; implement mechanisms that actually give ownership. Eliminating the tickler did that for us. Eliminating top-down monitoring systems will do it for you. I’m not talking about eliminating data collection and measuring processes that simply report conditions without judgment. Those are important as they “make the invisible visible.” What you want to avoid are the systems whereby senior personnel are determining what junior personnel should be doing." (L. David Marquet and Stephen R. Covey, Turn the Ship Around!)

"One of the weakest links in the chain is the lack of resiliency built into homes. Building codes represent the minimum legal requirements for house construction and do not take extremes into consideration." (Plant News, As Climate Changes, the Way We Build Homes Must Change Too - PLANT)

"The novelist Thomas Mann noted in his diary on March 27, 1933, two months after Hitler had become German chancellor, that he had witnessed a revolution of a kind never seen before, “without underlying ideas, against ideas, against everything nobler, better, decent, against freedom, truth and justice." The “common scum" had taken power, “accompanied by vast rejoicing on the part of the masses." (Robert O. Paxton, The Anatomy of Fascism)

"Sometimes the best lesson learned on the battlefield was that of modesty, but modesty was not yet a virtue in Tenth Corps—audacity for audacity’s sake was." (David Halberstam, The Coldest Winter)

Systemic Health: Reconnecting for Resilience and Belonging

The Story

Today's quotes brought this narrative forward.

Human systems—biological, social, and environmental—are held together by the flow of information and connection. As Donella Meadows highlights, the exchange of information is fundamental to how systems operate and evolve. When these flows are disrupted or misaligned, systems falter, revealing opportunities for intervention and growth.

Consider the connection between diet and health. Research into gut microbiomes, as reported by The New York Times, shows how individual choices, such as eating minimally processed foods, foster beneficial bacteria and support overall health. This small-scale system of inputs and outputs illustrates how seemingly minor adjustments can lead to profound shifts in outcomes, echoing the principles of systems thinking.

On a societal level, fostering resilience requires a similar approach: paying attention to the flows that sustain or undermine the system. As the IIED points out, “development as usual” fails to account for the interwoven risks of climate change. Only by mainstreaming climate resilience into development policies can countries reduce vulnerabilities and create sustainable pathways for growth.

However, these connections are not only practical but also deeply human. Erich Fromm reminds us that people gravitate toward connection—whether through religion, nationalism, or other shared systems of meaning—as a refuge from isolation. This drive to belong can either reinforce existing systems or inspire transformation when people seek more equitable ways to connect and thrive.

This insight resonates strongly in today’s world. An "epidemic" of loneliness is creating a void of connection that leaves individuals vulnerable to ideologies offering a sense of belonging, even when these ideologies reinforce harmful systems. As democratic backsliding and the rise of authoritarian leaders become more common, it becomes clear that isolation—both social and systemic—can foster a susceptibility to control. Authoritarianism often provides the illusion of unity and purpose, exploiting the human need for connection that Fromm describes.

In this context, strengthening systems of genuine connection—through equitable policies, resilient communities, and inclusive narratives—becomes not only a goal of governance but a bulwark against the isolation that fuels instability. By recognizing and addressing these vulnerabilities, we can rebuild systems that prioritize collective well-being over division, ensuring that the human need for connection fosters resilience rather than repression.

What can you do? 

Start by reconnecting with the people and organizations around you. Just as small dietary changes, like eating minimally processed foods, can improve your gut health, small social actions—joining local community groups, volunteering with grassroots organizations, or simply reaching out to neighbors—can improve the health of your social ecosystem. Building and nurturing these connections not only strengthens your personal sense of belonging but also contributes to a more resilient and inclusive society. These small steps ripple outward, helping to counter the forces of isolation and fostering systems of trust, collaboration, and shared purpose.

Quotes

"Many of the interconnections in systems operate through the flow of information. Information holds systems together and plays a great role in determining how they operate."
(Donella H. Meadows, Thinking in Systems)

"People who tended to eat minimally processed foods like vegetables, nuts, eggs and seafood were more likely to harbor beneficial gut bacteria."
(nytimes.com, How the Right Foods May Lead to a Healthier Gut, and Better Health)

"The most valuable lesson I’ve learned as a journalist is that everybody is interesting if you ask the right questions. If someone is dull or uninteresting, it’s on you."
(Kate Murphy, You're Not Listening)

"Meanwhile, there is growing consensus that ‘development as usual’ isn’t working: unless climate resilience is mainstreamed into development programmes and policies, countries risk increasing their vulnerability to climate change."
(iied.org, Framework Guides Local Governments Towards People-Led Climate-Resilient Development)

"Instead, for subordinates, the rejection of their society’s ideologies of subordination and even of the whole society may be necessary in order to facilitate positive group identity."
(Jim Sidanius and Felicia Pratto, Social Dominance)

"Religion and nationalism, as well as any custom and any belief however absurd and degrading, if it only connects the individual with others, are refuges from what man most dreads: isolation."
(Erich Fromm, Escape From Freedom)

Quotes for December 19, 2024

Reflections on Four Powerful Quotes

"Finally, new scientific evidence like last year’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report reveals that the impacts of climate change are leading to more devastating consequences sooner than anticipated, reinforcing the urgent need to curb emissions, drive adaptation and significantly increase financing for both."
–WRI.org, Next-Generation Climate Targets: A 5-Point Plan for NDCs

This quote resonates deeply because it’s grounded in an unflinching fact: the impacts of climate change are accelerating beyond expectations. The sooner we face this reality head-on, the sooner we can chart a path toward growth and resilience. Ignoring these truths is like squandering the legacy of our ancestors—the gifts of stability, resources, and opportunity they worked so hard to secure. We owe it to future generations to act decisively and stop living off borrowed time.

"He’s nothing. No substance. But having him there, the latest in a two-and-a-half-century-long line of American Presidents make people feel that the country, the culture that they grew up with is still here—that we’ll get through these bad times and back to normal.”
–Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Sower

Written in the early ’90s, Butler’s words feel eerily prescient today. They capture a dangerous illusion—that a figurehead, a symbol of stability, can somehow return us to “normal.” Denial won’t solve our problems. Pretending everything is fine or that we just need a strong leader to set things right is a recipe for failure. This is a time that demands clarity of thought and responsibility, not the dangerous mix of performative politics and authoritarian impulses that dominate our era. True leadership must be forward-thinking, rooted in care for generations to come.

"Because we are afraid of being embarrassed or hurt, we hold back our openness and our love."
–Adam Kahane, Power and Love

Kahane’s words remind us that true courage lies in vulnerability. Fear often holds us back—whether it’s the fear of failure, rejection, or looking foolish. But only by embracing openness and love, even in the face of potential pain, can we foster the connections and progress that truly matter.

"We construct our beliefs, mostly unconsciously, and thereafter they hold us captive. They can help us focus and make us more effective, but sadly, they also can limit us: they blind us to possibility and subject us to fog, fear, and doubt."
–Dave Gray, Liminal Thinking

Gray insightfully points out how the very beliefs we construct to navigate the world can also trap us. They provide structure but can also blind us to new possibilities, leaving us stuck in fear and self-doubt. In the midst of challenges, it’s easy to forget that many of our barriers are self-imposed. Remembering this truth can help us break free from those limitations and see the path forward more clearly. 

The Landscape Approach to Global Health

The relationship between personal health, community health, and landscape health can be understood as an interconnected system, where each component influences and is influenced by the others. From a climate perspective, this connection is especially significant, as environmental changes—such as shifts in temperature, precipitation patterns, or biodiversity—create cascading effects that impact health at multiple levels.

For example, changes in the landscape, such as deforestation or urbanization, can directly degrade air and water quality, leading to increased respiratory illnesses, waterborne diseases, and heat-related conditions. Conversely, the resilience of the landscape—its ability to sustain diverse ecosystems and provide critical services—helps buffer communities from health risks associated with climate extremes, such as floods, droughts, and heatwaves.

Examining these linkages through a climate lens opens the door to innovative approaches to health and environmental stewardship. For instance, restorative practices like reforestation, wetland conservation, and regenerative agriculture offer co-benefits for both the environment and communities. These practices can improve food security, reduce exposure to pollutants, and enhance mental health by providing greater access to green spaces.

The concept of biophilia—our innate connection to nature—further highlights the importance of healthy landscapes. Biodiverse and aesthetically rich environments have been shown to reduce stress, enhance cognitive function, and foster social cohesion. This reinforces the mental and emotional benefits of living in harmony with nature.

Additionally, climate change alters disease dynamics, creating new challenges for public health. For example, shifting ecosystems may provide habitats for disease vectors like mosquitoes, enabling the spread of illnesses such as malaria or dengue fever to regions previously unaffected. This demonstrates the need to integrate climate resilience into public health strategies to mitigate such risks.

Ultimately, the interplay between personal, community, and landscape health forms a dynamic and complex system. Adopting a holistic, climate-informed approach allows us to address the interdependencies between environmental health and human well-being. By doing so, we can create solutions that are more sustainable, equitable, and impactful across scales.

Article

Health and landscape approaches: A comparative review of integrated approaches to health and landscape management

This article explores the relationship between health and the landscape approach, a form of systems thinking. It focuses on three distinct applications of the systems approach, each grounded in unique ontological foundations.

Link to article

Description:

Landscape approaches focus on managing specific areas by bringing together ideas from different fields to create sustainable solutions. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on how people live, move, and interact with the environment, highlighting the need for health approaches that connect humans and nature. This has led to an increased focus on integrated health approaches in policy discussions.

Approaches like One Health, Ecohealth, and Planetary Health are all types of landscape approaches because they address the connections between health, the environment, and society. This study reviews these health-oriented approaches to understand their shared ideas and unique differences. It looks at their history, how they’ve developed, and their approaches to solving health and environmental challenges.

The study finds that all these approaches share key features, such as systems thinking, working across disciplines, and promoting collaboration across different fields. However, they differ in the specific problems they address, the areas they focus on, and the ontological roots (the underlying mindset) guiding their research. By examining these approaches together, the study suggests ways to strengthen landscape approaches by using health-focused methods to better understand the connections between health and landscapes.

Quotes for the Day - December 9th 2024

 Today was a rich day for quotes. Almost all of the ones in my Readwise feed resonated with me.

"Most people tend to think in terms of dichotomies: strong or weak, hardball or softball, win or lose. But that kind of thinking is fundamentally flawed. It’s based on power and position rather than on principle."
–Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"Collective ways of working such as collaboration and genuine partnerships are key aspects of climate integration and can support different stakeholders to enable climate integration across development programs."
–weadapt.org, Climate Risk Integration: A New Era for Aid and Development Programming - weADAPT

"You are the detective, always asking, “Why is this person telling me this?” understanding that speakers sometimes may not know the answer themselves. Good listeners help speakers figure that out by asking questions and encouraging elaboration."
–Kate Murphy, You're Not Listening

"Resilience thinking is the capacity to envisage your system as a self-organizing system with thresholds, linked domains, and cycles. Resilience practice is the capacity to work with the system in order to apply resilience thinking, to manage its resilience."
–Brian Walker, David Salt, Resilience Practice

"Not causing harm requires staying awake. Part of being awake is slowing down enough to notice what we say and do. The more we witness our emotional chain reactions and understand how they work, the easier it is to refrain. It becomes a way of life to stay awake, slow down, and notice."
–Pema Chödrön, When Things Fall Apart

"Being open with your insecurities paradoxically makes you more confident and charismatic around others. The pain of honest confrontation is what generates the greatest trust and respect in your relationships. Suffering through your fears and anxieties is what allows you to build courage and perseverance."
–Mark Manson, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

Video: Fighting Global Warming...

Here is a link to a video on Washingtonpost.com about how to reduce one's carbon footprint.

clipped from www.washingtonpost.com

'Fighting Global Warming One House at a Time'

March 2, 2007

washingtonpost.com Video by: Chesapeake Climate Action Network

Chesapeake Climate Action Network's Mike Tidwell describes how he and his wife save energy by using solar power and heating their home with a corn stove.

The Bush administration's plan to support alternative energy

My take on the clipped article:
A mandated cut in gasoline consumption is a mistake. What should be policy is implementation of a carbon tax. That way, the more fossil carbon you release the more you pay (pay as you go). The income can be earmarked for research/development/ and subsidy of alternative fuels. The higher cost coupled with the reduced out of pocket cost of the alternatives will limit gasoline consumption on its own.

clipped from www.businessweek.com

Karsner's job is to implement the Advanced Energy Initiative, announced by President Bush in his State of the Union address. The proposal calls for both the mandated cut in gasoline use and a 22% increase in clean-energy research to make clean energies competitive with those from fossil fuels. Karsner says his approach is "the opposite of what the legacy has been." He believes that since the 1970s the government has focused only on research and development, and needs to now shift more resources to commercialization and deployment. "It's time for a mass diffusion of new energy and technology into the American economy," he said in a Feb. 21 speech to alternative energy industry leaders and investors in New York. "Free-enterprise capitalism is the most effective route to bring clean energy into the economy."

Climate Change Denier?

From Global warming: the chilling effect on free speech

Whatever the truth about our warming planet, it is clear there is a tidal wave of intolerance in the debate about climate change which is eroding free speech and melting rational debate. There has been no decree from on high or piece of legislation outlawing climate change denial, and indeed there is no need to criminalise it, as the Australian columnist suggests. Because in recent months it has been turned into a taboo, chased out of polite society by a wink and a nod, letters of complaint, newspaper articles continually comparing climate change denial to Holocaust denial. An attitude of ‘You can’t say that!’ now surrounds debates about climate change, which in many ways is more powerful and pernicious than an outright ban. I am not a scientist or an expert on climate change, but I know what I don’t like - and this demonisation of certain words and ideas is an affront to freedom of speech and open, rational debate.

...

For all the talk of simply preserving the facts against climate change deniers, there is increasingly a pernicious moralism and authoritarianism in the attempts to silence certain individuals and groups. This is clear from the use of the term ‘climate change denier’, which, as Charles Jones argued, is an attempt to assign any ‘doubters’ with ‘the same moral repugnance one associates with Holocaust denial’ ...

I have used the term before. I thought it described the people who would ignore evidence, emphasize outlying evidence and deemphasize more common evidence, play rhetorical word games, etc. in order to be critical of anthropogenic climate change fairly well. There was absolutely no connection in my mind between a climate change "denier" and a Holocaust denier. In fact this seems a dubious connection that is more designed itself to extinguish free speech. If ever you are confronted with someone who is obviously in denial you better not mention that fact or you will be accused of trying to associate them with Holocaust denial. What rubbish.

Having said that though I have come to the conclusion that, in terms of the climate change debate, such a term is not helpful. It just sets up tribalistic camps that are not conducive to open discussion. It may be hard to tell by the news coverage of late but there is still plenty of work to do on understanding climate change and the human role in it (this is not to say we should take no action on it). Open debate is the means by which we in open societies address major issues. Sure there are abusers of this open debate, people who point to it and claim that the debate shows we should not take action, that we don't know enough. But we shouldn't let the abuse of a few miscreants stifle open discussion. Science and open society require open debate in order to function properly and the term "climate change denier", fairly or not, has become weighted toward stifling rather than opening debate. I think it should be dropped.