Best Practice

Welcome to the 6th issue of the Global Energy Network for Urban Settlements (GENUS) Newsletter. This issue highlights Net-zero building.A net-zero energy building (NZEB) is a residential or commercial building with greatly reduced energy needs. The United Kingdom High Commission in Uganda is a good example for this. Articles covered in the newsletter include: Electrification of Low Income Settlements in Liberia; Rayong Anaerobic Digestion Plant, Thailand; and, Curitiba’s Integrated Transport System, Brazil.

The UIA is intensifying its strategy to encourage responsible architectural design and giving it a new impetus. Through its member sections, its working bodies, and its partners, the UIA will strive to pull together the various energies, guiding them toward a holistic practice in global architecture.
 
This drive takes it force from positive orientations that directly concern architects, defined during the United Nations conference on sustainable development, RIO+20, in 2012:
 
Civil society's role in mitigating and controlling climate change

An extensive paper by Julien Labat assessing the performance of eco-restoration solutions in historic city centres. His analysis covers a complete representative panel of buildings found in historic city centres. Primarily focused on the city of Bayonne, the thorough analysis can provide helpful insight to many other cities centres in Europe, facing the very same challenges.

Please click here to access the paper.

Dear Reader,

This guide features short case studies from different European cities which demonstrated good practice during European Mobility Week (EMW) 2011. Under last year’s theme ‘Alternative Mobility’, which emphasised the importance of sustainable modes of transport, the brochure includes EMW’s innovative campaign activities, its cooperation with stakeholders and media work, as well as a wide range of permanent measures launched to encourage citizens to adopt more sustainable travel behaviour. 

This brief, based on the article "What Works in Family Planning Interventions: A Systematic Review," published in the Studies in Family Planning journal in June 2011, provides a current summary of what makes family planning programs work as revealed by recent program evaluations published in both peer-reviewed journals and in "

The Kunshan Municipal People's Government is awarded for an innovative approach to granting migrants the right to essential services in the city. Drawing some 800,000 job seekers every year, Kunshan holds five employment fairs every week. In the last two years it has helped more than 200,000 people get work, in a city where modern, new accommodation has increased per capita living space from 12 sq. metres in 1999 to 40 sq. metres today.