Department for Education

Sustainability Design Advisor

London Energy Transformation Initiative (LETI)

Volunteer

Cundall

Sustainability and Building Physics Engineer

Circle AE

Founder

AREP

Engineered and prioritized a structural analysis for a restructuration of a large underground tunnel between Gare de l’Est and Gare du Nord, in Paris. Collaborated and drafted the feasibility for a PV farm on Gare de l’Est train station.

Architect-engineer intern

Ferrier Marchetti Studio

Developed, designed and collaborated on a housing project in Portugal for a material and sun analysis research and optimisation.

Architecture Assistant Intern (Sensual City Studio)

ACEIS

Construction worker intern at A.C.E.I.S - Atelier Ecologique et d'Innovations Services -

Constructed and restored a carpentry and built and developed hemp concrete walls and earth walls.

Construction worker intern

Architect-Engineer | Sustainability Design Advisor @DfE | Building a world in transition

Sustainability is a positive sum game.



→ decrease building air tightness, your will get reduced bills and emissions.
→ plant trees, you will have nice views and cooler temperatures in summer.
→ adopt a circular business model, you will get recurring income and lowered emissions.

Thoughtful sustainability measures bring positive change.
But they require expertise to be implemented.


I’m an architect-engineer.
I use scientific literature, evidence and physics to provide the best solutions.

I supported companies in reducing their emissions, in adapting to climate change and in finding new market opportunities.

I currently work at the Department for Education in the UK where I advise on schools design with sustainability and value for money measures.


Do you want to make a positive change?

Get in touch!

Last week, I became a dad. And it made me change perspective.


I work in sustainability.
I provide solutions to decarbonise buildings cost-effectively,
and sustainability agendas are set until 2050.


But 2050 is not that far away.


In 2050, my daughter will be 26.
In 2100, she will be 76.
In 2100, the world will be very different from today.


But in building time (60 years in the UK), it’s close.


So I now have 3 reasons to wake up in the morning:

1. Decarbonising buildings (40% of global GHG emissions).
2. Adapting these buildings to future climates of 2080-2100s.
3. Finding the reason behind cries.

& it’s all worth it.
👶 🌻  🏗️


_
ps - Enjoyed this post? I’m Jean-Baptiste, an architect-engineer decarbonising buildings thanks to evidence and science. Follow for more.

Jean-Baptiste Clochet

Decarbonising buildings thanks to evidence and science | Chartered Engineer-Architect

14 books to understand the link between construction and the environment 📕

Have you read any? Do you have any book recommendation? Let me know in the comments!

#sustainability #construction #climatechange #architecture #engineering

14 books on sustainability and construction

Wood is an ‘easy’ solution to reduce building embodied carbon. But there is one issue:


There aren’t enough trees to meet the demand.


Replacing concrete or steel with wood is an effective way to reduce the embodied carbon of building structures, which accounts for 40-50% of a building embodied carbon.


But there are a few issues with this:

1. The demand for wood worldwide is high. It would reach 6.1 × 10^9 m³ annually by 2030 while current global round wood production stands at 3.9 × 10^9 m³ per year.

2. 50% of global round wood production is used for energy. Carbon dioxide is not stored but released in the atmosphere.

3. There is an increase in the frequency and intensity of wildfires (linked to climate change).

4. Hardwood species are more resilient to climate change than softwood, but they take longer to grow.


While there is a global demand rise for wood products, wood isn’t always used to store carbon. Forests are in danger and take longer to grow.


The solution? Demand reduction and material efficiency:

→ optimising industrial processes to use wood efficiently.
→ designing for structural efficiency (beam instead of a wall).
→ creating new material concepts using non-uniform branches (up to 50% of tree biomass), sawdust and wood chips.
→ closing technological gaps on the use of climate resilient trees (hardwood).


Wood and trees are a very powerful to fight climate change.
But how we use wood defines if it is a ‘sustainable’ material.
Or not.
🌲

_
ps - Enjoyed this post? I’m Jean-Baptiste, an architect-engineer decarbonising buildings thanks to evidence and science. Follow for more.


Source - Pramreiter, M., Nenning, T., Malzl, L. et al. A plea for the efficient use of wood in construction. Nat Rev Mater (2023).
Image - Swiss Pavilion by Peter Zumthor - Wikiarquitectura

#architecture #engineering #construction #sustainability #climatechange

Every week, I get asked how I learnt about sustainability.
So here is my secret:


I read up to 4 hours a day.


It is part of my job,
to explore the crossroad of construction and sustainability.
I read

→ Books
→ Scientific papers
→ Evidence reviews
→ Posts & articles from scientific content creators


But that’s not it. I am an engineer and as Ralph J. Smith wrote:
‘Engineering is the professional art of applying science to the optimum conversion of natural resources to the benefit of man.’


I also learn by

→ reviewing designs and datasets
→ applying findings to new building designs
→ fine-tuning existing buildings and constructions


That’s my job.
And if you want to learn about sustainability and construction, I will share a selection of my favourite resources on the following Thursdays.


All you have to do is click the follow button 🌻


_
ps - Enjoyed this post? I’m Jean-Baptiste, an architect-engineer decarbonising buildings thanks to evidence and science. Follow for more.

new kind of dad just dropped:


🌱 climate dad 🌱


There are thousands of ways to be a dad.
Opposed to toxic masculinity with big cars and steaks, incompatible with the climate emergency, dads have to reinvent themselves.


This is where the new kind of dad comes in.


Climate dads are:
a little bit nerdy
a little bit obsessive
and, sometimes, a little bit embarrassing.


But they all share something quite profound which is how to be a hopeful masculine figure in the modern era.


Should this type of dad appeal to you, you can start now by talking exclusively about heat pumps, insulation and e-bikes.

Would you know any?
🌱


Bonuses -
→ Link to a ‘climate dad’ article in the comments.
→ Climate dad joke: Why did the heat pump apply for a job at the orchestra? Because it's great at conducting heat with a cool performance!


_
ps - Enjoyed this post? I’m Jean-Baptiste, an architect-engineer decarbonising buildings thanks to evidence and science. Follow for more.

#sustainability #fatherhood #climatechange #construction #netzero

Construction and the environment: a section is worth a thousand words.


Buildings are responsible for 40% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, but that’s not it.


Yes, there is:
→ energy use
→ operational carbon
→ embodied carbon


and therefore net zero carbon, but there is also


→ biodiversity
→ water and urban drainage
→ spatial and financial inequalities
→ urban heat island effect


and the list goes on.


In “Buildings as a carbon sink”, the graph illustrates the carbon emissions, but also a spatial relationship.


The environmental question in construction is not (only) a matter of carbon. It is also about questioning how do we use space.


We could have
→ low carbon buildings, but no biodiversity
→ super efficient but overheating buildings
→ buildings built of natural materials only accessible by car


None of these make sense from a sustainability perspective.
Sustainable buildings need their own definition.
& this page has to be written.


_
ps - Enjoyed this post? I’m Jean-Baptiste, an architect-engineer decarbonising buildings thanks to evidence and science. Follow for more.


Source - Churkina, G., Organschi, A., Reyer, C.P.O. et al. Buildings as a global carbon sink. Nat Sustain 3, 269–276 (2020).

#sustainability #climatechange #construction #architecture #engineering

🖼 We open our windows differently than the one of our neighbours.


With some colleagues, we had a discussion on the ideal percentage of window opening to offer an effective natural ventilation. But it turns out we were not talking about the same things.


There is not only a general confusion in the industry and literature on naming conventions (1), but some window areas can only be used at certain project stages.


So here they are:

1. 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗼𝘄 𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗮 - it comes in opposition to the wall area and can include or exclude the window frame. It is used in early design stages for the overall design and balancing daylighting and overheating.

2. 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗮 - it is the geometric open area of a ventilation opening. It is simply the height by the width of the opening element. Wether the opening element opens fully or is restricted is not being accounted for.

3. 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗮 - it is the free area above multiplied by a discharge coefficient. The coefficient is defined by how does the air flows through the orifice, so the angle of the opening element, and the proportion of the window is considered.

4. 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗶𝘃𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗮 - it is the effective area over an assumed clear sharp-edged orifice to evaluate the performance of the air flow.


It is a bit of a gymnastic to go from one to another. Now which one to use?

There isn’t an easy answer and they all have their importance. 
So there will be another post on this 😉

_
ps - Enjoyed this post? I’m Jean-Baptiste, an architect-engineer decarbonising buildings thanks to evidence and science. Follow for more.


(1) Jones et al., 2016. A review of ventilation opening area terminology.


#sustainability #design #windows #architecture #engineering

Window areas

Climate change can be difficult to grasp.
Here are 3 ways to ‘see’ it:


1. NASA Eyes on the Earth
It is an interactive globe of our planet.
Latest climatic events include the solar eclipse in the US, a volcano eruption in Indonesia and Sahara dust flying over the Mediterranean.
When it comes to climate change, you can see cut forests, wildfires, floods and droughts.


2. Climate Pulse
A European tool to visualise air and sea temperatures.
Europe is currently experiencing colder days, but almost everyday in 2024 have been record breaking high temperatures.


3. Copernicus Interactive Climate Atlas
A European tool to see the impacts of climate change through projections, like heatwaves, rainfalls or wind speed.


Climate visualisation is now at hand.
Will we reverse it?
🌏


Links in the comments.
_
ps - Enjoyed this post? I’m Jean-Baptiste, an architect-engineer decarbonising buildings thanks to evidence and science. Follow for more.

#sustainability #climatechange #ipcc #climatemitigation #climateadaptation

This is fine

In spring, flowers bloom. 🌸
But with climate change, flowers bloom earlier and earlier.


The timing of the peak cherry blossom is influenced by spring temperatures - and this has shifted significantly over the years.


Below is the example of Kyoto’s cherry trees by Ed Hawkins.


Their blossom has been recorded for the last 1000 years.
And there is a clear and recent trend:


an earlier blossom, consistent with our rapidly changing climate.


This puts plants at risk of being frozen later in the year and is a threat to food supplies like almonds, apricots and peaches.


Our warming climate can still be perceived as something positive like warmer days earlier in the year or beautiful flowers.

But it is a very concerning threat.


Thankfully, we know what to do. 
🌻


_
ps - The same phenomenon can be observed with grape harvest in France (graph in the comments by Serge Zaka) or other types of blossom.

ps - Enjoyed this post? I’m Jean-Baptiste, an architect-engineer decarbonising buildings thanks to evidence and science. Follow for more.

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