The topics treated in the conference are framed by many general premises that do affect the whole society; therefore, they have to be solved from all its different fronts. The implementation of a environmental consciousness might constitute one of the fundamental aims for the society of the twenty-first century.
The negative impacts of the human activity in all the environmental fields have been increased exponentially due to the accelerated industrial and technological development. The measures to be taken in order to restore the situation have to affect, undoubtedly, all the activities mentions before.
The energy consumption in Spain will exceeded in 2010 in 100% the index of 1990, extrapolating the date of IDAE for the period 1990-2005, when the consumption rose from 58.095kTep to 100.043kTep. The increase in the use of row materials occurred in similar terms.
The strategy of Spain for sustainability expresses that “The main aim of this part of the strategy is to increase the saving and the efficiency in all the resources and sectors. Concerning to energy, the aim is to reduce the consumption of primary energy in at least 2% annually in respect to the tendency of the following years, and especially in transport, industry and building sectors”.
The commitment to sustainability of The Basque Country , through the application of a specific regulation, is focus on two ideas: “the environmental variable is priority in all the sectorial policies and especially in industry, transport, energy, agriculture and consume…” or “the disassociation of the economical growth respect to the use of resources and the contamination is absolutely essential to reach a sustainable development”. It is necessary to promote a transformation in order to reduce the use of natural resources, increasing its productivity, thereby generating minor environmental impacts in all the economical sectors throughout the whole life cycle of the products and services. The technological revolution of the ecoeficiency, even not being enough, is a necessary factor in sustainability.
The conference is addressed to researchers, graduates, engineers, architects, postgraduates and students interested in energy efficiency and sustainability in architecture and urbanism. Many different current problems are going to be treated in order to find solutions thanks to the synergy generated around the conference and its speakers and participants. The diversity of the participants will help to analyse the questions from different disciplines and points of view in order to create a broader common frame.
The parallel aim of the conference is to strengthen the investigation lines in energy efficiency and sustainability carried out by the research and educational groups of the University of the Basque Country and the Spanish and Basque governments in their policy in this especific field of research. Finally, this event will help to create new frames of collaboration with other national and international institutions committed to the treated subjects: climate change, energy efficiency and environmental sustainability.
