PIASECZNO MUNICIPALITY, GREECE
Piaseczno is situated 20 km outside Warsaw to the south. The city which attracts many people working in Warsaw and living in the friendly environment combined with the near by benefits typical for big cities such as Warsaw.
Some Key Figures
- Area in km2: 128,2
- Area oh the city km2: 16,33
- Area of forests km2: 34,3
- Population: 52 000
- In the city: 32 000
- Outside the city: 20 000
Local Green City Building Strategy
Primary focus is on using the new Thermo-modernization Act in Poland to develop a local strategy where for the first time private “Third Parties” are involved in the total building process tested for both renovation and new-built in old city centre of Piaseczno, which until now has been a neglected urban area with bad housing quality, security problems, traffic problems etc. Focus also is on energy supply efficiency by improving the use of renewable energy to substitute fossil fuels.
Urban Case Study Area
The previous agriculture areas around the city are gradually evolving into complex of quiet, clean and modern housing estates on the suburbs of Warsaw. Big efforts of local authorities done during last years lead to improvement of many houses and housing districts. Piaseczno city was chosen for case study area – with a main focus on revitalization of the neglected area of the old city centre. Strategy development was carried out comprising whole municipal area.
Most of the buildings managed by the municipality were built in 50′ or 60′, but there are still many houses constructed before II World War. They are in very poor technical quality, and have to be renovated during next years. Some of these buildings were chosen as pilot buildings for the Green City Building project (see pictures below)
Energy and Environmental Screening
Average energy consumption of 203 kwh/m2/year is much higher than present standard of 90-120 kWh. The campaign for Thermomodernisation Act promotion just began, and in 2005 first noticeable effect was modernization of 1 school and 3 housing under the regulation of the Act. There are no use of renewable fuels, which is very typical situation for small towns in Poland. But in opposite to the average situation in the country the main fuel used for heating is gas for 70% of end users, what is the reason for relatively low emission factors. Potential for improved energy efficiency is connected with ongoing modernization of the existing heat network – about 10% of reduction is expected.
There are no solar installations, although there are plans for installation of solar system in one of sport-school. Neither are efficient building ventilation systems nor natural/emission free building materials found to be important priority issues.
Green City Building Project Results
Screening report was carried out including a very interesting calculation of “Energy Balance for Piaseczno” showing CO2 reduction etc. consequences of substituting oil fuel with biomass fuel for urban energy supply.
The pilot project comprises one social housing building block to be renovated. An inventory study has been made for the building and permission from the monument conservator is obtained. Besides this building the Green City Building project area also comprised 3 new built blocks of buildings, which later were reduced to two blocks, because of new regulation demanding more car parking space per apartment.
Alternative Strategy Drafts
Alternative strategy drafts and analyzing of barriers for sustainability has been carried out in connection to a very comprehensive national project work that has been combined with Green City Building project. A special chosen new approach was use of a “Public – Private Partnership Planning Methodology” that allowed to unite efforts of experts, municipal officers, and strategy beneficiaries and was found by all the partners as a very interesting and promising solution also for the future activities of the municipality.
The special audit of municipal sustainability was prepared – about 400 indicators were considered and compared with average data of other Polish municipalities. Next after SWOT analysis showed strong and weak points – and revealed amongst weakest points and barriers:
- Short-term interests for politicians/builders etc. are more important than possible longer-term benefits of little extra costs in sustainable building measures.
- Under-educated/non-interested decision makers and citizens, house owners, builders etc. – lack of awareness for sustainable building benefits.
- Lack of financial sources for citizens/building owners in urban areas of bad quality where renovation is needed
- Lack of urban open spaces for creative environmental efficient design
- Strong energy lobby/energy suppliers in a monopole situation
- Lack of applied technologies (best practice) to act as a living example.
Developing of “Strategy for sustainable development in Piaseczno Municipality up to 2020” now comprises detailed goals and actions within environment, social aspects, economy and management efforts included building and energy supply sectors.
Design Work and Testing
Design work and testing based on developed strategy principles was carried out for renovation of the social housing block and for the first planned 3 new-built blocks of total 16 218 m2 to be constructed as Green City Building pilot project. It was proposed to construct 238 apartments, with total area of 8200 m2. So it will be relatively small apartments, with average area of 35-40 m2, mainly devoted for 2 or 3 person family. The pictures below show the project of one of new buildings.
All buildings will be connected to the local gas-grid. New modern gas boilers will be installed in one of the buildings. Municipality considers also installation of solar panels for hot water preparation at least on the one of designed buildings.
The developed “Energy Audit Tool” has been tested on the selected pilot building project for renovation firstly – and then also tested for the new-built pilot projects as part of finalizing Green City Building project.
GREEN CITY BUILDING PILOT PROJECT AREA:
Local Green City Action Plan summarize revitalization of the neglected city centre area in Piaseczno:
- Design work for selected pilot buildings according to sustainability requirements
- Increase of public awareness for energy efficiency and sustainability
- Increase of residents’ living quality when implemented renovation and new-built
- Improvement of public security
- Introduction of new energy technologies
- Extension of parking area
- Improvement of transportation quality for inner city
GREEN BUILD RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PIASECZNO LOCAL AUTHORITY:
- Use of private-public partnerships for urban renovation and new-built
- Awareness campaigns for sustainable aspects of the building construction and urban open space areas.
- Apply Green Build Tools like developed Energy-Audit Tool
- Involvement of tenants/house owners in the building decision process
- Implementation of sustainability rules in the building regulations
- Training for professionals (architects, designers, developers etc.)
FOR MORE INFORMATION YOU MAY CONTACT:
Mr. Wkodzimierr Rasinski, Piaseczno Municipaliy, Phone: +48 22 701 7500,
E-mail: rasinski@piaseczno.eu
Ms. Malgorzata Popiolek, NAPE Narodowa Agencia Poszanowania Energii,
Phone: +48 2250 54738, E-mail: mpopiolek@nape.pl