Anda Giorgio, managing director of Romanian Property Connection and Marisia Eco-Spa Resort project in Transylvania, Romania, talks about sustainable development to Gordon Miller.
Q. Have you installed onsite, or do you intend to, solar panels, wind turbines, hydro, geo-thermal, ground source heat pumps to generate electricity/heat?
A. We are looking into all these options, and are likely to include a range of renewable energy solutions into our development plans, rather than rely on any one in particular.
Both solar and wind-power are small options for us, and both have disadvantages associated with them. Quite apart from the fact that they are expensive to install (even with subsidies), and cause unsightly intrusions into the landscape, they tend to be somewhat irregular in their output, reliant as they are on the weather.
We are building in natural materials (wood and stone), in a traditional style, and in a peaceful, rural village, so modern wind turbines would be quite unsightly, unless they were too small to be much use. I'm also not sure how much wind there is where we are building. We might consider a traditional wooden windmill for some applications, but this matter is pending further specific feasibility studies.
We are strongly considering thatched roofs, which would not look good with solar panels all over them. Also, the heavy snow falls in Transylvania's winters demand steeper-pitched roofs (so that most of the snow can slide off) than solar panels can operate efficiently on. Certainly, we will use modern solar cells to power exterior lighting, and possibly install some solar panels on some of the buildings at a later date.
We are looking at geo-thermal technologies for heating and air conditioning, the problems we might encounter with this being occasioned by the relatively high levels of corrosive mineral salts in the ground where we are building the resort (the very resource that is the spa's livelihood may work against us here!)
Our simplest solution may yet be under-floor heating, and even power sources driven by woodchip-fired boilers and turbines. Although this might appear to be the very antithesis of ‘carbon neutral’, we are building in an area where sustainable forestry is one of the major industries, with timber-processing yards and furniture factories nearby, and all the waste products from these industries are currently either burnt for fuel or discharged into the rivers, polluting the water-table, therefore using timber waste-products as fuel in modern, efficient boilers might make the most economic sense, and actually reduce pollution.
It should be remembered that all the carbon in the wood waste will be released anyway, whether by incineration or decay, better that it be released in ways that reduce our need for power or heat from other sources. Certainly, it is a local and renewable resource, reducing our dependence on future technology, complex technology, wider infrastructure, or fluctuations in global energy markets.
Water-wheels for mills and turbines are also options for us, as we are building in an area with ample ground-water, many rivers and streams, and periods of heavy rainfall.
We are seeking to use the simplest, most efficient, longest lasting, and easiest to maintain and sustain, energy solutions and construction methods throughout the resort.
Ultimately, the most ecologically-sensitive thing we could do would be to succeed in business and stay in business, as the process of building from scratch generally uses more energy than the actual usage of the buildings for the whole of their lifetimes thereafter.
We are looking at the full range of water management solutions, including rainwater and ground water entrapment, grey water recycling and even sewage treatment. The village where we are building does not have mains water or sewage yet, although the mayor has recently secured public funds to put these in place, so everyone is currently reliant on ground-water, rainwater and septic tanks. We wish to be as independent of larger utility systems as possible, but will be connected to most of them to ensure constancy of supply and exchange of surplus.
We shall use water-saving taps and flush mechanisms, of course, but we will also have baths (with a shower over, if preferred). Many people prefer to relax and soak in the bath at times -an activity which is, after all, at the centre of a spa resort! Also, showers may use less water (depending on how long you stay in there) -but they also use more energy. Of course, we hope that people will follow our lead and share a bath to save water!
We are only using concrete for the foundations of our buildings, a necessary evil occasioned by the heavy clay soil where we are building and the size of the structures. All the cement, gravel, sand, stone and steel used for the foundations will be sourced within Romania, as locally to the resort as possible. The stone comes from a quarry less than 50 km from our resort, from a small quarry in a big valley that has supplied the local area for over 200 years -and is still barely discernible on Google Earth!
Apart from that, everything else is wood! We are exclusively building traditional log cabins, made entirely from timber from sustainable forestry. After considerable searching of the whole of Romania and beyond, we finally found a marvellous company called Eco-Log Homes who build the most wonderful wooden houses from carefully sourced timber, mainly from within Romania. We have chosen the round logs being used throughout because they are one of the simplest and most durable methods of construction, and are traditional and beautiful, but they also potentially require less energy to manufacture than many other materials.
Eco-Log will make everything between the foundations and the roof covering, including doors, windows, fixtures and fittings, saving on the transport that would be used sourcing these from other contractors.
We are seriously considering thatched roofs, which would fit in wonderfully with the ‘pre-Roman’ look we are striving for. This can be done entirely with Romanian reeds and labour, both renewable resources with reduced transport costs.
We have a policy of using natural and local materials, often re-used, recycled or by-products, rather than synthetic, imported or new goods, wherever possible. This will apply as far as possible to all the furniture, tiling, work surfaces, cupboards, fixtures, fittings, soft furnishings, etc. throughout the resorts. We shall be using stone, wood, cotton, wool, hemp, basketware, earthenware and recycled glassware throughout, minimising the use of plastics or metalwork, recycling materials locally and preserving traditional handicrafts and the rural economy.
This will be a constant feature of the resort, which will include re-using whatever is possible. We will be working closely with the local community to find a home or a use for as much of our waste as possible. Romania is a poor country that has experienced much hardship in the past and the people there are in the habit of wasting as little as possible: from scrap metals to bottles and jars, from cardboard boxes to plastic bags, they waste very little, only plastics represent a real problem for re-use or disposal, an issue which we intend to address by using as little as possible in the first place.
In Transylvania, where we are building our resort, we have to contend with extremes of weather. The summers are long, hot and dry, and the winters can be equally long and as cold as -30°C. After careful calculation, our buildings are all going to be made from logs of 25 cm diameter (which give a thickness of 15 cm at the narrowest point where one log fits on top of another). This will provide effective insulation down to -25°C.
We have looked at several options for roofing, including ‘living roofs’ of mosses and turf. These have proven impractical because of the weight the walls would have to support and because the pitch they require the roof to be is too shallow to allow most of the snow to slide off in the winter.
