EfS Experiences | Student | Carla Rodrigues
Publication date: 23-03-2014 09:30
Aluna
The word “sustainability” has been part of my professional and personal life for some time now. But finally it is no longer an undefined word in my reality and become something that I hope to partially achieve with my research. My interest in these issues started during my year abroad in a Norwegian University when I was finishing my degree in Architecture. At that time, I felt that this subject was just gaining interest within the architecture world in Portugal, so environmental concerns were not perceived with much relevance during my academic studies. But since then I decided to focus my interests in the sustainability of buildings. The beginning of my professional career was focused on the area of Energy Efficiency in Buildings by working with Energy Certification of Buildings (Portuguese regulation) and other systems of assessing the sustainability of buildings (BREEAM, SBTool - PT and LiderA). My professional experience was crucial to made me come into contact with reality and realize that there is still so much that can and must be done regarding the sustainability (environmental, economic and social) issues in the building sector.
Since I finished my first degree I have always intended to apply to a PhD degree related to buildings and environment. However, I felt that I needed to prepare myself before give such a big step. Fortunately, one day searching on the internet for some courses related to energy in buildings I have found that the University of Coimbra had created a course exactly about what I wanted. I remember to think “Finally there is a course that fulfills my interests.” After that was a snowball. I felt very accomplished with the master and thought that could be a good idea to follow to a PhD. And here I am, working with environmental life cycle assessment of buildings. As life takes many turns, the Energy for Sustainability Initiative gave me the opportunity to start a new cycle of my life.