low carbon - passivehouseplus.co.uk

The Irish Green Building Council (IGBC) today launched a new version of its Home Performance Index (HPI) sustainable home certification system at its annual residential conference, Better Homes 2022. The focus of the event was on delivering low carbon homes at scale.

The Department of Housing has come under criticism for draft guidelines which would prevent local authorities from setting sustainable building targets for buildings as a planning condition, with the passive house standard and low carbon cement directly referenced.

The unique split-level, wedge-shaped plan of this striking and award-winning new passive house in Cork isn’t just for show — it is a carefully thought-out response to an extremely challenging site, and an example of how great architecture can create beautiful, sustainable buildings in even the most unlikely of spaces, and with a fraction of the upfront carbon costs of traditional build methods.

Low carbon concrete blocks are now widely available on the Irish market – bringing up to 50% reductions in embodied CO2 – and Passive House Plus helped make it happen.

The Department of Housing is planning to introduce a policy on embodied carbon into building regulations, an event in Cork heard.

Ecocem, the leading producer of ground granulated blastfurnace slag (GGBS), a low carbon alternative to traditional cement, says use of its product has saved 10 million tonnes of carbon emissions since the company began operating in 2002.

A series of nationwide forums designed to help housing and construction professionals improve home energy efficiency across the UK has secured support from regional low carbon champions.

Hitting Enerphit – the passive house standard for retrofits – wasn’t challenging enough for one Yorkshire retrofit project. The team also had to stop the building falling down, and avoid wholesale changes to the building’s external appearance.

Windhager will launch its latest development, the BioWin 2 wood pellet boiler, at Ecobuild
2014.

Ecocem Materials, producer of environmentally friendly cement, has announced that the company has seen an increase in sales and has reached a significant milestone of exceeding one million tonnes of product sold in the last twelve months. Ecocem Ireland is also celebrating its tenth birthday in 2013.

Construct Ireland’s John Hearne discovers a low energy, low carbon house being built in Galway which is achieving sustainable results whilst not jarring with aesthetic conventions.