UK news - passivehouseplus.co.uk

A survey of 1,500 UK homeowners by the Social Market Foundation (SMF) – a cross-party think tank – has revealed government failure to make people feel confident in taking steps for the net zero transition, jeopardising its success.

Wales’s devolved government has moved forward with plans to standardise sustainable, timber-based affordable homes in the country with the publication of a new pattern book.

Certified passive house to be alternative means of compliance to proposed Scottish passive house equivalent.

The Smarter Finance for EU consortium, which is aiming to unlock €100bn worth of green homes across Europe, announced the launch of a European centre of excellence to promote green home certification and investment across Europe at the Irish Green Building Council’s annual residential conference in Dublin.

Canadian green building writer and architect Lloyd Alter has published a book to explain the importance of embodied carbon in simple terms.

There may never be a better time for companies to upskill their staff in passive house, Enerphit and net zero construction – thanks to new 70 per cent grants.

A pilot version of the UK’s first cross-industry standard for net zero carbon-aligned buildings has been launched.

Europe’s burgeoning green homes market is a multi-trillion euros opportunity – but lenders must be wary of facilitating greenwashing, a pan-European consortium has warned.

Gas cooking is killing 40,000 European people a year in Europe, a major new study has revealed, with an average of almost two years taken off their life in the EU and United Kingdom due to exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emitted during gas cooking.The countries with the highest burden were Italy, Poland, Romania, France and the UK.

Multi-award winning Belfast-based property developer, Fraser Millar, has launched Northern Ireland’s second large-scale residential passive house development – a 74-unit scheme of detached and semi-detached homes at a total project value of £30m.

Aidan Doyle has joined insulation manufacturer, Unilin Insulation, as General Manager for both the Ireland and UK businesses.

The en masse global shift to high performance buildings is essential to meeting the climate challenge and improving quality of life around the world, an international conference has heard.

Home buyers seeking sustainable luxury and energy income in a sought-after part of England have a rare opportunity with a newly launched passive house scheme in St Albans.

Patrick Harvie MSP, the Scottish government’s minister for zero carbon buildings, active travel and tenants' rights, was a keynote speaker at the UK Passivhaus Conference in Edinburgh on 17 October, and shared his vision for energy efficient and low carbon buildings in Scotland.

Delegates at the 2023 AECB Conference heard a wide range of speakers covering everything from guerrilla edible planting to peak oil to detailed discussions on whole life carbon calculation.

A new free-to-access training programme, Design Performance for Climate Action, provides architecture students across the UK with a solid foundation in climate-responsive building design – with passive house at its core.

Three leading sustainable building organisations have expressed disappointment with the government’s proposed Future Homes Standard, which went to consultation in December, along with proposals for non-domestic buildings.

The AECB 2023 Conference will focus on providing solutions required for building in an age of climate chaos and biodiversity collapse.

A pioneering co-housing scheme, a cube-shaped self build, a cork and polyester- insulated retrofit to a 1970s house, a glulam timber school, and a curved college building were the winners at the 2023 UK Passivhaus Awards.

The United Nations is pushing for a rapid drive to make the world’s buildings sustainable – aided by an international coalition centred in the Wexford town of Enniscorthy.

TrustMark defends scheme & says it creates a pathway to PAS 2035

Simon Jones reviews new book exploring the Grenfell tragedy.

Scotland’s minister for zero carbon buildings is proposing to make the passive house standard, or a new Scottish equivalent, the minimum energy efficiency standard for new build homes from the end of 2024.

Over the past two years Passive House Plus editor Jeff Colley has been moonlighting as co-host of Zero Ambitions, a weekly podcast that wrestles with the challenge of how to deliver the scale and ambition of decarbonisation and sustainability in buildings required to avoid a hellish future.

The World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) has launched a set of principles aimed at guiding national governments to develop effective building policies and programmes to accelerate a decarbonised future.

The potential of the passive house standard to change the world isn’t restricted to tackling climate change – it’s about social justice too.

Changes include embodied carbon, zero emission buildings and minimum energy standards

The Passivhaus Trust has published a new technical paper on thermal bypass – the phenomenon where air movement across, within and behind insulation increases heat loss, causes discomfort and enables mould growth.

This year’s UK Passivhaus Conference was held in Exeter, reflecting Exeter City Council’s record for developing buildings to the passive house standard over the last decade.

The first in-person event of the Association for Environment Conscious Building (AECB) since Covid, the 2022 AECB Conference, focussed on practical solutions to decarbonising buildings.