Ireland joins whole life carbon data initiative
Ireland is to participate in a pioneering European initiative aiming to boost the availability of quality building whole life carbon data, a critical step towards full decarbonisation.
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Show Me the Bodies: How We Let Grenfell Happen
Simon Jones reviews new book exploring the Grenfell tragedy.
Must listen: Zero Ambitions Podcast
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.
WorldGBC launches green building policy principles for governments
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.
Solar panels to receive VAT drop in aim to boost uptake
In a bid to increase the uptake of solar technology in Ireland as families and businesses continue to negotiate the energy and cost of living challenges, the Irish government has announced they intend to drop the VAT rate on the supply and installation of solar panels to zero.
Thermal bypass paper published
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.
AECB launches two levels of retrofit standards
The Association for Environment Conscious Building (AECB) has introduced a new retrofit standard catering for hard-to-treat homes and cases where homeowners want to take urgent action on climate change but are not currently able to commit to a deep retrofit.
Roadmap targets embodied and operational carbon
The energy used to heat, cool and light our buildings is responsible for almost a quarter of Ireland’s national carbon emissions – with the carbon embodied in the buildings themselves representing over an eighth of the total, a new report has revealed.
IGBC launches updated sustainable homes rating system at Better Homes 2022
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.
Passive house pioneer wins net zero champion award
Passive house expert Tomas O’Leary has been heralded for his decades of low energy building pioneering – picking up the Net Zero Champion Award at the inaugural Towards Net Zero Awards at the RDS in November.
New passive house & embodied carbon resources
Do thicker insulated walls, triple glazed windows, & MVHR ventilation systems tip the scales unfavourably for passive house when it comes to embodied carbon?
New digital hub for sustainable building upskilling
A new online hub aimed at upskilling the construction sector is now live.
Max Fordham House verified as UK’s first net zero carbon home
Max Fordham House in North London
has become the first residential
building in the UK to be verified as net zero
carbon. Located in the London Borough
of Camden, this certified passive house
was designed for, and lived in by, the late
legendary engineer Max Fordham.
Huge demand for new deep retrofit grants
Some one-stop-shops will not take on projects with new build extensions.
New EU law will mandate renovation of inefficient buildings
Green groups criticise lack of focus on embodied carbon.
The European Commission is proposing sweeping changes to the way in which energy ratings for buildings are allocated, in a bid to stimulate the retrofit of the worst performing buildings across Europe.
Disappointment at new building energy standards
Review finds that SAP is not fit for purpose, by Kate de Selincourt.
Welsh social housing to embrace passive house, timber & life cycle assessment
The Welsh government has issued a new standard for social housing that requires an embodied carbon assessment, favours timber-based offsite construction, and bans fossil fuel boilers.
Oil heating sector pivots to biofuels, but green groups raise concern
The UK and Ireland’s oil heating industry says it has taken a “major step forward” in the use of biofuels in domestic oil boilers, with early tests concluding that hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) works in virtually all existing oil boilers.
#BuildingLife: “Regulation of whole life carbon is key”, says Steve Murphy of Hines
In the #BuildingLife ambassador spotlight series, Passive House Plus is profiling leaders who have endorsed the Irish Green Building Council’s call to address the environmental impacts of buildings across their life-cycle..
Passive house celebrates 30th birthday at international conference
The Passive House Institute celebrated the low energy standard’s 30th birthday at the 25th International Passive House Conference in September. Around seven hundred participants registered for the conference, which mostly took place online due to Covid.