Irish Green Building Council

Green building policy and training in Ireland

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Log In
  • Contact
Search IconA magnifying glass icon.
  • About
    • About IGBC
    • The Board
    • The Team
    • International
    • What is Green Building?
  • Membership
    • Why Join Us?
    • Benefits
    • Construct Innovate
    • Our Members
    • Be an Active Member
  • Events
  • Education
    • Introduction to green building concepts
      • Embodied Carbon
      • Circularity
      • Nearly Zero Energy Building standard
    • Whole Life Carbon Training
    • Home Performance Index Assessor Training
    • Commercial Certification – LEED & BREEAM
      • LEED Courses
      • BREEAM Courses
    • Energy Efficiency
    • Learning Hub
    • Course Mail
  • Certification
    • Home Performance Index
    • Green Building Certification – Commercial
      • LEED
      • BREEAM
      • EXEED
    • Green Building Certifiers
    • Energy Renovation Advisors
    • EPD – Construction Products
    • Water Label
    • Level(s)
  • Policy
    • National Policy Submissions
    • European Policy
      • European Policy Updates
    • Energy Renovation
      • Building Renovation Passports
      • Retrofit Skills
      • Standards
      • Supporting Local Authorities
      • One Stop Shop Renovation
    • Green Finance Green Homes
  • Whole Life Carbon
    • Endorse the Roadmap
  • News
    • Green Jobs
    • IGBChats
    • #BuildingLife Blog
  • Learning Hub

A Summary of #GreenRoom17

2nd May 2017 by admin

Close to 200 property developers, manufacturers, researchers, as well as public authorities, energy utilities, and trade associations representatives gathered in Dublin on 26th April to learn more about the latest trends on sustainable buildings at Green Room 17.

Acting for the Climate
Terri Wills, CEO, World GBC

Mentioning the risk of “Clexit”- the US pulling out of the Paris agreement, Terri Wills CEO of the World Green Building Council (WGBC) opened the event with a presentation on the role buildings must play in mitigating climate change. According to Wills under a “building as usual” scenario, “we are on track for a 6 degrees increase in temperature”. In fact, to limit temperature increase to 2 degrees, 100% of our buildings must be net zero by 2050.

NZEB becomes reality in Ireland

Sean Armstrong of the Department of Housing subsequently explained the proposed definition of Nearly Zero Energy Buildings (NZEB) for non-residential buildings in Ireland. As per EU requirements, the definition will include both energy savings and onsite renewable targets*.

Ciaran O’Connor of the OPW added that the renewable requirements were particularly challenging for the public sector due to lack of roof space. With regard to low energy ventilation options for NZEB, Chris Croly of BDP advocated hybrid ventilation combining natural ventilation for cooling and MVHR to recover heat. Croly also expressed his feeling that air conditioning was often unnecessary in Dublin offices and leads to significant increase in energy use (+40% on average).

It became clear during the panel discussion on the impact of NZEB for commercial buildings that this last point was slightly controversial. Trevor Smyth of Google highlighted that when we talk about ventilation, we talk about people and that there is no simple formula: With 60  nationalities in the work force in an organisation like Google, staff have highly diverse expectations when it comes to comfort.

Finally, Shane Caldwell of IPUT called for better data on actual energy performance as opposed to simple energy rating certificates.

The wellness imperative

The concept of a healthy workplace is coming up more and more in the corporate social responsibility and prospective employees are taking the whole issue of wellness more seriously.

However, as highlighted by Richard Francis of the Monomoy company while “We all know what is in a tin of peppa pig spaghetti, we often don’t know what is in our buildings and how this impact occupants”. This is even more surprising in an age when new technologies enable ordinary people to record environmental conditions on an unprecedented scale.

Julie Hirigoyen of UK Green Building Council spoke about the recently launched “Offices: Wellbeing Labs”. As part of this process, 11 companies met on a periodic basis for 6 months to receive advice and support to implement key health and wellbeing principles.

A case study on the  renovation of the Miesian Plaza showed how  health and wellbeing was considered in a renovation project.  Architect Ronan Phelan of  Scott Tallon Walker architects explained how the project team is working towards LEED Platinum and WELL certifications for this iconic modernist masterpiece built in the 1970’s.

Sustainable buildings in Europe: Emerging trends

The Green Room 17 conference closed with a panel discussion on the latest sustainable building trends in Europe with UKGBC CEO, Julie Hirigoyen, Swedish GBC CEO, Bengt Wagram and German GBC (DGNB) CEO, Christine Lemaitre. All of them highlighted health & wellbeing – including healthy materials, as well as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) as the new trends in sustainable buildings. Julie Hirigoyen lamented the impact of Brexit on UK’s environmental laws, whilst the Swedish GBC CEO spoke about how Swedish banks are now considering sustainability as a key risk factor in lending decisions.

A copy of the presentations is available here. 

* A consultation on this topic is currently open – closing 26th May. IGBC is currently gathering members’ input in order to make a comprehensive submission. Read more.

Filed Under: latest news, news Tagged With: Policy, NZEB, Event, GreenRoom

More News

2019 Activity Report Best In Class Breedon Building Life Blog Built heritage Careers Case Study Library circular economy Climate Bond Initiative CMEx ConstructInnovate Consultation cradle to grave ecocel Energy Efficiency epd Francis-Noel Duffy Green Bond Green Mortgages GreenRoom green structure hibernia IMS Jobs KORE LDA LEED LEED Training Life Cycle Assessment Media Coverage NUIG precast concrete Publication Renovation resource Retorfit SEAI SMARTER Finance Steve Murphy Tender Timber waste Water Matters World Green Building Week

Archives

Search News

Related Content

  • Green Room Conference 2017

     

  • Green Room Conference

    Half-day conference to catch up on the latest trends nationally and internationally on Green Building.

     

  • WGBC releases new report on Health Wellbeing and Productivity in…

     

IGBC

The Irish Green Building Council is a not for profit company limited by guarantee registered in Ireland. Registered Number: 492948.
Registered Office: 19 Mountjoy Square East, Dublin 1. Registered Charity Number (RCN): 20155568.

Director(s): Refer to About Us pages.

Phone: (01) 6815862 & (01) 6815843 Email: [email protected]

Info

  • Membership
  • About
  • Contact
  • News
  • Events
  • Learning Hub
  • Privacy Policy
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Subscribe to our Email List

Sign up to get all the latest news on events, policy documents and training opportunities from IGBC.

Copyright © 2023 · igbc · Log in

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. ACCEPT Cookie settings
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT

Search igbc.ie