Ireland has joined the world’s largest collaborative project on building renovation in a bid to tackle one of the country’s biggest climate challenges – its existing buildings.
After more than a year of preparations as part of the BUILD UPON project, the Irish Green Building Council is launching a series of events across Ireland that aim to bring together more than 150 organisations in a concerted effort to reduce emissions from buildings.
Emissions from existing buildings are the single largest source of emission in Ireland after transport and increasing energy efficiency of buildings is regarded as one of the cheapest forms of CO₂ mitigation by the EU. Given the limited options in reducing the country’s emissions in agriculture and transport, energy efficiency is key in reaching Ireland’s climate change targets.
BUILD UPON will support the Irish government, industry and civil society to deliver a ‘national renovation strategy’ – a long-term plan on how they will renovate Ireland’s homes and commercial buildings to high standards of energy efficiency. This strategy is required by 30 April 2017 under EU law.
The €2.35m project, funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, is led by Green Building Councils from 13 countries, with the Irish Green Building Council facilitating the process in Ireland.
It will see a diverse range of organisations come together to collaborate on how to tackle these issues, including governments and local authorities, constructions companies, product manufacturers, energy providers, financial institutions, and NGOs. Organisations involved in the process in Ireland include the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, ESB, Kingspan Insulation, Saint-Gobain, Colliers International, Tipperary Energy Agency and the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul.
They will be aiming to agree a strong national strategy for Ireland with clear energy saving targets, coordinated awareness raising initiatives that engage citizens, skills programmes that train the construction workforce to deliver high quality retrofit, financial mechanisms such as green mortgages and loans, and policies such as strengthened energy performance certificates.
Terri Wills, CEO of the World Green Building Council, said: “Existing buildings are one of Europe’s biggest challenges when it comes to tackling climate change. We can turn that challenge into a solution, but need nothing short of a renovation revolution.
“BUILD UPON will spark that revolution by gathering an unprecedented number of key players including governments, businesses and NGOs, in a collaborative community where they will work together to transform Europe’s existing buildings into green buildings.”
The BUILD UPON project will use two key platforms to aid this collaboration:
- The “RenoWiki” – a groundbreaking online portal which allows individuals to upload real-life initiatives on building renovations in Europe in order to share best practice and successful initiatives. To date, there are more than 550 initiatives (including 59 Irish initiatives) on the RenoWiki. Examples include Latvia’s ‘Lets Live Warmer’, an award-winning awareness raising campaign that has led to greater uptake of housing insulation, and Ireland’s “QualiBuild”, a training programme to ensure a construction force capable of delivering quality energy efficient renovation.
- A series of over 80 events in the 13 project countries to consult and engage key players in what could be included in their renovation strategies, such as policy measures, finance mechanisms, skills programmes and awareness raising initiatives.
Pat Barry, Executive director of the Irish Green Building Councilstated: “We will engage a diverse group of stakeholders to help our government to develop consensus for an ambitious national renovation strategy and action plan for Ireland. We do not plan to reinvent the wheel, but rather build upon and linking up the strong but scattered initiatives for finance, policy, skills, capacity and awareness for energy efficiency that already exist across the country. The vision is a fully decarbonised built environment that delivers a better quality of life for all.”
The RenoWiki and a full events programme for Ireland are available at www.buildupon.eu/Ireland.