Dublin, Friday 12th May 2023 – The Irish construction and property industry needs to act faster and to be more ambitious in tackling climate change. This was the key message delivered at the Irish Green Building Council (IGBC)’s Build Green Now conference today.
Six months after the launch of “Building a Zero Carbon Ireland – A roadmap to decarbonise Ireland’s built environment”, over 200 industry leaders gathered in Dublin to discuss challenges and actions needed to accelerate the transition to net zero carbon buildings.
Opening the event, Pat Barry, CEO of the Irish Green Building Council (IGBC) said: “Despite ambitious climate policies, our national emissions are still growing. Tackling this crisis requires immediate action from everyone, everywhere. As an industry, we must advocate for a better use of our existing stock, but also design and construct buildings that are not only zero carbon emissions, but also constructed in more eco-friendly ways. I urge everyone in the industry to endorse the roadmap and to take the actions set in it now”.
The “Building a Zero Carbon Ireland” roadmap includes a series of actions broken down by sector to fully decarbonise Ireland’s built environment. The report also shows that embodied carbon emissions in construction and the built environment currently account for 14% of Ireland’s national emissions. These are emissions associated with the production of construction materials and the construction and maintenance of buildings.
Mr. Barry added: “Significant progress has been made on improving energy efficiency in buildings, but embodied carbon emissions are the elephant in the room. We cannot deliver 400,000 homes and reach our 2030 climate targets without addressing them. Government has a key role to play, and the public sector must lead by example, but they cannot do it alone”.
Speaking at the conference, Audrey Nugent, Director of Global Advocacy-World Green Building Council, explained: “The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) is currently under review. This is a crucial piece of EU legislation, which previously led to the implementation of Building Energy Rating (BER) and the Nearly Zero Energy Building (NZEB) standards. The proposed revision is a significant step forward towards achieving Zero Carbon buildings, as for the first time ever, it aims to address the issue of whole life carbon emissions.”
Several European countries such as Denmark, France, and the Netherlands, have already regulated embodied carbon emissions. To support this transition in Ireland, the IGBC is developing a national methodology and establishing high-quality baselines.
Joe Durkan, Head of Technical National Retrofit at SEAI, said: “Collecting standardised data is extremely important, and SEAI is proud to support the development of a national methodology to measure whole life carbon emissions. As part of this process, the IGBC is collecting case studies of whole life carbon assessments of buildings. I would like to encourage everyone in the industry to submit case studies and support the development of the methodology”.
In addition to embodied carbon emissions, energy efficient designs and circularity in construction, including effectively reusing construction materials and existing structures, were extensively discussed at Build Green Now.
