Building professionals and construction workers are at the interface with property owners, they are a source of advice, and can influence users at key decision points. Yet, depending on training and engagement, they can act as advisers or as negative influencers. As predictability of outcomes is key for property owners and investors, upskilling the supply chain in energy renovation is also a key part of the jigsaw when it comes to de-risking investment, supporting decisions and enabling action.
The work completed as part of Build Upon and Qualibuild projects showed that a lack of skills at all levels of the supply chain could significantly jeopardise large scale deep energy renovation in Ireland.
Against this background, the IGBC run a small consultation between October 2017 and March 2018 to explore the opportunity of introducing a user-friendly holistic energy efficiency accreditation system for building professionals in Ireland. This should 1. Incentivise building professionals to upskill in the area, 2. Guarantee closer alignment between professionals, and 3. Allow end-users to clearly identify building professionals who have upskilled in the area, thus ensuring Irish citizens are at the centre of the transition to a low carbon society.
This work led to the publication of a set of recommendations for a user-friendly holistic energy efficiency accreditation for building professionals in April 2018 – available here.
To develop a network of skilled, trusted and easily identifiable advisors, the IGBC and Limerick Institute of Technology (LIT) are now working on the implementation of this user-friendly holistic energy efficiency accreditation of building professionals, and looking at ways to extend it to construction workers.
As property owners are often discouraged by a lack of understanding of the renovation process, the introduction of this accreditation system along a register of accredited professionals, should facilitate deep renovation and ensure Irish citizens are at the centre of the energy transition.
Finally, to better incentivise building professionals and construction workers to upskill in the area, a self-assessment tool will be developed to allow them to easily identify the steps they need to take to upskilling and accreditation.
Organisations and individuals interested in learning more about this process and next steps should contact Marion – Marion@igbc.ie or call 01 681 5862.
Other related documents:
This project has been supported with financial contribution from Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland under the SEAI Research, Development and Demonstration Funding Programme 2018, Grant number 18/RDD/283.
