Ireland’s National Renovation Upskilling Committee (Reno-NUC) was officially launched by Minister Damien English T.D. in February 2019. Reno-NUC was formed as a recommendation of the SEAI funded ECCoPro project.
Objectives
The objective of the committee is to encourage and facilitate construction workers and building professionals upskilling in energy renovation.
Role of the group
The role of Reno-NUC is to provide high-level strategic and policy input to support large scale upskilling of building professionals and construction workers in energy renovation in Ireland.
Its primary aims are:
– To contribute to the development of a roadmap to launch a user-friendly holistic energy efficiency accreditation system for building professionals and construction workers.
– To oversee the development of an online self-assessment tool for building professionals and construction workers to help them identify their training needs and pathway to acquire these skills.
Council Members
• Pat Barry, CEO, Irish Green Building Council – Chair
• David McHugh, Association of Consulting Engineers of Ireland
• John Egan, Construction Industry Federation
• Eileen O’Connor, Department of Communications, Climate Action and the Environment
• Sean Armstrong, Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government
• Dee Kehoe, Engineers Ireland
• Ruaidhri Neavyn, Higher Education Authority
• Paul Tobin, Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers
• Seamus Hoyne, Limerick Institute of Technology
• Gary O’Sullivan, National Standards Authority of Ireland
• Sandra Campbell, Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland
• James Lonergan, Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland
• Conor Hanniffy, Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland
• Michael O’Brien, Waterford and Wexford Education and Training Board
Background
The work completed by the Irish Green Building Council and Limerick Institute of Technology (LIT) 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 ran a comprehensive consultation in 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 in required renovation skills for different professionals
3. Allow end-users to clearly identify building professionals who have upskilled in the area.
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 with 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 has been developed to allow them to easily identify the steps they need to take to upskill. The tool has been launched in May 2020 and it’s available here.
Organisations and individuals interested in learning more about this project 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.
