Homes of the future should generate the vast majority of the energy they use, but a small amount of near-site or off-site renewable generation

The number of government grants made to people in Britain who want install renewable energy systems to their homes has halved, reports the BBC. The fall comes after the low carbon buildings programme cut the maximum grant on offer from £7,500 to £2,500.

Figures seen by the BBC show that in 2007, 2,339 grants

The Irish Times reports that worms have an economic value of €700 million.

 

Putative president has  green belt.

Republican party candidate for president, John McCain, is to be greener than his predecessor and party-mate George

Oil prices over $125 with predictions of $200

Millenarian doom-mongering or wave of the future? You decide.

Corn-based material emits methane in landfill and add to food crisis, newspaper claims.

The Guardian newspaper has reported that Pla, a corn-based plastic product designed to compost are not suitable for landfill.

While Pla is said to offer more disposal options, the Guardian

Corn-based material emits methane in landfill and add to food crisis, newspaper claims.

The UK's Observer newspaper produced an in-depth climate change section in last Sunday's edition, including an excellent warts-and-all article on the proto-eco city of Freiburg, Germany.

The Irish Times has reported that leaders of the EU member states are today close to agreeing a timetable for action on climate change.

On a day when world record oil prices were again surpassed (see here ), Microsoft has launched a new technology (see here ) which it says could cut over two million tonnes of CO2 every year - about the same emissions as the Poolbeg power station, or 392,000 mid-sized cars.

A broad range of sustainable building and renewable energy product suppliers are exhibiting at the EcoBuild section of the Spring House and Garden Show running this weekend. A sneak preview of their stands follows. Anyone interested in attending the show, which runs from Friday till Sunday at the RDS Simmonscourt in Dublin, should visit

Construct Ireland and Easca have a strong presence at this year's Spring House & Garden show in the RDS, and we'll be blogging live from our stand all weekend.

If you're visiting the show drop by our stand in the Ecobuild section where you can meet the team, and we can try and help you with any queries you might have.

Welcome to the new and improved Construct Ireland website. The new site includes some substantial progress, ranging from an archive of past articles, to a detailed calendar of events, an updated version of our sustainable building jobs section, to this blogs feature. It's our intention to use the blog and news section to keep you up to date with breaking stories related to sustainable

A developer who built holiday homes close to the Rock of Cashel has been granted "retention planning permission," reports Michael Parsons in the Irish Times .

32 of the 52 houses are to be allowed while the remaining 20 are subject to a demolition order.

Hot on the heels of the news that Marks and Spencer's move to banish the plastic bag has British prime minister Gordon Brown eyeing-up Ireland's bax-tax comes a report in the Guardian noting 20,000 jobs lost in China after the closure of a plastic bag factory.

Britain's Sunday Telegraph has reported that environmentally-conscious householders are being conned into thinking they are recycling their waste.

A report by Andy Bloxham says that: "thousands of tons of material put out to be recycled [...] secretly

The British government is considering a voucher scheme to tackle fuel poverty in light of increasing energy costs, reports BBC News Online.

According to the report the government is concerned that rising energy costs are having a negative effect on poorer households. The report also notes that alongside sharp increases in energy costs

Electricity is easy to understand, right? It's generated by burning something somewhere or maybe from sunlight or wind, and then races down the wires just in time for you to turn the lights on.

Not quite. Electrical power is so ubiquitous that we don't really feel the need to understand it – and in an ideal world we wouldn't need to – but in today's energy conscious

The online edition of the bosses' favourite newspaper, the Wall Street Journal, does its bit for sustainable architecture with short profiles of the architects who add 'sex appeal' to sustainable buildings.

 

The five architects chosen include Norman Foster, who is working on developing