The Environmental and Sustainable Construction Association (Éasca) is merging with the Association for Environment Conscious Building (AECB), the two organisations have announced.

Light + Building, the world’s leading trade fair for lighting and building services technology, takes place this year from 18 to 23 March in the Messe Frankfurt exhibition centre, Germany. More than 2,600 will present their latest innovations at the fair, and over 200,000 visitors are expected to attend — with almost half expected to come from outside Germany.

The North American Passive House Network (NAPHN) welcomed representatives of the United Nations to address the opening plenary gathering of the NAPHN17 conference in Oakland, California, on 6 October.

Specialist low energy building product manufacturers Quinn Building Products have been announced as the main sponsors of the World nZEB Forum, which combines pre-forum workshops on 15 November and a conference on 16 November.

SMET Building Products, which supplies a wide range of products for low energy and fabric-first construction, picked up the award for best small business at the Greater Newry Business Awards,  organised by Newry Chamber of Commerce & Trade, on 28 September at the town’s Canal Hotel.

The German-Irish Chamber of Commerce hosted a study group to Germany last month to examine the energy efficiency of buildings there.

Ecological Building Systems’ Diasen Diathonite Evolution cork lime thermal plaster was awarded with the best energy efficient product prize at this year’s SEAI Energy Show, held in Dublin on 5 and 6 April.

A delegation of world leaders in sustainable building and energy visited Wexford early on 10 May to discuss plans to locate Ireland’s first nearly zero energy building (nZEB) training centre near Enniscorthy.

Changing habits was a big theme at the 21st International Passive House Conference, which was held in Vienna on 28 and 29 April, with leading climate researcher Helga Kromp-Kolb telling delegates that adopting new habits and sharing resources fairly were both crucial to tackling climate change.

SEAI will host Ireland’s first ever deep retrofit conference at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on 21 June.

Low energy design-and-build company Ecohouse is currently on site with a new super low-energy house in Clontarf, designed by Ryan Lamb Architects.

Award winning Cork-based insulation manufacturer Ecocel will shortly open its doors for a series of factory tours, with the aim of increasing awareness of the importance of eco-friendly, healthy insulation.

Ecological Building Systems will host an event in London on Thursday 11 May, titled Insulating & Achieving Airtightness with Cross Laminated Timber.

The inaugural nZEBRA conference was held in Enniscorthy, Co Wexford on 2 March, and aimed to draw attention among policy makers, building designers and construction professionals to the rapidly approaching introduction of nearly zero energy building (nZEB) standards in Ireland.

The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) is inviting businesses to come to the Energy Show 2017, the premier business energy event taking place at the RDS, Dublin on Wednesday 5 and Thursday 6 April.

Green Building Store is running a training day on 14 February for building professionals, which will offer a practical and technical guide to the cavity wall passive house construction techniques the company has used on its UK projects.

2016’s UK Passivhaus Conference, which took place in London in October, was the biggest yet, with 300 delegates and another 100 visitors to the expo that ran in parallel. Also in attendance were students from half a dozen architecture schools, some of whom had risen before dawn for the chance to attend.

Leading timber frame manufacturer Cygnum picked up five awards during one week in October, in recognition of some of the high profile passive-certified projects it has completed in recent years.

ISH, the world’s “leading trade fair for the bathroom experience, building services, energy, air-conditioning technology and renewable energies” takes place from 14 to 18 March 2017 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

The Passive House Association of Ireland (PHAI) has announced that it has welcomed four new patron members to the group: the Passive House Academy, Cygnum Timber Frame, Medite SmartPly and J & N Windows Ltd.