At COP26, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) recognised the UK’s Sustainable Development Foundation (SDF), along with South West College in Northern Ireland and the Construction Scotland Innovation Centre, as international centres of excellence for high performance buildings.

On 13 June, in an address about retrofit policy to the joint conference of the Sustainable Traditional Buildings Alliance and the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, I suggested that the UK retrofit industry is dangerously incompetent, and that is why we need to implement the Each Home Counts industry review. Little did I know that in less than twenty-four hours those words would come back to haunt me in the most horrific way, writes Dr Peter Rickaby.

Employers, building owners, designers and developers throughout the world are showing that it pays to invest in greener offices that keep their occupants healthy and happy, a new report from the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) reveals.

Home of the Northern Ireland parliament in Belfast, Stormont has recently undergone a major refurbishment, including a completely new plumbing and heating system that provides catering and washing facilities on a daily basis for over 1000 people. The building itself has changed little over the years (it was opened in 1932) and therefore presented an interesting design and installation challenge. 

Ireland’s largest employers knocked E60 million off their energy costs in 2008 through efficiency measures, energy minister Eamon Ryan announced yesterday at the Sustainable Energy Ireland global conference on energy management in Farmleigh, Dublin.

Four Dublin colleges have achieved energy cost savings amounting to €3million by participating in an energy saving initiative.

Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, Dublin Institute of Technology and Dublin City University have  just completed their e3 annual energy review, and achieved their 2008/9 target of an average 6 per cent reduction in energy use in 37 buildings after two years.

ENERGY SAVING Day in the Oireachtas last month was only a partial success, with electricity usage in a part of the complex used by politicians from the two main parties actually increasing.

AN ENERGY efficiency audit of a number of public buildings has shown that one of the oldest properties in the State has a better rating than premises a fraction of its age.

THE DECISION by An Bord Pleanála to approve scaled-down plans by Arnotts for its ambitious "Northern Quarter" development brings into focus again the conflicting views on plans for tall buildings in Dublin.