Passive EcoWall cuts whole life carbon

This article was originally published in issue 49 of Passive House Plus magazine. Want immediate access to all back issues and exclusive extra content? Click here to subscribe for as little as €15, or click here to receive the next issue free of charge

Embodied carbon from the construction and refurbishment of buildings accounts for 14 per cent of Irish built environment emissions according to the Irish Green Building Council.

Passive EcoWall follows passive house principles and includes elements like Gutex woodfibre natural insulation, Finsa Superpan VapourStop airtight racking boards, and the Pro Clima Intelligent airtightness system. It can also feature alternative natural insulation options such as Indinature’s Indibreathe Flex hemp & jute insulation, and Gramitherm grass fibre insulation. Both products have independently verified environmental product declarations (EPDs) or life cycle assessments (LCAs), making whole life carbon assessments more straightforward.

Group technical director Niall Crosson said it was crucial to address not just emissions arising from operational energy use, but those embodied in the building from cradle to grave, from material manufacture to the building’s end of life.

This entails adopting strategies like optimising existing buildings, prioritising low carbon materials and designs, employing energy efficient construction methods, and planning for the reuse, recovery, and recycling of buildings beyond their end of life. In response to this challenge, Ecological Building Systems has introduced the Passive EcoWall concept, highlighted in Crosson’s passive house in a feature article in this issue of Passive House Plus.

The Passive EcoWall concept has been embraced by Irish volumetric modular timber frame manufacturer, Lidan Designs, who achieved an impressive embodied carbon score of 249.3kg CO₂ equivalent per m² on a 200 m² school building in Cork, surpassing targets set by the RIAI and RIBA.

“Passive EcoWall offers specifiers and designers a comprehensive, unique, ‘off the shelf’ specification for timber frame construction,” Crosson said, adding that the system comes with a clear, comprehensive set of detailed drawings and thermal bridge assessments at critical junctions, with a focus of thermal continuity and optimum airtightness and windtightness details.

“Adopting such construction techniques and natural materials ensures industry can effectively address not only operational emissions, but also upfront carbon emissions,” said Crosson, “thus playing a pivotal role in the UK and Ireland’s sustainable building future.”

For more information on Firetite visit econbp.com/firetite/, and for Harcourt Technologies visit www.htl.tech.