News

The UK Green Building Council, or UKGBC, has published its long awaited study on circularity in delivering net zero buildings - How Circular Economy Principles can Impact Carbon and Value. This study explores the smart application of circular economy practices and how these have the potential to significantly reduce carbon across the built environment.

Changing user demand, climate change, industry carbon reduction targets, organisational ESG metrics, construction materials shortages and so many other factors are driving changes right across the built environment.  These changes impact what buildings are being built, and, critically, how they are being designed and built. Smart buildings have evolved beyond simple connectivity; healthy buildings have evolved beyond indoor air quality and ventilation; and BMS systems have evolved well beyond intelligent control.

After two years of stepping up to the plate in response to the pandemic, 2022 marks a period of reflection for the cleanroom industry, its importance is well and truly cemented. While cleanrooms have been instrumental in the battle against the pandemic, demand elsewhere is still rising, particularly for lab and pharmaceutical applications.

While construction-related accidents and deaths fell to a 30-year low in 2021, the ramping up of Ireland’s Housing for All scheme and increased demand for construction services means worker safety is still a top priority. With workers exposed to heavy machinery, heights, moving vehicles, and dangerous equipment on a day-to-day basis, keeping everyone safe involves careful planning, vigilance, and perhaps the help of technological advances.

In the UK, the Engineering Services Association (BESA) has completed a trilogy of free guides designed to help building designers, owners, occupiers and facilities managers turn their buildings into ‘safe havens’ that protect occupants from health risks linked to airborne contaminants and viruses.

We were delighted to welcome the Minister for Housing, Darragh O’Brien, on site recently in Durrow, County Laois, together with Laois County Council staff and local councillors. The Minister was visiting social housing developments (in progress!) across the Laois area.  

Townmore Construction’s decision to go the off-site route for many elements in its Southern Cross Road apartment scheme in Bray, as well as the early purchase of building materials, has insulated it to some degree against cost inflation and materials and labour shortages.

Earlier this month, the Irish Green Building Council, or IGBC, launched its draft roadmap for the decarbonisation of Ireland’s built environment. This roadmap is looking at a cohesive strategy for decarbonisation across the whole life cycle of the built environment, which is critical.

The overlap between smart buildings, healthy buildings and zero carbon buildings is almost complete and the distinctions are few. The goal is for energy efficient, zero carbon buildings that are ‘smart’ and ‘healthy’ by virtue of the technologies used to monitor the building’s performance, reduce emissions, while increasing the health, equity and economic prosperity for owners, occupants and for the local communities.

In order for the construction industry to accelerate its push towards net-zero, an increased focus on embodied carbon needs to take place. To date, companies have been unable to give the carbon emissions embedded in the materials and products used to complete projects as much attention as their operational footprint. According to Andrew Stolworthy, the Director of Product and Market Development at SFS UK, if the industry truly intends to achieve sustainability, it needs to begin tracking embodied carbon.