Open Source Content Management

A press release on the SEI website has announced the launch of a new quality mark for wood fuels in Ireland. With a deadline approaching I don't really have time to dissect the details right now, but the programme - known as the Wood Fuel Quality Assurance scheme - will be launched in Tipperary tomorrow.

Various agencies appear to have played a role in drawing up the scheme, including Coford, NSAI, SEI, the Irish Bioenergy Association and Waterford IT.

The press release says the "quality assurance scheme will certify organisations involved in the manufacture / supply of quality logs, chips, pellets and briquettes formed from clean wood. This QA scheme will provide customers with confidence that they are purchasing a quality wood fuel from a sustainable source relevant to their needs."

Unfortunately the press release doesn't appear to list the specific criteria wood fuels will have to meet to get the stamp, nor does the Irish Bioenergy Association website. However the Wood Fuel Quality Assurance scheme website will go live tomorrow, so more details should be available then.

For those of you who haven't already seen pictures of it floating about, I thought I'd post a pic of the design for Manchester United captain Gary Neville's new house, designed by Make Architects. According to Inhabitat, the house will feature locally-sourced materials, a ground source heat pump and PV panels, and is designed to be "zero carbon". The architects say it was inspired by the neolithic settlement of Skara Brae in Orkney, and not the Tellytubby House.

As usual, a few links:

Out of the ruins, a more sustainable Haiti: Treehugger
Why are so many Paul Rudolph buildings being torn down? Treehugger
Car bodies could store energy like batteries: Inhabitat
Top five green gadgets to look for in 2010: mylifescoop.com
Can solar panel mounts cause roof leaks?: GreenBuildingAdvisor.com
World's first personal carbon credit: Guardian
£60m eco-home funding announced in the UK: Energy Savings Trust

 

 

A sustainable energy project in north Tipperary has the potential to create a pioneering green community – buildings are getting energy makeovers, grants are available for renewables and the ecovillage at Cloughjordan is under construction. But getting householders in the area to go green is still proving a hard sell, as Lenny Antonelli reports

No matter how energy efficient a building method is, constructing a house from scratch will always cause some damage to the environment - but what if a building material could absorb more carbon than it causes to be released over its life cycle? Lenny Antonelli visits a hempcrete house in Co. Down that seeks to trial this innovative method of building

Designing a low energy building when you've got unlimited space is one thing – but what if you need to make your walls thin to maximise space on a small site in an architectural conservation area? Lenny Antonelli visited a new St Vincent De Paul sheltered housing project that fit a lot of sustainable features on to a small plot in Dublin's north inner city.

In the third installment of a new feature on international green buildings, Lenny Antonelli takes a look at more innovative, sustainable and striking buildings from around the world.

I've come across mentions of aerogel insulation a few times recently - it featured in a few of the buildings from the Solar Decathlon that I wrote about in the current issue of Construct Ireland. The claims made about it are generally impressive: that it's an ultra-light, extremely high performance translucent insulator that was, apparently, developed by Nasa. But I have no real way to verify these claims, so I'm curious to hear what readers know about it. I've certainly yet to see it used in a project in Ireland.

A new article on Jetson Green certainly speaks fondly of the stuff: 

Despite the fact that we are now living in the 21st century, aerogel insulation seems like a material out of science-fiction. It is the lightest solid known, although by volume it is 99% air. It is breathable, but it doesn't absorb water. It is incredibly strong for its weight. But most importantly, it is a fantastic insulator.

There's also an interesting discussion about it on greenbuildingforum.co.uk. 

Anyone know any more? 

As usual, a few links for your perusual:

Code for Sustainable Homes to apply to new UK dwellings from this year: Energy Savings Trust
Tesco opens its first "zero carbon" store in the UK: Guardian (see Construct Ireland's profile of a Tesco Passivhaus-certified store in Waterford)
Demolish Buckingham Palace and replace it with an eco-friendly replica? Guardian
Profile of some new green homes in Portland, Oregon: Jetson Green
Solar roof system unveiled: Jetson Green
Solar Decathlon comes to Europe: Green Buidling Advisor (The US Solar Decathlon is profiled in the current issue of Construct Ireland)
Re-envisioning New York to combat sea level rise: Treehuger
Berlin factory renovated into recyclable live/work space: Inhabitat

We're thinking of making a few changes at Construct Ireland to freshen up the magazine, and we'd love your input. Among the changes we're thinking of introducing in the March issue are:

• More, shorter case studies of new build and retrofit projects. Rather than publishing three to four long case studies (of 5-6 pages each), we're thinking of featuring one big case study along with 3-4 short new builds and a similar number of retrofits (each of about 2-3 pages).
• A letters page, and a one page opinion column on green building and energy issues (written by a different person each issue).
• A 'how to' article in each issue, which would examine a particular green building topic in detail, starting with the basics but getting into a lot of technical detail too. Articles could focus on topics like insulation, air tightness, thermal mass, solar thermal - practically anything relevant to sustainable building really.
• Getting architects and other experts to contribute to our feature on international green buildings by selecting some of their favorite green buildings globally.
• A one-page interview in each issue with a leading figure in a field such as sustainable building, architecture, energy or green economics.

And that's about the gist of it. We'd love to hear your thoughts on these ideas - click 'comment' below and then 'show/hide comment form' to leave a comment.