Passive House Plus editor and publisher Jeff Colley’s TEDx talk on the passive house standard is now available to view online.
Welsh social housing to embrace passive house, timber & life cycle assessment
Written by Kate de Selincourt
The Welsh government has issued a new standard for social housing that requires an embodied carbon assessment, favours timber-based offsite construction, and bans fossil fuel boilers.
UK sustainable building groups become UN centres of excellence
Written by News Desk
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.
The Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland (RIAI) has launched its 2030 Climate Challenge, calling for urgent action to be taken by architects and the wider construction industry to tackle the climate emergency.
Climate action plan sets embodied carbon targets for construction
Written by News Desk
Ireland’s new climate action plan, which was published on Thursday 4 November, contains the country’s first official targets for limiting the embodied carbon of construction materials.
Poor ventilation a Covid risk in 40 per cent of classrooms, study finds
Written by News Desk
Coventry University research has found that 40 per cent of primary school classrooms examined in a study did not have an adequate ventilation rate to combat the spread of Covid-19.
COP26 house to showcase fabric first, low carbon build methods
Written by News Desk
Oil heating sector pivots to biofuels, but green groups raise concern
Written by Lenny Antonelli
The UK and Ireland’s oil heating industry says it has taken a “major step forward” in the use of biofuels in domestic oil boilers, with early tests concluding that hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) works in virtually all existing oil boilers.
Architects call for urgent climate action ahead of COP 26
Written by News Desk
Ahead of the Built Environment Summit (28-29 October) and COP26 (1-12 November), the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and Architects Declare have published a report demonstrating the critical role the sector must play in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
#BuildingLife: “Regulation of whole life carbon is key”, says Steve Murphy of Hines
In the #BuildingLife ambassador spotlight series, Passive House Plus is profiling leaders who have endorsed the Irish Green Building Council’s call to address the environmental impacts of buildings across their life-cycle..
Draft development plan guidelines a “retrograde step”
Written by News Desk
The Department of Housing has come under criticism for draft guidelines which would prevent local authorities from setting sustainable building targets for buildings as a planning condition, with the passive house standard and low carbon cement directly referenced.
Evidence emerges of endemic ventilation regs breaches
Written by News Desk
Evidence is emerging of endemic non-compliance with ventilation requirements for new homes under Part F of the building regulations.
Passive house celebrates 30th birthday at international conference
Written by News Desk
The Passive House Institute celebrated the low energy standard’s 30th birthday at the 25th International Passive House Conference in September. Around seven hundred participants registered for the conference, which mostly took place online due to Covid.