London has joined 18 other cities around the world, including Paris, New York and Tokyo, in a landmark commitment to make all new buildings “zero carbon” by 2030. Regulations and planning policy will also target existing buildings to make them net-zero carbon by 2050.

This is what you get when one of Ireland’s most experienced low energy builders creates a home for his own family, with help from one of the country’s foremost ecological architects — a modern and elegant passive house that pays detailed attention to sustainability at every turn.

Coillte Group’s wood panel manufacturing subsidiary, Medite Smartly, has engaged EcoReview Ireland for the provision of an innovative life cycle assessment application.

While Ireland’s minimum energy performance regulations for dwellings have come on leaps and bounds in recent years, standards for non-domestic buildings have remained untouched. Which makes forward-thinking media production company TVM’s new ultra low energy HQ all the more impressive.  

Advantage Austria is to host a CPD-oriented presentation and networking event on passive house and low carbon building in Edinburgh on 2 October.

Last week's Better Building conference in Dublin heard from experts speaker on the present and future of the construction industry in Ireland. Topics at this year’s conference pushed the building industry to think beyond energy efficiency and consider full life cycle costs of materials, transportation issues, and living buildings.

RainWater Harvesting Ltd has announce that both its direct feed and award winning gravity-fed Rain Director system have achieved Water Regulation Advisory Scheme approval, ensuring that they comply to all UK regulations.

A virtual, online green building trade fair will take place across Europe on 18 and 19 February 2014. 

Architect Michael Green says that by building timber skyscrapers, we can meet global housing demand without increasing carbon emissions. Check out his TED talk below.

Tall buildings tend to be among the worst offenders in terms of energy and environmental profligacy – but one new Viennese project shows that high rise doesn’t have to mean high environmental impact.

The winners of the 2013 UK Passivhaus Awards were announced last Thursday at a ceremony at the residence of the Austrian Ambassador in London.

Zephair have announced the launched of the Zephair Pre-Pro, an "easy to use and reliable way to perform quality control of your air tight layer by under pressurising a building".

Check out this video from Saint Gobain on their technical academy in Kingscourt, Co Cavan. The academy showcases the company's products and provides training in their application. The company said that video is designed to provide an insight into the kind of courses that are available — most of which are free, and contain a mix of theory and hands-on training. Saint Gobain's brands included Isover, Gyproc and Weber.

Check out this video from NBC News on a "zero carbon" house on the Shetland isle of Unst.

The worldFLEXhome is a factory-manufactured house constructed from old shipping containers that uses less energy than it produces.

Over three out of four domestic new build enquiries to Construct Ireland are from people aiming for certified passive or near passive standards, the latest data from our reader enquiry service reveals.

The enquiry system connects readers looking to build or upgrade with the sustainable product and service providers who advertise in the latest issue of Construct Ireland.

Mario Cucinella architects have produced an interesting theoretical prototype for a low cost sustainable home, dubbed 'Casa 100k'.

Jason Walsh visited the Green Building, a pioneering sustainable development built in Dublin's Temple Bar in 1994, to find out how one of Ireland’s most ground breaking eco designs has been performing over the last decade.

Save