Articles - passivehouseplus.ie
Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney has joined international experts to vehemently condemn plans by the Irish government to build a motorway through one of Ireland's most historically important areas. In his first broadcast interview on the controversy surrounding the M3 motorway that is already well under construction through the Tara Skreen valley, the Co Londonderry born poet condemned a "ruthless desecration" .

A developer who built holiday homes close to the Rock of Cashel has been granted "retention planning permission," reports Michael Parsons in the Irish Times .

32 of the 52 houses are to be allowed while the remaining 20 are subject to a demolition order.

Monday, 03 March 2008 19:23

The other anti-social effect of plastic bags

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Hot on the heels of the news that Marks and Spencer's move to banish the plastic bag has British prime minister Gordon Brown eyeing-up Ireland's bax-tax comes a report in the Guardian noting 20,000 jobs lost in China after the closure of a plastic bag factory.
Monday, 03 March 2008 19:04

'Recycled' waste ends up as landfill

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Britain's Sunday Telegraph has reported that environmentally-conscious householders are being conned into thinking they are recycling their waste.

A report by Andy Bloxham says that: "thousands of tons of material put out to be recycled [...] secretly

Monday, 03 March 2008 18:50

British considering fuel poverty

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The British government is considering a voucher scheme to tackle fuel poverty in light of increasing energy costs, reports BBC News Online.

According to the report the government is concerned that rising energy costs are having a negative effect on poorer households. The report also notes that alongside sharp increases in energy costs

Saturday, 01 March 2008 17:35

Turning on

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Electricity is easy to understand, right? It's generated by burning something somewhere or maybe from sunlight or wind, and then races down the wires just in time for you to turn the lights on.

Not quite. Electrical power is so ubiquitous that we don't really feel the need to understand it – and in an ideal world we wouldn't need to – but in today's energy conscious

The online edition of the bosses' favourite newspaper, the Wall Street Journal, does its bit for sustainable architecture with short profiles of the architects who add 'sex appeal' to sustainable buildings.

 

The five architects chosen include Norman Foster, who is working on developing

Saturday, 01 March 2008 13:41

Eco gadgets for the home

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Never knowingly left off any bandwagon that happens to be trundling past, Wired magazine, or at least its internet arm, presents a gallery of eight eco gadgets for the home and the neighbourhood.

Among the better ideas are wastewater turbines, LED lighting and a fascinating, for Constuct Ireland readers, plan to make eco-friendly

Friday, 29 February 2008 20:46

Seven ways to win – but what?

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Friday, 29 February 2008 20:34

Blue-blood says biofuel is green

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Ron Oxburgh, perhaps better known as Lord Ernest Ronald Oxburgh, Baron Oxburgh, KBE, FRS, PhD - or perhaps not - says that environmentalist George Monbiot's campaign against biofuel has "gone too far."

Writing in the Guardian Oxburgh, a former non-executive director of Royal Dutch Shell

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