While tokenistic or poorly conceived attempts at supporting the decarbonisation and greening of buildings still abound in the finance sector, there are signs of structural changes on the horizon - changes designed to unlock widespread change. But do those changes go far enough?

New research published by the Passivhaus Trust has shown that the real-terms cost of building to the passive house standard has fallen since the previous study four years ago.

This article, originally published in 2012, details the Irish building industry's history of opposition to higher standards.

The first delivery of the QualiBuild Foundation Energy Skills training will start later this month, and the course is open to all building construction workers to apply.

Dublin’s old city wall in Woodquay provided the backdrop on Wednesday 15 October to a conference, titled 'Better Than Best Practice', on the urgent need to upskill the Irish construction industry. 

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.

The UK’s Passivhaus Trust will hold a conference on large scale passive house developments on 30 April in Glasgow.

An Taoiseach Mr Enda Kenny has opened one of the world’s "most advanced research and development facilities for space and water heating technologies" at the Glen Dimplex site in Dunleer, Co Louth.

Bord Gáis has ceased offering home insulation products and boiler installations through its Home Team division due to a drop off in demand. The company will continue to offer boiler servicing and repair.

The move reflects the recent nationwide decline in home energy upgrades, a trend that is investigated in the new issue of Construct Ireland.

The pioneering energy charity Energy Action is set to hold a two-day fuel poverty conference in Dublin Castle on 7-8 February.

“The introduction of the carbon tax on fuel costs in 2010 has further exacerbated the health and monetary problems for the fuel poor,” said Energy Action general manager Charles Roarty. “Due to low income and possibly debt these households will not have the funds needed to pay for retrofitting measures, even allowing for SEAI’s Home Energy Saving scheme grants.”

Richard Douthwaite proposes a new bank-free, debt-free way of financing property purchase and development to get the market working again and clear up the mess left by the bubble.

Every eurozone government has debt problems and is cutting its spending, Richard Douthwaite says. Defaults and a prolonged depression are inevitable unless countries inject money into their economies in an unconventional way. A prosperous low-carbon economy would be the result

With money leaving local economies across Ireland to service debt and significant drops in local authority revenues, towns such as Dundalk, Ennis and Kilkenny are investigating the possibility of bringing in electronic currencies to keep money circulating locally, as Richard Douthwaite reveals.

Why the Greenov project may be the key to success for Irish SMEs in energy upgrade market

The worl­d has learned the hard way that our political leaders lacked the judgement and resolve to identify and address the problems which led to the recession. Richard Douthwaite argues that a similarly flawed judgement is evident in the assumption that the economy will recover, and advises on how to prepare for a future of global economic contraction.

The market for new residential build may have bottomed out, but compared to the rest of the construction industry the sustainable building sector appears buoyant. Changing market conditions, various government incentives and updated building regulations are all helping greener building companies - but with few houses likely to be built this year and capital restricted, challenges still lie ahead. Lenny Antonelli reports