The Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Leo Varadkar, TD, has launched Construct Innovate – a new Enterprise Ireland Technology Centre hosted at University of Galway which may play a key role in the transition to sustainable building in Ireland.

Is the very nature of the way that construction products are bought and sold limiting the wider proliferation of natural and sustainable materials?

Foam glass gravel provides a sustainable alternative to traditional aggregates and hardcores, according to Mike Wye Ltd & Associates, the leading supplier of traditional and sustainable building materials.

If the reduce, reuse, recycle mantra has a built embodiment, it’s arguably the recently completed Rediscovery Centre in Ballymun, Dublin – a 1960s boiler house for a much maligned early district heating system that’s been transformed into a sustainability education centre, and that makes use of a remarkably large palette of green materials and sustainable technologies.

Nothing focuses the mind like a target. The growing impact of Building Energy Ratings (BER) is increasingly encouraging Irish people to aim for the highest energy rating they can. Patrick and Niamh Daly’s house in Mullingar takes this trend to the next level, using a myriad of sustainable green materials and technologies to become a net energy producer and go beyond the limit of the BER scale. John Hearne visited the nearly completed house to find out more.