Ireland’s small businesses could save €300 million a year through
simple actions to reduce energy costs, Sustainable Energy Ireland has
announced. This follows the completion of 1,500 small business energy
assessments over the past two years, giving SEI the most comprehensive
knowledge of the energy practices and challenges facing small
businesses today.
Construct Ireland’s recent lobbying and campaigning work has paid off spectacularly with news that two policy proposals have been adopted into the reneweed programme for government .
Editor Jeff Colley made detailed submissions to the Green Party on several issues, with proposals for a pay as you save policy to stimulate national energy upgrade work and a policy to dramatically increase the impact of Building Energy Ratings finding their way into the document agreed between Fianna Fáil and the Greens.
This year’s Plan Expo, Ireland’s largest building exhibition, will take place at RDS Simmonscourt in Dublin from Tuesday, 3 November to Thursday, 5 November. Green building is at the heart of this year’s event: the EcoBuild exhibition of green building suppliers will take up almost half the floor space, while a first-time conference entitled Rebuilding Ireland will explore the role that green building and architecture can play in Ireland’s economic recovery.
Environment minister John Gormley yesterday published the
government's policy on architecture for 2009 to 2015, titled Towards a
Sustainable Future: Delivering Quality Within the Built Environment.
Ten Irish companies developing ocean energy technologies will share
e4.3millon in funding from Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI), the
national energy authority announced yesterday.
The funding is aimed at enabling the companies to take their proposals and prototypes to the next stage of development.
Ireland now ranks fourth in the world for the contribution of wind
energy to electricity use, according to the International Energy
Agency's 2008 Wind Energy Annual Report.
Ireland, which
supplies 8.7% of electricity demand from wind, is only behind Denmark
(19.3%), Spain (11.7%) and Portugal (11.3%).
SPENDING ON the smart economy should be increased eightfold to
almost e4 billion a year to make Ireland a world leader in creating
green collar jobs, according to the national advisory body on
sustainable development.
In a report on a “Green New Deal” for
Ireland published yesterday, Comhar argued that a multi- billion euro
commitment would be needed if Ireland was to become a sustainable,
low-carbon economy.
Construct Ireland has launched a campaign calling for the introduction of pay as you save (PAYS), a system with the potential of substantially energy upgrading the Irish building stock. PAYS overcomes obstacles to the en masse uptake of energy investments such as the requirement for upfront capital, unease at signing up to debt in the case of loans, and lack of confidence in the suitability of particular measures and technologies in a given building.
IRELAND CANNOT afford to wait before investing in the green economy,
the director general of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has
said.
Speaking at the organisation’s annual conference, Mary Kelly said there
were significant economic opportunities for Ireland in becoming a
low-carbon and greener economy.
80 per cent of Irish homeowners would be interested in paying for comprehensive energy upgrade work through a repayment tariff on their utility bills, a survey has found.
The results, from the monthly online omnibus for August by leading market research consultancy Amárach Research, coincide with the launch of a Construct Ireland campaign calling for energy upgrades across Ireland’s building stock through energy suppliers.
Leading green architect Joseph Little has launched a specialist green design consultancy to assist architects and building companies. On Monday 14 September environment minister John Gormley officially launched Building Life Consultancy, the new initiative of Joseph Little Architects at the company’s offices in North Great George’s St.
Irish companies and public bodies interested in recognition for their contribution to the environment have less than two weeks to apply for a Green Award. The deadline for entering this year's Green Awards has been extended to 18 September. Construct Ireland will sponsor the Green Building category for the first time this year.
Ireland’s small businesses could save €300 million a year through
simple actions to reduce energy costs, 
Construct Ireland’s recent lobbying and campaigning work has paid off spectacularly with news that two policy proposals have been adopted into the reneweed 
Construct Ireland has launched a campaign calling for the introduction of pay as you save (PAYS), a system with the potential of substantially energy upgrading the Irish building stock. PAYS overcomes obstacles to the en masse uptake of energy investments such as the requirement for upfront capital, unease at signing up to debt in the case of loans, and lack of confidence in the suitability of particular measures and technologies in a given building. 
