‘Addressing embodied carbon emissions is urgent,’ said the CEO of the Irish Green Building Council at the launch of its decarbonisation roadmap.
The Irish Green Building Council (IGBC) is today (6 May) launching a draft roadmap for the decarbonisation of Ireland’s built environment.
According to the report by the IGBC, the built environment and construction are directly responsible for 37pc of Ireland’s emissions, which is the same as agriculture.
About 23 percent of the total emissions are operational emissions that are associated with energy used to heat, cool, and light buildings. Another 14pc of the carbon emissions come from the production, transport, and disposal of building materials and infrastructure.
The draft roadmap offers recommendations on how to reduce these emissions throughout the construction lifecycle by 2030.
Speaking at the launch of the roadmap, Minister for Environment, Climate, Communications and Transport Eamon Ryan, TD, said he was delighted to see the industry working together to develop “a common vision and a comprehensive set of actions” to mitigate emissions.
“Embodied carbon has long been a hidden part of a building’s climate impact and is often more challenging to address as it requires cooperation across the supply chain,” he added. “The model shows that the National Retrofit Plan, alongside improvement of the carbon intensity of the grid, are critical to halve our emissions by 2030.”
Recommendations
The IGBC report recommends that buildings be reused to reduce the carbon embodied within them. It also recommends increasing support for energy rehabilitation and quality assurance.
The roadmap recommends promoting better design for new builds to support repairability, adaptability, reuse, and reuse.
It also recommends publishing a clear timeline for the introduction of regulations on embodied CO2 to give certainty to the industry.
“Given Ireland’s ambitious construction and renovation programme, addressing embodied carbon emissions is urgent,” said Pat Barry, CEO of the IGBC.
“Even before the first occupant of a new building steps inside this building vast amounts of CO2 is produced, but what is not measured cannot be reduced. A first step is hence to mandate measurement of embodied carbon in new buildings.”
The IGBC consists of more than 300 green buildings organizations from all walks of the built environment. It is affiliated with The World Green Building Council. This network includes more than 80 national green-building councils across the globe, with a total membership of more than 27,000.
PJ Rudden, chair of innovation and digital adoption at Ireland’s Construction Sector Group, said that the draft roadmap shows the extent of the task ahead for Ireland’s construction industry.
“Decarbonising our built environment is feasible, but we need to change the way we build and how we work together as an industry. As a sector we must collaborate more and share best practice to support innovation,” he concluded.
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