Industry Leaders Converge At Better Building Conference

The inaugural Better Building Conference sponsored by Ecocem recently took place on 25 April at the stunning Royal Hospital Kilmainham.

The event was a huge success with over 320 delegates representing the whole architecture and construction sector, from Arup to Munster Joinery, Sustainable Energy Authority Ireland to Queens University Belfast.
Delegates travelled from all over Ireland, the UK and beyond to what was the biggest sustainable event of the year. Many of the industry’s most influential experts discussed and debated the business case for sustainability, along with an opinionated audience who contributed to a very stimulating and engaging event. This all took place on one day and featured leading Irish and international experts, designers, academics, innovators and investors in sustainability for the built environment. The discussions converged on the common theme of ‘making the business case for sustainability’, quantifying the economic value of energy and resource efficiency and resilient systems. There were over 30 international and national expert speakers in three parallel streams at the event with delegates choosing between the different sessions that were most relevant to them. These included sessions on green public procurement, building rating tools, life cycle analysis, post occupancy evaluation, passive house & enerPHit, innovation, and many more. This was an important event for anyone involved in designing, owning, constructing, operating or investing in buildings. In the Environmental Assessment Tools session, The Irish Green Building council presented a progress report on work so far to reach consensus on a building rating tool for Ireland with an international perspective from other European green building councils. The session on Passive House & EnerPHit brought a fresh perspective. Adam Cohen, who is leading the passive house revolution in the US, spoke about the business opportunities for Irish companies, which are seen as a passive house leaders in the English speaking world. Jonathan Hines of Architype talked about the first wave of passive schools in the UK. There were also great networking opportunities at the event including complimentary coffee breaks, lunch and a reception at the end of the Conference which allowed speakers and delegates to meet.

Pat Barry, Director of the Irish Green Building Council, stated: “We didn’t want people to just listen to the Conference and go home, we wanted people from different disciplines to meet with each other and break down silos between design, finance and policy.” Another key theme was how to translate greater energy efficiency and environmental qualities of a building into increased property value and thereby help stimulate retrofits. International property experts were speaking about European trends. Pat Barry continued: “This Conference broke new ground because it was the first time that every part of the value chain of the built environment was represented together at an Irish building Conference. “While it seems ironic that the Conference took place during the worst downturn in construction activity in living memory, it is of course entirely appropriate.” Mr Barry added: “Now is the time for rethinking the way we finance, procure and remake our built environment, not when we are in the middle of another construction frenzy. “We need to urgently get the policies, metrics and capacity in place right now, to be ready for a possible upturn in activity between 2013 – 2015.” The Better Building Conference was organised by the Irish Green Building Council, Cultivate and Sustainable Building Show with key partner organisations, Éasca, RIAI, Chartered Institute of Building, Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland, Chartered Institution of Building Service Engineers, Royal Society of Ulster Architects and Passive House Association of Ireland. This was the first year of an event which is hoped will be the centre piece of the Green building industry in Ireland. The key findings, feedback and ideas from the conference will be presented to Phil Hogan TD, Irish Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government who has agreed to review the document. The Better Building Conference will take place again in 2013.

Please visit the website at www.betterbuilding.ie for the latest details. Also follow the Better Building Conference on Twitter @BetterBuildConf or #BCConf

The Better Building Conference accounted for 7 structured RIAI CPD points.