The way we build and renovate is unsustainable, say climate experts

An Oireachtas Committee was told buildings account for one third of all emissions in Ireland.

Houses in Ireland today pollute as much as agriculture, if both operational carbon (the energy used to run the home) and embodied carbon (the energy it takes to build, repair and demolish) are taken into account.

That’s a figure the Irish Green Building Council gave the Oireachtas Committee on the Environment and Climate Action, stating that construction emissions actually amounted to 37 per cent of all emissions in Ireland.

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Written by Astrid Madsen

Astrid Madsen is the editor of the SelfBuild magazine. She previously held the same role in an Irish trade publication, before that she worked at the National Standards Authority of Ireland. She graduated with a BA in Urban Studies from Columbia University in New York and holds an MBA from the Instituto de Estudios Bursatiles in Madrid. France of origin, she now lives in Portarlington, County Laois, where she's taken on the task of renovating a listed building! Email astrid.madsen@selfbuild.ie

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