€10,000 Prize For Most Energy Efficient Irish Building

July 19, 2010 - PRLog -- Building professionals including architects, engineers, builders and developers, across Ireland are being urged to submit entries to the Isover Energy Efficiency Awards (EEA), which recognise new and renovated buildings that have been built with a very low energy demand.

A €10,000 prize will be presented to the overall winner of the Irish finals who will go forward to represent Ireland at a European Awards ceremony in Madrid in May 2011.  The winner will also be profiled in the internationally-distributed Isover ‘Best Of’ book.

According to Mr. Kieran Holohan of ISOVER Ireland: “The new awards scheme will celebrate Ireland’s most energy efficient renovation and new construction projects, both in the residential and non-residential sectors.”

Mr. Holohan added: “The ISOVER Energy Efficiency Awards reflect two environmental issues that are at the very heart of our core objectives - protection of the environment in the face of climate change, and enhancing the quality of and physical comfort in the buildings where we work and live.”

He pointed out that much of Ireland’s existing building stock continues to consume a considerable amount of energy for heating with significant emissions of greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels.  

“New building regulations coupled with a change in consumer behaviour and attitudes has led to a significant increase in the number of renovation and construction projects embracing energy efficient design”, Mr. Holohan stated.

“Not only will this new awards scheme honour those who have excelled in the energy efficient building sector but it will also allow scheme participants to exchange and share knowledge and experience in the field.  ISOVER Ireland is confident that this will help to highlight the importance of improving the energy performance of our buildings and, subsequently, the inhabitants' quality of life”, concluded Mr. Holohan.

The adjudication panel includes leading Irish experts in the field of green design and construction, namely Jeff Colley, Editor of Construct Ireland and winner of the 2010 Green Leader Award; Jay Stuart RIBA, Sustainable Design Consultant; and Zdenka Debartoli, International Market Manager Building, ISOVER.

Projects entered in the competition must be fully completed by December 2010 and not more than 5 years old.  Closing date for entries October 8th 2010. The Irish awards ceremony will take place in December 2010.

For more see www.isover-eea.com.

-ENDS-

Notes To Editor:
-   Mr. Kieran Holohan of ISOVER Ireland is available for interview on 087-9540777.
-   For further information please contact Mark Dunphy of Dunphy Public Relations on 0035386-8534900 or media@dunphypr.com
-   ISOVER is Ireland's leading supplier of glass wool insulation solutions. It provides a comprehensive range of solutions for thermal, acoustic, fire and air-tightness requirements for residential and non-residential applications, with innovative products for roofs, walls and floors. ISOVER, and its parent company St. Gobain employ approximately 800 people in Ireland. For more see www.isover.ie

Judge Biographies:
-   Zdenka Debartoli (born 1960) is a civil engineer working for Saint-Gobain ISOVER since 1992. She started in ISOVER (TEL-Mineralwolle) in Austria as the application and building physics engineer. From 1993 since 2000 she was working in the Standardisation Committees on the acoustic and thermal issues and she was developing various building physics tools.
Between 2000 and 2008 she was Marketing Manager of ISOVER Austria and East Adriatic Region and has implemented the Passive House concept into the development strategy of ISOVER Austria.  Since 2008 she is a member of the International Marketing in Paris. Her main responsibility is the knowledge and tools transfer and further development of the ISOVER Multi-Comfort House concept.
She is organising trainings “ISOVER Summer School” with the Passive House Institute in Darmstadt (Germany), working on the research and development topics with Passive House Institute and ISOVER research, starting and accompanying the Multi-Comfort House pilot projects and organising ISOVER International Students Contest.
-   Jay Stuart RIBA is the Managing Director of DWEcoCo Ltd., Integrated Sustainable Design Consultants. He has over 30 years experience as an architect in Canada, the UK and Ireland and has worked on a wide variety of built projects in several countries.
Jay was the Senior Associate for many years with CZWG Architects in London where he was involved in a variety of commercial, retail, residential, refurbishment and new build projects. He worked with the Energy Research Group, UCD in commercial consultancy work and has worked on EU funded research projects in the field of sustainable design in the built environment.
DW EcoCo won the “Green Organisation Award” in the first Irish Green Awards in 2008 and were on the design team for the Mater Orchard Residence which won SEI’s “Sustainable Building Award” in 2008.  DW EcoCo have been involved in many competition wins including two of the OPW decentralised offices programme and several Dublin City Council residential redevelopments.
-   Tomás O’Leary is a co-founder of the Irish Passive House Academy, an accredited Certified European Passive House Course Provider and Trainer and a Director of MosArt Architects. Whilst he began his professional career as a Landscape Architect, he developed a keen interest in Passive House in 2002, culminating in building and living in Ireland’s first Certified Passive House since 2004.
Tomás co-authored the SEI new-build Passive House Guidlines (along with UCD ERG) and drafted the SEI retrofit Passive House Guidelines. He is accredited by the Passivhaus Institut to certify Passive House projects, is a member of the (extended) European PASS-Net project and is also a representative on the European Passive House Database project. He is a founding member of the Irish Passive House Association and has been promoting Passive House not just in Ireland but also in the U.S. as well as China.
Tomás has extensive and practical knowledge of the Passive House standard and looks forward to sharing his experiences with all course participants.
-   Jeff Colley is the editor of Construct Ireland, the pioneering Irish sustainable building magazine and winner of the 2010 Green Leader award. He is also a founding director of Éasca, the Environmental and Sustainable Construction Association.  During his time as editor of Construct Ireland, Colley has consistently campaigned for sustainable building in Ireland.
He has been credited by environment Minister John Gormley and energy minister Eamon Ryan as playing a key role in achieving 40% energy reductions and mandatory renewable energy usage under building regulations, accelerating the introduction of Building Energy Ratings for new homes by two years and helping to design the formative National Retrofit Programme.