UK news - passivehouseplus.ie

A new study suggests the biggest barriers to greener construction are not material scarcity but systems and policy.

The UK’s Passivhaus Trust has published its initial response to the Scottish Government's Stage 2 consultation on a proposed Scottish ‘passive house equivalent’ policy, ahead of a fuller submission due before 16 October this year.

The 28th International Passive House Conference brought together experts and practitioners in April to discuss the world’s leading low energy building standard. Niall Crosson, group technical director at Ecological Building Systems, summarises this year’s event, which marked the 35th anniversary of the first passive house, and the 30th anniversary of the Passive House Institute.

One of the largest non-domestic passive house retrofits yet attempted in the UK, the £100 million Firoz Lalji Global Hub for the London School of Economics (LSE), will be the subject of a dedicated technical masterclass when the UK Passivhaus Conference returns to London this November for the first time in more than a decade.

The myth that energy-efficient building is a needless luxury has been dealt a significant blow by new research published by the UK’s Passivhaus Trust.

Building envelope specialists and energy systems experts will meet in Manchester in September as the AECB's annual conference tackles one of the most contested questions in low-energy construction: how fabric performance and energy supply should work together.

The EU is set to publish plans to reform how electricity and gas are priced – to drive the widespread uptake of heat pumps and cut heating bills by up to 60 per cent.

Britain is failing to address housing as part of the climate emergency, according to a group of 60 local authorities, businesses and civil society groups who say government changes to planning rules could spell the end of zero carbon homes in England.

The UK's leading sustainable construction event is co-locating with two other shows in May.

Major new passive house schemes for Ireland.

Passive house certification has been formally recognised as a deemed-to-satisfy route within the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard at practical completion, in a move which recognises the reliability of the passive house standard as a way delivering significant real world carbon savings.

The Association for Environment Conscious Building (AECB) is recruiting an executive director in what the organisation describes as a rare opportunity to shape the future of sustainable construction in the UK

Industry leaders will gather at University of East Anglia in September to share practical insights on creating buildings that prioritise environmental performance without compromising design quality or occupant comfort.

A newly published landmark study has said thirteen UK areas face severe climate risks as schools brace for ten-week heatwaves.

The winners of the inaugural Exemplar Sustainable Buildings Awards were announced in London on 25 June, celebrating the Sustainable Development Foundation's 20th anniversary.

Leading developer Barratt London has announced plans for its ‘Lo-E’ Homes programme, which will deliver sustainable new homes at scale across the British capital and exceed passive house standards.

Certified green homes are becoming mainstream across Europe – boosted by collaboration from experts in green building and finance. Smarter Finance for EU (Smarter4EU), a pan-European initiative dedicated to the creation of a mainstream European green housing market, announced a range of new initiatives at the “Banking on Green Homes" event in Madrid, on 28 May.

The 2025 UK and Ireland Passivhaus Conference, themed Climate Emergency: The Passivhaus Solution, is set to bring together hundreds of sustainable building professionals in Belfast this October.

As global temperatures soar, an Irish organisation is bringing experts together this month for a summit on the future of sustainable construction.

Help is at hand for European financial institutions scrambling to train staff in sustainable housing finance as regulatory pressure intensifies and customer demand for green mortgages accelerates across the continent.

Reddy is the first person from Ireland to hold the role of President of ICT, which has a term of two years, and follows his term of Vice President of the organisation since 2023.

A survey of 1,500 UK homeowners by the Social Market Foundation (SMF) – a cross-party think tank – has revealed government failure to make people feel confident in taking steps for the net zero transition, jeopardising its success.

Wales’s devolved government has moved forward with plans to standardise sustainable, timber-based affordable homes in the country with the publication of a new pattern book.

Certified passive house to be alternative means of compliance to proposed Scottish passive house equivalent.

The Smarter Finance for EU consortium, which is aiming to unlock €100bn worth of green homes across Europe, announced the launch of a European centre of excellence to promote green home certification and investment across Europe at the Irish Green Building Council’s annual residential conference in Dublin.

Canadian green building writer and architect Lloyd Alter has published a book to explain the importance of embodied carbon in simple terms.

There may never be a better time for companies to upskill their staff in passive house, Enerphit and net zero construction – thanks to new 70 per cent grants.

A pilot version of the UK’s first cross-industry standard for net zero carbon-aligned buildings has been launched.

Europe’s burgeoning green homes market is a multi-trillion euros opportunity – but lenders must be wary of facilitating greenwashing, a pan-European consortium has warned.

Gas cooking is killing 40,000 European people a year in Europe, a major new study has revealed, with an average of almost two years taken off their life in the EU and United Kingdom due to exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emitted during gas cooking.The countries with the highest burden were Italy, Poland, Romania, France and the UK.