The Net Zero Challenge recognises the leadership of architects, engineers, contractors, developers and clients who demonstrate significant progress along the path towards Net Zero energy and carbon. The purpose of the awards is to help industry and move the market towards Net Zero energy and carbon.
The principles of Net Zero incorporate the ideals of Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG), principles that are balanced by health and wellbeing, as well as governance, where governance covers the community, government and developer working towards the goal of achieving and delivering these objectives in a meaningful and measurable way.
This category recognises projects that provide high-quality workplace environments while pursuing Net-Zero strategies that ensure a reduction in energy use and carbon emissions, thereby impacting the effects of our everyday work practices.
This category recognises projects commissioned by public or semi-public bodies and agencies that demonstrate a civic function and are accessible to all. Such buildings should illustrate an overlapping interest in the provision of public-facing functions alongside ambitious sustainability objectives.
This category recognises the role industrial buildings can play in meeting Net-Zero targets and ensuring the country’s collective carbon footprint is reduced – ranging from spaces of construction and fabrication to logistics and retail.
This category recognises urban dwelling schemes that seek to maximise the energy efficiencies to be gained in dense, residential development, while taking advantage of the opportunities afforded by communal buildings in terms of both design and operation.
This category recognises multi-unit residential projects that aim to reimagine the sustainable credientials of the typical Irish suburban housing estate – a type of development often associated with promoting carbon-intensive lifestyles but which also holds a significant capacity for change and innovation.
This category recognises projects which adopt Net-Zero strategies at the infrastructural scale, utilising both technical knowledge and innovating thinking in the design of those structures which underpin and serve the wider built environment.
This category recognises projects which bring under-utilised existing building stock back into contemporary use, achieving a more sustainable built environment through the re-use of extant properties and significantly improving their energy performance.
This category recognises the design team that pushes the principles of sustainable design throughout their work, whether in pursuing new research, exploring contemporary innovations, or leading in best practice.
This category recognises an individual member of a design or contracting team who has demonstrated exceptional commitment and understanding in the application of Net-Zero strategies, either with regard to a particular project or acros their work as a whole.
This category recognises projects that have adopted exceptional sustainability strategies – in design, construction, or operation – which are at the forefront of new techniques in energy conversation and carbon reduction. Both technological and practice-based approaches to Net-Zero principles will be considered.
Ciaran O’Connor, FRIAI, is the State Architect/Principal Architect in the Office of Public Works and a former President of the RIAI. He has received numerous architectural, conservation and landscape awards, including the RIAI Triennial Medal for Restoration, the prestigious Europa Nostra Medal and the European Award for Cultural Heritage. He is also co-author of a number of books and has contributed to Irish and international publications.
Paul Martin is Programme Manager for Technical Standards Development, SEAI and a former Chairman of CIBSE Ireland. A graduate of Northumbria University, Newcastle and Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT), Paul is a Chartered Member and Fellow of CIBSE and is also the Chair of the Building Services Committee for the National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSA).
Michael Curran is CIBSE Ireland Chairman and Head of Building Services, Energy and Utilities at NUI Galway. As Energy Performance Officer at NUI Galway, Michael led the team to ambitiously exceed Government targets in primary energy reduction, also wining the SEAI Energy Team of the year 2019. He also works closely with the U9 Group of Energy Officers across the university sector.
Mona Duff has a degree in building services and energy technology and worked in Arup’s Berlin and Dublin offices before being appointed Senior Manager at International WELL Building Institute (IWBI). She has extensive experience across the full spectrum of building services engineering and today is very much involved in influencing design decisions for the wellbeing of building occupants.
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