Vacancy, dereliction and demolition of existing buildings should be reduced, building group says

Irish Times

15-05-2025

Vacancy, dereliction and demolition of existing buildings must be radically reduced if Ireland is to meet its climate targets, the Irish Green Building Council (IGBC) has said.
Tackling dereliction must be made a Government priority and a target of a 50-75 per cent reduction in the
vacancy
and
underuse of buildings
should be achieved by 2040, according to the IGBC Building a Circular Ireland roadmap 2025-2040.
The IGBC is a non-profit organisation which represents professionals involved in sustainable construction. In its roadmap, published on Thursday, it said '
preserving
and making the best use of the existing building stock can contribute significantly to climate change mitigation and address other environmental challenges, such as resource overconsumption and associated impacts on nature'.
Achieving carbon neutrality requires 'both building more efficiently and valuing existing buildings' it said, as significant amounts of resources were needed to construct these buildings. 'The greenest building is often the one that already exists'.
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The construction sector was responsible for 37 per cent of Ireland's national emissions and construction and demolition generated 8.3 million tonnes of waste annually.
Demolition 'significantly contributes to embodied carbon emissions due to material extraction, transport, and processing'.
Building a 'circular Ireland' meant maximising the value of existing buildings through 'reuse, upgrade, and intensification of use rather than demolishing and building new,' it said.
'These sustainable practices can mitigate resource depletion and environmental pollution while boosting overall asset worth​.'
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This approach presented a 'valuable opportunity to rejuvenate urban and rural areas and improve living conditions, and can play a crucial role in addressing the housing crisis,' it said. Investing in and 'intensifying' the use of existing buildings 'can be the most cost- and carbon-efficient method to deliver the homes and infrastructure we need'.
When it came to the construction of
new homes
, '
greenfield' sites
, which have not been previously built on, required 32 per cent more embodied carbon than 'brownfield' sites – ie previously developed sites such as industrial estates 'due to the additional infrastructure of roads, car parking, landscaping, water infrastructure, lighting and attenuation tanks'.
Dense housing such as duplexes and apartments used less embodied carbon than standard houses, largely due to landscaping and infrastructure per unit, 'which presents a big difference between semidetached houses and apartment buildings' it said.
'The mix of home sizes needs to be re-evaluated, with a sufficiency of three- and four-bedroom homes likely already within the existing stock,' it said. However, many of these homes were 'underoccupied' it said '67 per cent of people in Ireland and 88 per cent of those over 65 live in under-occupied homes, double the European average and the third highest in Europe'.
The Government should develop a national policy on 'right sizing' and 'explore options to support and incentivise right sizing on a voluntary basis', it said.
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'Integration of one- and two-bedroom homes into neighbourhoods could enable downsizing, freeing up family homes for those who need them. The transition to more compact forms of development, such as apartments and terraced homes, would allow more homes to be built for less cost in manpower, materials, operational energy and carbon emissions.'
The Government should also reconsider the ban on co-living, where smaller apartments share communal spaces such as livingrooms and laundry facilities, it said.
'Co-living was effectively banned in Ireland in 2020 because profitability was seen as driving up the cost of sites and, hence, having a negative impact on the affordability of other housing types,' it said.
'The development of Government guidance could enable it as a quality affordable housing option rather than a vehicle for profit maximisation, particularly if built by local authorities and approved housing bodies on a cost-rental basis, within high-quality design guidelines.'