Climate science and building science are set to intersect at a passive house conference in New York on 17 June.

Building with an eye to energy efficiency is not only cost-effective, it can also augment architectural design. This has been proven by the winners of the 2014 Passive House Award. Six buildings and one region were recognised today at the opening of the International Passive House Conference in Aachen: an apartment block in Berlin; a New York retrofit; a seminar building in Goesan, South Korea; an art museum in Ravensburg, Germany; a building complex in Espoo, Finland; a terraced house in Philadelphia; and an entire passive house district in Heidelberg.

Last week's Better Building conference in Dublin heard from experts speaker on the present and future of the construction industry in Ireland. Topics at this year’s conference pushed the building industry to think beyond energy efficiency and consider full life cycle costs of materials, transportation issues, and living buildings.

The Better Building Conference returns for a 3rd year on 9 April at Croke Park Dublin with a genuinely exciting line up of inspiring case studies of future innovations and essential information on the new building control regulations. This full day conference is packed with presentations and panel discussions in three parallel streams and has plenty of important networking opportunities. Don't miss out on what has genuinely become one of the key events in Ireland's construction calendar. Click here to view the full programme, and click here to register now.

The Passive House Institute has announced the finalists for this year’s Passive House Award. The winners, across six categories, will be announced on 25 April at the International Passive House Conference in Aachen, Germany.

The UK’s Passivhaus Trust will hold a conference on large scale passive house developments on 30 April in Glasgow.

The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland Energy Show 2014 takes place at the RDS in Dublin on 12 and 13 March.

Low energy design specialists Accredited Passivhaus Design (APD) are promoting the design of affordable housing to the passive house standard at Ecobuild from 4 to 6 March. According to APD, the passive house approach can reduce rent arrears while reducing the need for off-site allowable solutions as part of compliance with the UK's zero-carbon homes target in 2016. Part of the UK government's proposal for zero carbon homes, allowable solutions permits the counting of carbon credits as a carbon reduction strategy for buildings.

Leading passive house and low energy glazing brand Optiwin has announced that it is looking for small to medium sized manufacturing partners in the UK via Berkana Green, its exclusive licenced sales agent for England, Scotland and Wales.

Leading green roof and turf specialist, Lindum, will be focussing on pollinators and biodiversity at this year’s Ecobuild exhibition which takes place on March 4-6 at ExCel, London. At the forefront of green roof technology relevant to UK climate conditions, Lindum has developed pre-grown vegetation mats containing mixtures of wildflowers, herbs, perennials and sedums can provide a wonderful flowering display and encourage biodiversity.

Passive house will be represented stronger than ever at this year’s Ecobuild on 4 to 6 March, with a series of events throughout the exhibition focused on the world’s leading ultra low energy building standard. Passive House Plus will also be at this year’s exhibition — come find us at stand S800.

Leading international heating systems manufacturer, Viessmann, will unveil the first mass-produced, commercially available, domestic fuel cell in Europe at Ecobuild on 4-6 March. Viessmann and Panasonic have jointly developed the Vitovalor 300-P polymer electrolyte fuel cell-based micro combined heat and power system (mCHP), which goes on sale in Germany this April. By 2020, Panasonic and Viessmann expect a five-digit number of systems to be installed in Europe.

Windhager will launch its latest development, the BioWin 2 wood pellet boiler, at Ecobuild
2014.

AIB has announced the launched of a €350m “new homes development fund” that it says will support the construction of new homes in Dublin, Cork and Galway. The bank is inviting applications from “borrowers who can demonstrate prior experience in residential development”.

The Passive House Institute has announced the launch of a new award for window systems. 

An Taoiseach Mr Enda Kenny has opened one of the world’s "most advanced research and development facilities for space and water heating technologies" at the Glen Dimplex site in Dunleer, Co Louth.

Two leading building product companies, Saint-Gobain and Fakro Roof Windows, have announced partnerships with cancer charities in Ireland and the UK.

A virtual, online green building trade fair will take place across Europe on 18 and 19 February 2014. 

A new online passive house tutorial video series has just been launched by Energyquarter. The series is hosted by Tomás O’ Leary from the Passive House Academy, accredited Passive House Institute trainers.

See The Light, Ireland's passive house conference, takes place next Friday October 25 in Dublin. Passive House pioneer Prof Wolfgang Feist will be the keynote speaker.