Chief Executive’s Report on Draft Plan Consultation
Volume 2 – Summary of Submissions Received
Cork City Submission No.:
Person:
Organisation:
260
Irish Green Building Council
Summary of Submission and Observation:
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• Summary of requested changes and alterations to the Draft CiDP:
General Principles In the context of the climate emergency, all plans should incorporate the following ‘first principles’: • Must be designed with carbon neutrality as the end goal – Development Plans (DPs) must be designed so that all actions, objectives, and policies are aligned with the overall national objective of reducing carbon by 50% by 20302 and net zero carbon, by 2050. • All climate measures and those aimed at decarbonising the built environment should be cross-cutting. New DPs must be designed with this in mind so that no one policy overrides or counteracts the objectives of another. • Design out dependency and ‘lock - ins’: all new residential development and buildings must be de signed to reduce and eliminate car-dependent travel. Every new home and building must demonstrate accessibility by public transport, walking and cycling infrastructure. Car parking standards should reflect predicted lower levels of car ownership, with a presumption against dedicated carparking and a presumption in favour of dedicated cycle parking. • Zero Carbon Buildings – All new development must be encouraged by DPs to move towards Zero Carbon across the full life cycle by 2025. This can be achieved by optimising energy efficiency first, such as Passive House Standard, and meeting the balance with renewables on site for lower density development, or directly contracted off-site for higher density development. Embodied carbon must be measured utilising Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), and it must be reduced as far as possible, with the balance offset, ideally within the development scheme or local area, using verified means. • Resource efficiency and circularity – All development must integrate circularity and resource efficiency principles. DPs should adopt renovation first policies, avoid unnecessary demolition, encourage space optimisation, design for long life and flexibility, design for disassembly and reuse of components. • Water efficiency first – All new development must integrate water efficiency measures such as use of A-rated taps and showers. • Comply with the ‘do no harm’ principle i.e., no action should undermine environmental objectives and diminish ecosystem services and biodiversity. • Think Mitigation – how best to ensure that the plan mitigates against increasing the carbon load of the plan over its lifetime and beyond, in buildings (design and materials), infrastructure (design and materials) and transport (generation). • 9. Think Adaptation - how best to ‘design - in’ adaptation for climate change in buildings, infrastructure and transport, siting, and location and with increased emphasis on the critically important role of green infrastructure. • 10.Construction Waste Hierarchy: Reuse, Renovate, Demolish (first to last) • 11.Biodiversity – Every development must have a biodiversity plan. • 12.Minimum density guidelines must be followed for all types of housing development to ensure compact growth, to avoid soil sealing and maximise efficiency of infrastructure. • 13.Encourage 3rd party verification of all principles above and go beyond minimum standards - Councils have a responsibility to lead by example. Encourage use of tools such as Home Performance Index, Passive House, BREEAM and LEED certifications on all developments. Introduce a Whole Life Cycle (WLC) approach to take embodied carbon into account in public procurement decisions. Councils should revise Procurement Guidance to require that Life Cycle Analysis and Life Cycle • Costing be required for all public building contracts (see recent EPA guidance (2021)5). o Require Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) for construction products used on public projects. o Look for carbon measurement as part of criteria for planning consent for private developments. Show leadership and commit to only leasing or owning buildings that operate to net zero carbon by 2030. Twenty-eight cities globally, including Helsinki, London and Copenhagen have signed up to this commitment9. • Require a percentage of all development land or sites to be developed at net zero carbon standard, and all land released by public authorities to private developers must require Net Zero Carbon development. • Set a target for all new development to be Net Zero by 2025/2030 or within the lifetime of all new DPs adopted from 2021 onwards. SUSTAINABLE HOMES, BUILDINGS AND NEIGHBOURHOODS • Toolkit Recommendations •
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