News
News in Brief
- Esker Readymix are providing Low Carbon Concrete to the N6 Project. Over 40,000 m3 of Low Carbon Concrete will be used on this project, resulting in savings of over 4,500 tonnes CO2
- 150,000 m3 of LCC to be used in Greystone Harbour being supplied by SM Morris
- Read quotes from industry leaders on sustainabilty
- Trinity Paper published this year indicates that LCC increases durability in aggressive environments as experienced on farms - download [581 kb pdf report].
- LCC being used on Lansdowne Road stadium
- LCC being used in high profile cable stay bridge as part of the Waterford Second River Crossing
- LCC being used in Limerick Tunnel
- LCC is increasingly being requested by home owners
- LCC being used in Mullingar Shopping Centre - concrete supplied by Flood Concrete
Ecocem GGBS to be used in the redevelopment of the Mater Hospital
The redevelopment of the Mater Adult Hospital commenced this Summer with Sisk on board as the Design and Build contractors. Sisk also built the last major development of the Mater in the 1970s.
Approximately 40,000 m3 of concrete will be used as part of this €130million development with Ecocem GGBS being used at 50-70%. The use of Ecocem is this project will save a minimum of 7,000 tCO2 emissions thereby significantly reducing the environmental impact of this project.
GGBS: The World's Most Sustainable Building Material?
In the September issue of World Cement, Michel Pigeat, Managing Director of Ecocem France, describes the many benefits of using GGBS to produce sustainable concrete.
Read the full article here....
Dublin Bridge wins European Award
The new Spencer Dock bridge in the Dublin Docklands won the Best Structural Design Award at the Leaf (Leading European Architects Forum) awards in Berlin in September.
This bridge was constructed using low carbon concrete made from Ecocem cement (70% GGBS).
Read the Irish Times coverage here...
Changes to the Irish Concrete Standard
The NSAI recently published a revised draft of the Irish National Annex to the European Concrete Standard, I.S. EN 206-1. This draft standard has revised upwards the permitted amount of GGBS cement that can be used as a mixer addition with CEM II/A cements. The old standard set the upper limit at 50%, now the revised standard moves that up to 70% of GGBS that can be used as a mixer addition with a CEM II/A cement.
This is the most progressive and liberal concrete standard in Europe, and has given the concrete industry in Ireland tremendous flexibility in the use of additions – in particular – GGBS in the concrete mixer. Elsewhere in Europe, local concrete regulations are more restrictive. However it is thanks to an enlightened approach taken by leading concrete experts in the industry in Ireland, that Ireland now leads Europe on the liberalisation of the use of additions at the concrete mixer. Ecocem continues to work hard in its European operations to free up restrictive concrete standards, thereby permitting a more efficient and flexible approach to the manufacture of concrete.
11th August 2009
Greening Public Procurement - Why the state must lead the way with sustainable buying
Read Jason Walsh's article, in the current issue of Construct Ireland magazine, on what a green procurement plan for the public sector should include and why it is needed...
11th August 2009
Irish Times ...it has been estimated that at least 10 per cent of the world's population - about 600 million people -live in the most vulnerable areas...
"It is now evident that there will be no escape from the
severe impacts of global warming. This week's international scientific conference on climate change, hosted by the University of Copenhagen, heard the latest alarming prediction from some of the world's leading scientists that sea levels could rise by one metre or more by the end of this century.
13 March 2009
Irish Building magazine talks to professionals from around Ireland to discover their experience on the ground using low carbon concrete
At the Lansdowne Stadium, GGBS is being used throughout the redevelopment there and Sisk assistant contracts manager Maurice Flynn says: "The use of low carbon concrete within the concrete structure of the new stadium has contributed to achieving an exceptionally high end concrete finish on exposed concrete surfaces."
Read more (585 kB)
19 January 2009
Greystones Harbour News explains advantages of using Low Carbon Concrete
"The new marina at Greystones Harbour is one of the most environmentally friendly construction projects undertaken in Ireland" so says the Greystones Harbour News...
Read more (2.5 mB)
8 December 2008
The Irish Times reports how "green" is seen as the way forward in Social Housing
A new standard has been set for social housing around the country with the launch of the housing scheme at York St in Dublin. The scheme which includes rainwater harvesting, sheeps wool insulation and solar panels was constructed using Ecocem's green cement.
13 November 2008
Launch of Low Carbon Concrete campaign by Tom Parlon of the CIF
Tom Parlon along with the ICF and 7 concrete manufacturers from around Ireland came together last week to launch the low carbon concrete campaign
21 October 2008
The Connaught Telegraph tells how the future lies with Low Carbon Concrete
Using Low Carbon Concrete is the way forward in the construction industry - so says Sean O'Neill of the Connaught Telegraph
16 September 2008
Farmers Journal talks of benefits of using Low Carbon Concrete for silage slabs
Livestock farmers who have seen at first hand the costly wear on silage slabs caused by effluent will be interested in the results of research published recently by two scientists in Trinity College Dublin
Read more - large file (2245 kb)
Read more - small file (223 kb)
8 August 2008
On 16 July 2008 the Commission presented a proposal to set ambitious targets for Green Public Procurement (GPP)
Public procurement is essentially a process and for the purpose of this Communication, GPP can therefore be understood as:
"…a process whereby public authorities seek to procure goods, services and works with a reduced environmental impact throughout their life cycle when compared to goods, services and works with the same primary function that would otherwise be procured."
Go to EU Green Public Procurement Site
16 July 2008
RIAI Irish Architecture Awards 2008
Cork Civic Offices Sweep the board
Cork Civic Offices designed by ABK Architects, and entirely built with LCC had a clean sweep of 2008 RIAI Architecture awards in its category. It won "Best Accessible Project", "Best Public Building" and "Best Sustainable Project".
14 July 2008
Climate Change
This is not just a corporate social responsibility exercise... You can argue it's a moral issue. You can argue it's a business issue. You can also argue it's a fundamental change to the way we design the built environment.
27th June 2008
Ready, Set, Pour - Ireland's Largest Ever Concrete Pour Takes Place at the National Conference Centre
6,000 Tonnes of Low Carbon Concrete Poured over 16 Hours
Ireland's largest ever pour of concrete took place in Dublin's Docklands on 25 April 2008, with 6,000 tonnes of Low Carbon Concrete pumped into Ireland's National Conference Centre. 360 trucks poured 2,534 m3 of Low Carbon Concrete.
The use of Ecocem's Low Carbon Concrete will result in a massive CO2 saving of approximately 6,000 tonnes, when compared to normal cement.
25th April 2008