Dozens of institutional buildings constructed in the 1970s may be given a new lease of life thanks to a retrofit cladding system developed by Cork Institute of Technology, Kingspan and AMS. CIAN MOLLOY reports. Under the 2010 European Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), all public buildings must be near-zero energy buildings (nZEB) by 2018, a tough task given that many of Ireland’s public buildings predate the building regulations and have inadequate insulation and use high-amounts of energy. Indeed, Ireland’s buildings score the worst in Europe for CO2 emissions – we produce more than 120kg of CO2 per m2 of useful floor area – that is 10% worse than the second worst performer, the Czech Republic, and more than a 100 times worse than the best performer, Norway. I

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