Construct Ireland: Is there much demand fora sustainable contractor in the current market?Niall Dolan: Yes, I am seeing a high demand forgreen building work at the moment. Obviouslywe are currently in recessionary �mes and thisseems to have affected all building work re-gardless of building methods, but thankfullymy company receives a great amount of queriesregarding green building on a regular basis. Ithink that people are now more aware of theeffect that construc�on has on the environ-ment and the advantages of building low car-bon homes.

CI: What mo�vates your clients to go green?ND: One main reason in my opinion is that ourlifestyles in general have changed over the pastfew years to that of an organic nature – for in-stance with foods and health products. Thishas also been reflected in the way in which wewant our homes built – free from toxins with asmany natural products as possible being used.This in turn leads to a healthy living environment.

Also energy savings definitely play a pivotalrole in mo�va�ng my clients. I think they’re ex-tremely content with the fact that there will beli�le or no energy bills in the lifecycle of the house.

CI: What’s your greenest project to date?ND: At the moment I have a number of green

projects in the pipeline but the greenest oneto date is a residen�al dwelling in Barna, CoGalway. All aspects of the house have been dis-cussed with the clients and construc�on is dueto commence within a fortnight. The agreed productsfor the build include an insulated founda�onsystem with low carbon concrete, structure fromAdvanced Timber Frame using cellulose and woodfibre insula�on, Pro Clima Intello air�ght mem-brane, air-filled Struder C floor insula�on andFermacell plaster board finished with natural paints.

CI: Do you see any poten�al problems with arapid na�onal energy efficiency drive?ND: Yes, I can see some dangers arising. Thecorrect building materials need to be installedfor a healthy living environment and contractorsneed to take proper training.

CI: Why is Filtrex a green company?Brendan Lynch : For almost ten years we havebeen commi�ed to promo�ng the use of sus-tainable technology to our customers in orderto reduce reliance on fossil fuels. In the first in-stance this was in the wood processing sectorwhere we installed the first biomass boilers,elimina�ng fuel and landfill costs. We also in-troduced advanced filter technology u�lisinginverter driven fans reducing power consump-

�on of extrac�on plants by 60%

CI: What mo�vated you to go this direc�on?BL: I have been travelling to trade fairs in Ger-many since 1991, when I visited the Ligna showin Hannover, and I was amazed at how othercountries u�lised their waste or by-products.This was my first introduc�on to biomass boil-ers and brique�e presses. A�er talking to sev-eral manufacturers, I realised that what we inIreland were calling waste and sending to land-fill, the Germans and Danes called fuel andwere using to heat their factories and homes.This trip sparked my interest in renewable en-ergy and recycling, and I went on to visit dis-trict hea�ng models in Denmark and Austriafuelled by waste wood and brique�es from thewood processing sector.

CI: Where do you see most growth opportuni�es?BL: We see most of our growth coming frombiomass boilers in the commercial and public sectorand also biomass fuel shredding and prepara-�on systems for biomass power plants and bri-que�ng plants.

CI: Can you describe a recent project whereyou've put sustainable principles into prac�ce?BL: We recently commissioned a 1MW districthea�ng system fuelled by locally producedwood-chip for Tralee Town Council in Kerry.

The district hea�ng scheme consisted of fiveapartment blocks – each individually zoned in theplantroom, with a total of 50 one and two bedroomunits, each individually metered and charged perkWh – along with a day care centre and library.

Filtrex were responsible for design, installa�onand commissioning and maintenance. The finalinstalla�on consisted of two 500kW Herz woodchip biomass boilers, two 5000l hot waterbuffers, a wood chip fuel storage bunker fit-out,boiler house M&E, cyclonic fly ash separa�onand a stainless steel flue system.

(above left) Greentec MD Niall Dolan; (above centre) Filtrex MD Brendan Lynch pictured with environment minister John Gormley

Éasca member profile:GREENTEC ECO HOMES& FILTREX

Sustainable builder Greentec Eco Homes and renewable hea�ng company Filtrex have become the latest approvedmembers of Éasca – the green building associa�on’s membership now totals 40 of Ireland’s leading sustainablesuppliers, contractors and designers. Construct Ireland spoke to Greentec MD Niall Dolan and Filtrex MD BrendanLynch to find out more.

CI 91