Ireland’s largest private house builder D/RES Properties was a worthy winner of the Climate Action & Sustainability Award at the 2022 Property Industry Excellence Awards. Building Ireland touched base with Head of Sustainability Robbie McGrath to find out more.
Building homes full of positivity and possibility, D/RES Properties is Ireland’s leading sustainable private house builder. Delivering modern, futureproofed new homes primarily in the greater Dublin region, D/RES is on a mission to realise remarkable homes by creating sustainable, inclusive and empowered communities.
A family business backed by over 50 years’ experience of construction excellence, D/RES has forged a position at the forefront of sustainability and innovation. They share a passion for delivering homes that push boundaries and set benchmarks for the future of housing. Through creativity, teamwork, and bravery, they create intuitive environments in harmony with nature.
This was recognised at the 2022 Property Industry Excellence Awards where D/RES Properties Positive Living collected the Climate Action & Sustainability Award, much to the obvious delight of Robbie McGrath, who in 2021 was appointed as the company’s dedicated Head of Sustainability to illustrate the importance given to actively incorporating sustainability throughout the company.
This has enabled D/RES to be more flexible and efficient in investigating the feasibility of new technologies, processes and procedures in the construction of homes, to break new ground, lead the way and consistently create futureproofed sustainable homes.
“It was great to receive this award as it is due recognition of the work we are doing in the critical area of sustainability,” says Robbie. “It’s very much a team effort and Patrick and Kevin Durkan are the key drivers of that.”
Having worked in sustainability consultancy in Finland for 13 years, Robbie had no hesitation in joining the D/RES team when the opportunity arose, as their vision and commitment to sustainability aligned with his own. “I chose D/RES because they had a real focus on sustainability and they were putting their money where their mouth was, so to speak. I could see that wanted to do tangible things[RM1] that makes a real difference.
“The Durkans have been in construction for 50 years and they are not afraid to take risks and try new things. When it comes to sustainability, we are trying to be as joined up in our thinking as we can be, looking at circular economy strategies and how we select materials. Rather than just having a boiler and two solar panels in each house, we are taking tangible, practical, sustainable action.”
Sustainability is a business imperative for D/RES and work is ongoing to embed ESG principles throughout the organisation and to use their platform to raise the sustainability standards in the residential construction industry.
In the last year, D/RES has built upon the strong foundations of sustainable business practices and developments. The company has fully incorporated international ESG best practice throughout; this process was ratified through the achievement of GRESB accreditation in 2021 and 2022. D/RES has the highest GRESB NZEB compliance in design in Europe.
D/RES is the first residential developer in Ireland to carry out Lifecycle Assessment (LCA) of its developments as standard. The LCA provides full transparency of the carbon emissions of the design and use of the home and the eventual deconstruction and recycling of materials. D/RES use this information to make decisions on the selection of materials and building types to minimise the embodied carbon in homes.
The key development in 2021 for D/RES was Tinakilly Park, in partnership with Ardale Property Group, which was designed from the concept stages to be homes of the future, but with first time buyers as the target market. The design of Tinakilly Park incorporated the innovations of previous developments including Passive House design principles derived from the ground breaking Silken Park site developed in 2017/18, which was the largest Passive House development in Ireland.
“Silken Park in City West won an SEAI Energy Award and it marked D/RES out as innovators and pioneers in sustainability. It really led the way in showing how airtightness, insulation, heat pumps, etc. could be used to deliver high-performing, sustainable homes,” Robbie notes.
The design at Tinakilly Park includes excellent airtightness to reduce heat loss and mechanical ventilation heat recovery systems to ensure that the indoor environment has the highest levels of thermal comfort and air quality while also reducing heating energy consumption. The homes are built to A1 BER[RM2] standards and provide home owners with the option of generating their own electricity and becoming part of a community microgrid with a generation capacity of over 2MW – a development which will support the National Climate Change goals.
The holistic approach to the systems will support home owners in becoming energy citizens who play a key role in ensuring national energy security in the future whilst reducing emissions.
The embodied carbon of the materials in the construction of the homes was a key consideration for the D/RES design team. The homes are built with timber frame and the majority of the structure is manufactured offsite to reduce waste and ensure the highest levels of quality control. This combined with local materials and technical systems provided homes that have an embodied carbon footprint of 450kgCO2/m2.
D/RES provides homes with a minimum BER of A2, but in order to futureproof the homes they have been designed from the concept phase to facilitate an increase to A1 with the Positive Living upgrade. The development will double the current number of A1-rated homes in Ireland.
This upgrade allows new homeowners to install a turnkey renewable energy system that will futureproof their home in the transition to a low carbon nation. The Positive Living upgrade comprises of solar panels, a battery (minimum of 7.5kW), a smart energy management system and electric vehicle charging point, supporting the national target of one million electric vehicles by 2030.
The installation of the system will enable homeowner to reduce their electricity and heating bills by up to 55% per year. The system will reduce the carbon emissions of the home by 1500kg of CO2 per year, and 550 tonnes for the development site.
Tinakilly Park is proof that largescale solar energy generation systems are not only possible in Ireland but also cost effective for a first time buyers development, while also reducing their carbon footprint. The Positive Living model developed by D/RES will be used as the template for all future developments and will be a test bed for innovation in improving the design and embodied carbon intensity progressing through the different phases in delivering the 365 homes in the development.
All D/RES houses are built with a fabric first approach to first make sure the envelop of the building is fully insulated and that the highest energy efficiency is achieved using quality materials. As an authority on life cycle assessment of buildings, Robbie looks at the whole-life carbon impact of the building, making allowances for potential future upgrades, such as the award-winning Positive Living model.
“There is no secret to any of this anymore because it has all been done before in other countries – the way forward is to follow that lead and invest in sustainability,” Robbie observes. “And you have to be constantly looking forward. What we won this award for was last year. That’s in the past now and we have to look at what we are going to do next and how we are going to make it even better.”
At the time of writing, D/RES Properties had some 1,500 residential units in the pipeline across five sites in Dublin and Wicklow. “In 2022, we completed 450 homes. We want to get to 750 per year but that hasn’t been possible due to the disruption caused by Covid. We specialise predominantly in single family homes, geared towards first-time buyers, and we also have some apartments coming down the line as well.”
Generating direct full-time employment for a highly-skilled and vastly-experienced team of 90 in addition to a vast network of subcontractors, D/RES operate as both developer and main contractor on their developments, some of which are partnerships with other developers.
Led from the front by CEO Patrick Durkan and housing director Kevin Durkan, the company’s enduring success is because of the quality of their people. The D/RES team embodies a commitment to outstanding design, customer satisfaction and exemplary, sustainable housing project delivery.
D/RES Properties,
Donnybrook House,
36-42 Donnybrook Road,
Dublin 4.
Tel: 01 2310096
Email: [email protected]
Web: dres.ie
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, March 2023, Vol 9 No 3
