24 Sep Gardens International to play important role in climate change pilot programme aimed at transforming cities’ energy usage

Building will anchor EU’s +CityxChange programme that will see Limerick’s ‘Georgian Neighbourhood’ generate more electricity than it uses

Limerick Twenty Thirty DAC is set to play a pivotal role in the ground-breaking +CityxChange programme that will guide the rest of Europe on how to dramatically alter and improve the energy mix of cities in the future.

The programme will see Limerick, along with Trondheim in Norway, chosen to roll out a project that has the potential to revolutionise how we produce and use energy in European cities and towns.

Gardens International one of Limerick Twenty Thirty’s buildings will be critical to the project, thanks to cutting edge sustainability levels of the recently completed development, it will anchor a cluster of buildings in the ‘Georgian Neighbourhood’ to enable it to become a positive energy zone that creates more electricity than it uses.

Gardens International’s LEED Gold standard efficiency – one of the world’s leading energy standards – will enable the building exchange credits with other properties in the Georgian Neighbourhood. The other buildings already signed up for the programme are Limerick Chamber of Commerce and Rooney Auctioneers on O’Connell Street; Limerick’s General Post Office, Lower Cecil Street and Limerick Youth Services on Glentworth Street

The programme will involve the collection of data around energy usage/ consumption, with learnings from that helping to define what interventions are needed to enhance individual building’s energy rating.  Gardens International will be in a position to exchange energy credits for the cluster.

David Conway Limerick Twenty Thirty CEO said: “It is brilliant Limerick has been selected to be part of the +CityxChange project. To be one of only two cities that the EU is looking to as a guide on how to transform our future energy usage, to fight climate change, this is a huge opportunity for Limerick. The city will help define how urban areas across Europe can transform from being net energy users to net energy producers, and we’re delighted that Gardens International is going to play such a pivotal role in this lighthouse project for Europe.

“We developed Gardens to LEED Gold standards, one of the highest sustainability benchmarks for building internationally, and we’re delighted now that not alone will our tenants benefit from this quality environmental standard but that it is going to play such a central role in the +CityxChange project and, ultimately, how cities manage their energy mix in the future. Gardens International had already won the ‘New Build Workplace’ category in the prestigious ‘Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland Annual Awards’.”

For more information visit www.limerick.ie/CityxChange