www.greenbuildermag.com 07.2012
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For manufacturers in Ireland, attempting to do business on a global scale is a tough proposition. Geographically, the country lies at the extreme west of Europe, across two ocean channels, making transport costly. The country’s young labor force is willing, but not as highly skilled as many outsourcing competitors. Yet it’s not just external forces keeping
the Irish down. Many Irish companies that we visited lack a sophisticated understand- ing of green building and material science, marketing and brand positioning. And unlike countries such as China, they haven’t had huge government subsidies to jump-start home-grown innovations. For example, I visited a small fi rm that
has developed a promising “green” brand of insulation made from sheep’s wool. (
www.sheepwoolinsulation.ie). Wool is both available anf inexpensive, notes Da- vid Pierce, who runs the facility in County Wicklow. “It’s considered a waste product of the meat industry now, “ he explains.
But in Ireland’s economy, his business is surviving, not thriving. On another outing near Dublin’s docks,
I’m invited to Ecocem, a facility that prepares fly ash as an admixture for cement. Transportation costs have hurt Ecocem’s prospects, and the government made a carbon credit deal that backfi red. “Ireland has given away carbon alliances to the cement industry based on projections of future growth,” explains Garret Sheehy, “but that isn’t happening, so we’re eff ec- tively subsidizing our competition.” One of the more successful fi rms we vis-
ited in Ireland was Kingspan Solar (www.
kingspansolar.ie), maker of Thermomax solar tubes, located in Portadown, North- ern Ireland. With its ultra modern robotic assembly lines, meticulous attention to product design and slick marketing materi- als, Kingspan seems almost an island unto itself, and demonstrates that the high-tech industry can prosper here, when the right investments are made at the right time.
Soft Market
Sheep’s wool has become very inexpensive, now that it’s considered a byproduct of the meat industry. But eff orts to market it as a residential insulating product (above) have been slow going. The warehouse in County Wicklow (below) is piled high with plenty of stock, but the plant operates only part time.
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