IMR’s Director of Circular Economy Innovation, Dr. Geraldine Brennan, guest speaker at HPBA’s inaugural Net Zero Construction Symposium
- Circuleire IMR
- 7 hours ago
- 3 min read
On 21st January, Director of Circular Economy Innovation, Dr Geraldine Brennan, represented IMR and CIRCULÉIRE in the Circularity in Construction Panel at HPBA’s Net Zero Construction Symposium, alongside Xavier Dubuisson, CEO of Retrokit and Dave Garforth, Program Director at Responsible Plastics Management (RPM).
During the panel, Dr. Brennan, highlighted insights from CIRCULÉIRE member Freefoam Plastics’ leadership in closed loop production and their integration of circular principles into their lean manufacturing culture. The CE Power of Many pilot, a roof lining take back scheme, supported by IMR and CIRCULÉIRE helped shift their deployment of circular practises from recycling to ‘as-is reuse’.
Xavier Dubuisson shared his vision about Retrokit’s aim to become a market leader for the digitalisation of the housing energy renovation value chain and how circular principles can be incorporated into energy-based retrofit. Dave Garforth, spoke about Sisk, a member of Responsible Plastics Management (RPM), explaining their commitment to Zero Waste to Landfill for plastics, adopting strategies for source segregation and enabling higher quality of flexible plastics, which account for 40% of construction site plastics.
The variety of stakeholders in this inaugural Symposium, with education and skills professionals, architecture and engineering firms, industry actors working in M&E, QS, retrofit and energy management, material innovation suppliers, professional networks representatives and local authorities, reflects HPBA’s strategy to engage, educate and empower construction and building sector actors to scale-up the delivery of digitally enabled net-zero circular economy practises. Their support to the sector is also evidenced by their participation in the Sector Guide Circular Transition Indicators published in 2025 by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), which included contributions by CIRCULÉIRE member Arcology Systems.
Symposium included a keynote by Managing Director of KORE Retrofit, Barry McCarron, who shared data about the built environment sector, the availability of supports for domestic retrofit, the sector’s shift toward Zero Emission Buildings (ZEB), and how the finance sector and ESG requirements are the drivers of mainstreaming Passive Housing in Ireland, to the detriment of building regulation.
Opened by HPBA’s CEO, Amanda Steward, the Net Zero Construction Symposium was a valuable forum to discuss built environment topics: circular and biobased material, skills gaps in the sector and modern methods of construction. Lavanya Bhandari, CEO and Founder of Ecoroots, CIRCULÉIRE accelerator alumna in 2025 and finalist at the inaugural All-Island Circular Venture Awards also spoke at the Biobased Materials in Practice panel.
David Scanlon, Director at Resolve Partners, MC’d the Symposium, which provided a platform for knowledge-sharing and thought leadership to support collaboration within the construction and building sectors for a systemic approach to circular practices deployment.
CIRCULÉIRE Thought Leadership & Insights
For insights on Circularity in Construction and the Built Environment, we recommend downloading CIRCULÉIRE’s 2021 Circularity in Construction & Built Environment Sectoral Guide, and viewing the Arcology Case Study.
Invite to Leverage Circular Bio Based Construction Materials
Sign up here to attend the upcoming BioDirect 2.0 Manufacturing Roundtable on 26th February hosted by Irish Manufacturing Research, in collaboration with Circular Bioeconomy Cluster South West and ATIM Cluster to learn more about opportunities for the construction sector to leverage circular bio-based materials.
#CircularEconomyInnovation #CEPowerofMany #ClosedLoopProduction #BuiltEnvironment #HPBA #NetZeroConstructionSymposium
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