National accolade for Ballina native Kevin
Kevin Loftus is pictured with Minister of State Alan Dillon at the awards ceremony. Picture: Barry Cronin
A Mayo champion of circular living was honoured at the inaugural Circular.ie Full Circle Awards held in the Aviva Stadium in Dublin recently.
Ballina native Kevin Loftus was announced winner of the Circular Living Advocate category, honouring individuals who live by and promote zero-waste and low-impact lifestyles.
Kevin is a trained architect and one of the principals of ACT (Accelerating Change Together), a social enterprise working to accelerate the green transition. He created the vision that led to his hometown of Ballina being nominated for Ireland’s Greenest Town in the 2025 Ireland’s Greenest Places competition.
Kevin pushes the core ideas of sustainable development in his work, which has seen him project lead on skyscrapers and city plans worldwide, from the Netherlands and China to Borneo and the Middle East.
The judges praised Kevin for driving transformative change in the Irish property industry and for being at the forefront of Ireland's green transition in the built environment. They also praised his design for disassembly (DfD) approach, which aims to tackle Ireland's largest waste stream - construction and demolition waste.
They noted that Kevin’s work on circular living through the built environment brings the spotlight onto an area that not only has a very high impact but also that can be difficult to engage or take practical action on. Through placemaking and design, Kevin has engaged a wide network of creative stakeholders in circular living practices.
The judges noted an extension to the Red Bank Hotel in Carrick-on-Shannon, for example, which is planned for material reuse and recycling. Similarly, the Scotch House project in Ballina, a Gold All-Ireland Sustainability Award winner for Housing, Buildings and/or Construction, exemplifies the integration of circularity, serving as a blueprint for sustainable urban living.
Kevin is also actively involved in the Ballina Green Town initiative, embedding sustainable practices at a grassroots level and fostering broader community engagement in the green transition.
Kevin received a prize of €2,000, as well as the opportunity to receive dedicated, expert communications mentoring for their future circular initiatives.
