The 12th instalment of the UCC Green Campus podcast we talk to beekeeper and assistant to the Academic Secretary & Assistant Registrar, Gretta McCarthy.

Gretta begins the episode by telling us about what first inspired her get involved with beekeeping and how beekeeper Pat Keane influenced her journey. She goes on to speak about the importance of bees as pollinators, their essential role in our food production and ecosystems, giving a harrowing example of how in parts of China, people have to hand-pollinate trees due to severe declines in pollinator populations.

The Green Campus Podcast

On July 9^th 2022, UCC Green Campus and Cork Environmental Forum ran the first event of our biodiversity coalition initiative entitled ‘Making Space for Nature in Cork City’.

An exploration of the efficacy of UCC as an outdoor classroom for promoting biodiversity and climate awareness in local                                                                                primary school children

UCC E-Bike Show and Tell Event 

Great fun was had at the Green Campus E-Bike Show and Tell Event held recently on campus.

“Show and Tell”, a concept found mostly in a school settings is used to enhance communication methods through the practice of showing something to an audience and explaining how it is used. It is said to foster team building and camaraderie and encourages participation. It sounded exactly like that which we needed to share the benefits of E-Biking with the wider UCC staff community. And who better to help us communicate this message than our E- Bike Ambassadors (staff who are experienced E-bikers from their participation in the E-Bike trial project).

Stephan Koch, Commuter Plan Manager. As somewhat normal life has been back to Campus this semester UCC’s recent CampusCycleWeek (29^th March – 4^th April) saw the opening of two new bicycle parking areas on Main Campus, at the Student HUB and at the South Lodge.

On May 30^th 2022, members of the UCC Community gathered on the Shteppes in the Student Hub for the launch of UCC’s brand-new Digital Badge course, Learning & Teaching With The SDGs. The event consisted of a speech by UCC President John O’Halloran who officially launched the Digital Badge, followed by presentation to attendees which outlined the rationale behind the course and provided an overview of the course contents.

Every quarter the UCC Energy Management team meet to review UCC's electrical and gas consumption and performance. The most recent energy review took place at the end of April and the information presented at the meeting can be found 2021_22 Q2 Energy Review

How would you like the opportunity to trial an E-Bike on Campus? Are you interested but just unsure about venturing out on Cork roads! If so, why not come along to our “E-Bike Show and Tell Event”, next Tuesday 31^st May 2022. We’ll be outside the Hub with the team from The Bike Shed, offering you the chance to cycle around campus on an electric bike. We’ll have a team of buddies available to cycle with you if you wish. Looking forward to seeing you there.

Written by By Niamh Guiry.

It has been 3 months since Russia invaded Ukraine, and the humanitarian, geopolitical, food, energy, and security impacts of this invasion are having far-reaching consequences on our world.

The 10th installment of the UCC Green Campus podcast is now available where we talk to UCC Commuter Plan Manager Stephan Koch.

May 18^th is Fascination of Plants Day, a global initiative that aims to encourage as many people as possible to learn more about plants, environmental conservation, and appreciate the role that plants play in the production of food, pharmaceuticals, energy, and clean air. This was the perfect day for the UCC School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences (BEES) to launch the University Urban Farm project, which was funded by the UCC Green Campus Living Laboratory Fund. 

Biodiversity & Conservation at The Glucksman

Since it’s National Biodiversity Week, we’d like to mark the occasion by highlighting the fantastic exhibitions that are currently on display in The Glucksman. Both exhibitions are centred around biodiversity and conservation, celebrating the species that can be found in UCC and further afield.

UCC Green Campus is delighted to be holding another climate resilience workshop with The Green Step on Thursday 19th May 6-8.30pm on TEAMS.

This is a space for students, staff and climate activists in our community to share and listen with compassion to one another as we process and navigate the climate emergency. The aim of this workshop is to help you feel a little lighter, energized and have a few new tools to manage your climate anxiety through the use of guided, earth based meditations that can help you find peace and calm within yourself. We believe that self-care is climate care.

To book a ticket click on the following LINK

The 9th installment of the UCC Green Campus podcast is now available where we talk to facilitator, coach, and celebrant Melanie O’Driscoll.

We’re delighted to announce the release of Issue 2 of Uprooted!

Welcome to The Green Zone - a selection of lunchtime talks covering Sustainability and Climate Action themes. UCC Green Campus would like to invite our staff and students to join us in the Green Room for a series of lunchtime talks and workshops covering all aspects of sustainability and Climate Action.  We’ll be giving you a round-up of UCC’s activities and plans in relation to each theme, followed by some practical advice on what we can all do to realise our sustainability goals. Have you ever wondered what the most important action you could take to reduce your carbon footprint?  What grants are available to homeowners to retrofit their houses?  How can we better support Ireland’s native wildlife?  Then you’ve come to the right place. 

Week 6 - Food Security - Brian McCarthy Cork Roof Top Farm. 

Wednesday 11th May 2022, 1.10pm TEAMS

UCC Green Campus is delighted to be holding another climate resilience workshop with The Green Step on Tuesday 10^th May from 1-2pm in Room 401 Lucy Smith, The Hub, UCC.

This is a space for students, staff and climate activists in our community to share and listen with compassion to one another as we process and navigate the climate emergency. The aim of this workshop is to help you feel a little lighter, energized and have a few new tools to manage your climate anxiety through the use of guided, earth based meditations that can help you find peace and calm within yourself. We believe that self-care is climate care.

To book a ticket click on the following link

The 8th installment of the UCC Green Campus podcast is now available where we talk to Dr. Hannah Daly, lecturer and researcher in energy, economy, environment and engineering systems in UCC.

‘We are definitely not on track to limit global warming by 1.5°C degrees’.

On 1st April, UCC ran its second Climate Assembly event. Organised by UCC Green Campus and UCCSU Environmental & Sustainability Rep Alicia O’Sullivan, staff and students from a variety of disciplines came together to voice their concerns and identify what UCC can do to create a more sustainable campus.

What is the project?

As committed to under Action 2.1.2. of UCC 2022: Delivering a Connected University, work is now underway to map UCC research onto the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This project has three main phases, as outlined below.  

Green Week has been a long-running initiative at UCC. It was originally founded by the UCC Environmental Society (previously called Earth Week), and it has grown exponentially over the years.

UCC Green Campus is delighted to be holding our 9^th  climate resilience workshop GRIEF with The Green Step on Thursday 21^st April from 6-8.30pm on TEAMS.

This is a space for students, staff and climate activists in our community to share and listen with compassion to one another as we process and navigate the climate emergency. The aim of this workshop is to help you feel a little lighter, energized and have a few new tools to manage your climate anxiety through the use of guided, earth based meditations that can help you find peace and calm within yourself. We believe that self-care is climate care.

To book a ticket click on the following LINK

UCC Green Campus is delighted to be holding our 8^th climate resilience workshop with The Green Step on Tuesday 12th April 2022 from 1-2pm in WW W8.

This is a space for students, staff and climate activists in our community to share and listen with compassion to one another as we process and navigate the climate emergency. The aim of this workshop is to help you feel a little lighter, energized and have a few new tools to manage your climate anxiety through the use of guided, earth based meditations that can help you find peace and calm within yourself. We believe that self-care is climate care.

To book a ticket click on the following LINK

UCC Green Campus is delighted to be holding our 7^th climate resilience workshop with The Green Step on Tuesday 8th April 2022 from 1-2pm in WW W8. 

This is a space for students, staff and climate activists in our community to share and listen with compassion to one another as we process and navigate the climate emergency. The aim of this workshop is to help you feel a little lighter, energized and have a few new tools to manage your climate anxiety through the use of guided, earth based meditations that can help you find peace and calm within yourself. We believe that self-care is climate care.

To book a ticket click on the following LINK

UCC Green Campus invites you to join us at the rescheduled Green Zone lunchtime talk today. Niamh Phelan, Biodiversity Engagement Officer, The National Biodiversity Data Centre will be giving a talk "Citizen Science, Engaging with Ireland's Biodiversity". And once again we will give an overview of what's happening in UCC , presented by our Head Gardener Jack Murphy. 

Wednesday 30th March 2022, 1.10pm TEAMS

To celebrate Green Week we have added UCC’s Green Campus TEAMS background to the resources section on our Green Campus Website

So if you would like the UCC Green Campus background to use during your TEAMS meetings click on the box to download it from our website then upload additional background on TEAMS by clicking Add New.

It has also been added to UCC’s image and video Collection, Upic, in their wallpapers and backgrounds section and can be found HERE

UCC Green Campus is delighted to be holding our 7^th climate resilience workshop with The Green Step on Thursday 24^th March 2022 from 6-7pm on TEAMS.

This is a space for students, staff and climate activists in our community to share and listen with compassion to one another as we process and navigate the climate emergency. The aim of this workshop is to help you feel a little lighter, energized and have a few new tools to manage your climate anxiety through the use of guided, earth based meditations that can help you find peace and calm within yourself. We believe that self-care is climate care.

To book a ticket click on the following link Self Care is Climate Care Tickets, Thu 24 Mar 2022 at 18:00 | Eventbrite 

UCC Green Campus invites you to a a special talk as part of Green Campus Ireland's National Green Week. This talk is open to all Green Campus Institutions. We will give an overview of what's happening in UCC then Dr. Hannah Daly, Lecturer in Sustainable Energy and Energy Systems Modelling at University College Cork will deliver a talk on "Modelling Irelands Decarbonisation Targets". 

Due to a YELLOW Wind Warning we are sad to tell you that we have been forced to cancel our Community Market. Despite our best efforts weather has beaten us. 

Fáilte ar ais go dtí an Campus Glas podchraoladh! The 7th installment of the UCC Green Campus podcast is now available where we talk to climate activist, language student, and Gaeilgeoir, Síofra Nic Risteaird. It is available to listen to on Spotify and Apple Podcasts at the below links. 

UCC Green Campus is delighted to be holding our 6th climate resilience workshop with The Green Step on Tuesday 8th March 2022.  

This is a space for students, staff and climate activists in our community to share and listen with compassion to one another as we process and navigate the climate emergency. The aim of this workshop is to help you feel a bit lighter, energized and have a few new tools to manage your climate anxiety through the use of guided, earth based meditations that can help you find peace and calm within yourself. We believe that self care is climate care.

To book a ticket click on this LINK

Join us for our next Community Market on Tuesday 8th March 2022, International Womens Day and Earth Week. Delighted to share our market with Bystander Intervention and Cork Bike Shed and many interesting sustainable market stalls. 

In the recently published 2021 Annual Report on Public Sector Energy Efficiency Performance, Minister Eamonn Ryan stated that “We have seen excellent progress with a collective 34% energy efficiency improvement achieved by the public sector in the last 11 years, exceeding the target set for 2020.” The 2021 report lists the performance of all individual public sector entities, and we are delighted to report that UCC achieved a 51.5% improvement in energy efficiency, compared to a baseline of 2006-2008.

The IPCC released their latest climate report ‘Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability’ on the 28th of February 2022.

The 6th installment of the UCC Green Campus podcast is now available where we talk to UCC Lecturer in Applied Psychology. It is available to listen to on Spotify and Apple Podcasts at the below links. 

The Green Campus in conjunction with Envirosoc are looking forward to hosting our next Community Market on Tuesday 8th March 2022, from 10-3pm at the Hub Plaza. Delighted to be hosting during Earth Week and on International Women's Day.  

Welcome to The Green Zone - a selection of lunchtime talks covering Sustainability and Climate Action themes. UCC Green Campus would like to invite our staff and students to join us in the Green Room for a series of lunchtime talks and workshops covering all aspects of sustainability and Climate Action.  We’ll be giving you a round-up of UCC’s activities and plans in relation to each theme, followed by some practical advice on what we can all do to realise our sustainability goals. Have you ever wondered what the most important action you could take to reduce your carbon footprint?  What grants are available to homeowners to retrofit their houses?  How can we better support Ireland’s native wildlife?  Then you’ve come to the right place. 

Week 2 - Energy Management and Retrofitting Grants for your Home - with the team from EnergyWise Ireland. 

Wednesday 23rd February 2022, 1.10pm TEAMS

Education for Sustainable Development: Co-Creating Common Areas of Need and Concern

Synthesis Report - February 2022

Authors: Niamh Guiry, John Barimo, Edmond Byrne, Catherine O’Mahony, Darren Reidy, Dara Dever, Ger Mullally, Maria Kirrane, and Michael John O’Mahony.

Welcome to The Green Zone - a selection of lunchtime talks covering Sustainability and Climate Action themes. UCC Green Campus would like to invite our staff and students to join us in the Green Room for a series of lunchtime talks and workshops covering all aspects of sustainability and Climate Action.  We’ll be giving you a round-up of UCC’s activities and plans in relation to each theme, followed by some practical advice on what we can all do to realise our sustainability goals. Have you ever wondered what the most important action you could take to reduce your carbon footprint?  What grants are available to homeowners to retrofit their houses?  How can we better support Ireland’s native wildlife?  Then you’ve come to the right place. First up in the Green Room, we’ll be discussing “Waste Reduction and Recycling”, we’ll give you an update on UCC’s actions to become single-use plastic free.  This will be followed by a talk from Mindy O’Brien, Chief Executive of Voice Ireland, who will discuss waste reduction and recycling in the home.

Earthways Refill will have a selection of eco friendly products on sale at our Community Market ranging from shower gel, to washing detergent, from olive oil to pasta. All you need to do is bring your empty bottles and jars to the Community Market outside the Hub between 10-3pm on Tuesday 8th February 2022 to buy some locally sourced sustainable products. 

Welcome to our Energy update for Electrical and Gas Consumption in Semester 1 2021/22. With activities across the University returning to near normal levels over semester 1 our electrical and gas consumption significantly increased when compared to the same period in 2020.

UCC Green Campus in conjunction with UCC Evirosoc are delighted to be bringing you our Community Market on 8th February 2022. 

Between the winding boreens and the coastal highways of Cork, UCC’s Electric Bikes have travelled them all over the past 10 months and not without the help of our friends at the Cork Bike Store who serviced and maintained our E-Bike fleet of three Raleigh Motus Tour E-Bikes throughout. Following on from a successful pilot in 2019, our UCC Green Campus “Building Back Better” E-bike trial, started on Monday 29^th June 2020.  The objective of this initiative was and is to provide UCC staff with E-bikes for a trial period, allowing the individual staff member to determine if an E-bike is a suitable method for commuting to/from work.

The 5th installment of the UCC Green Campus podcast is now available where we talk to UCC Director of IT Services Gerard Cully. It is available to listen to on Spotify and Apple Podcasts at the below links. 

We’re delighted to announce that we’ve teamed up with our friends at UCC Environmental Society to bring you Issue 2 of Uprooted!

Wildlife crime is a widespread issue that poses a serious threat to our biodiversity and the sustainable development of countless communities. While there is no universally accepted definition of what constitutes wildlife crime, it can be described as any the harming, taking, trading, possessing, obtaining, or consumption of wild flora and fauna^[1]. Wildlife crime puts the lives and survival of invaluable species at risk and jeopardises conservation efforts that are in place to preserve our precious biodiversity.

The 4th installment of the UCC Green Campus podcast is now available where we talk to UCC student Timothy McGrath. 

The 3rd installment of the UCC Green Campus podcast is now available where we talk to UCC's head gardener Jack Murphy. 

Christmas is just around the corner and while this is a time for relaxation, quality time with friends and family, and lazy days at home, it’s also a time that has significant environmental costs

Hello Everyone 

As we all prepare for a well-deserved break we just wanted to remind you to power down and switch off all office equipment before leaving for the Christmas holidays. 

President John O’Halloran and Students Union President Asha Woodhouse were presented with electric bikes for their use during the academic year 21/22 by UCC’s Green Campus Team. 

In February 2020, UCC ran its first climate assembly. Build Back Better was a series of workshops, based on the themes in the college’s sustainability strategy, that gave students and staff a chance to have their say in shaping future policy. An accompanying survey was also sent to students and staff.

UCC's EV charging stations are spread across the campus, the objective being to have a charging station per each large geographical area. For eligibility users must read and agree to abide by the UCC-PEV-Charging-Policy.pdf and complete this Registration Form UCC Plug In Electric Vehicle Registration Form.  

UCC Green Campus is delighted to be holding our 4^th climate resilience workshop with The Green Step this Thursday, November 25^th @ 6-7pm in the Hub.

Join us for an online workshop led by Abigail O'Callaghan-Platt from VOICE about disposable and reusable menstrual products. 

UCC Green Campus is delighted to be holding our next climate resilience workshop with The Green Step on Tuesday, December 14th @ 6-8.30pm on MS Teams. To book your space click on the eventbrite link: Self Care is Climate Care

Success: it’s in your nature is a new Canvas module aiming at promoting wellbeing through nature in our students and staff. 

The Green Campus team are so excited to be collaborating with UCC's Environmental Society to bring you our Community Market on Tuesday 2nd November from 10am-3pm outside the Hub. The Community Market is focused on circularity, supporting small businesses, artists and socio-environmental initiatives. 

Why not join us for our Community Market which is being held on Tuesday 30th November from 10am-2pm outside The Hub. 

The next climate justice topic we’re going to be delving into is fast fashion. The boom of the fast fashion industry has had detrimental impacts on the planet and the workers it exploits. It is both unethical and unsustainable, and if we want to reach critical climate targets we must integrate climate justice into our fashion industry.

As the move to electrification of cars gathers momentum UCC has invested in its charging infrastructure to provide our staff with the facilities to charge on site, should they require a charge to complete their return journey. 

The third climate justice topic we’ll be exploring is related to energy. Our continued reliance on fossil fuels for energy generation coupled with the ongoing climate crisis is a global threat to countless communities and people’s livelihoods.

The first climate justice topic that we’re going to delve into is food. Yes, believe it or not, food is a climate justice issue. Food security and climate change are inherently linked, and therefore, environmental degradation and social justice issues are linked.

This week and next (Oct 31 – Nov 12) 196 nations of the UN have converged on Glasgow for the COP26 summit. UCC organised a number of outreach and engagement events to mark the occasion. The first of these was a Model COP26 which was held on October 26^th in the Devere Hall. 

The next climate justice topic that we’re going to discuss is centred around waste. Waste production has skyrocketed across the world in recent decades due to globalisation, population growth, overproduction, and consumer shopping habits^[1]. People living in Ireland now produce more than 13 million tonnes of waste every single year^[2]. This mass production of waste is a climate justice issue due to its negative impact on our planet and vulnerable populations.

The excitement is building for our Community Market a collaboration between Envirosoc and The Green Campus. Come along to support our local community initiatives, goods and social enterprises. 

From artists to illustrators and charity shops to vintage one thing all our stalls have in common is their desire for circularity and sustainability and a better way of living. Why not come along to see for yourself. 

The Green Campus team believe that the benefits of travelling by E-Bike are so significant that in June 2020 we invested in a fleet of 3 E-Bikes (Raleigh Motus) and gave the UCC staff community the chance to see for themselves. Building on from a successful pilot in 2019, and with the support of our friends at The Bike Shed, who serviced and maintained our E-Bike fleet throughout, UCC staff got the opportunity to trial an E-Bike.

In 2020 the Higher Education Authority (HEA) launched a pathfinder program under Project Ireland 2040. The pathfinder program was set up to find strategic pathways for energy efficiency and decarbonisation programs within higher education buildings. UCC applied for and obtained grant funding under the program for the decarbonisation of the O’Rahilly building (ORB) heating systems.

The objective of the project is to demonstrate the retrofitting of a low temperature Air Source Heat Pump (ASHP) into a 1990’s building without the need for significant intervention on the building fabric or heating system arrangements.

When first getting involved with environmentalism, it’s not unusual for people to feel overwhelmed, and at times, even intimidated, because these are complicated issues and it’s easy to feel like everyone else is an expert, especially when you're only at the beginning of your sustainability journey.

We are delighted to announce another call for proposals under our Green Campus Living Laboratory Programme.  Proposals for research masters projects (up to €28,000) and demonstration projects (up to €10,000) are welcome

National Reuse Month

Cycling to Campus – what’s new?

With the upcoming COP UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow UCC will host a COP26@UCC global negotiation event on the 26^th of October. 

On the 9th of August, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group I released a report on the scientific basis of climate change entitled: Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis1. This monumental report has triggered international outcry from climate activists who have been calling for political leaders to wake up and take substantial action to combat the climate crisis for years.

With the recent fine weather and sunshine what better time to check in on our existing PV installations across the campus which are outlined in the table below.

In February UCC students and staff came together to run a climate assembly in UCC. This was the first assembly of its kind to take place in an university in Ireland. The assembly was inspired by the Citizens’ Assembly, and was based around the need to “Build Back Better”.

UCC played host to the 2019 Annual International Workshop on UI GreenMetrics which addressed the theme of “Sustainable University in a Changing World: Lessons, Challenges and Opportunities.”

Academic year 2017 /18 marked ten years since UCC students embarked on the Green Campus programme . Those ten years have seen many changes, both on our campus and globally . Our FTE of students has increased by approximately 2 ,000 , while our campus has grown to include many of its largest and most energy intensive buildings e . g . the Western Gateway building . Despite this, 2017 saw the university reach its Public Sector Energy Efficiency target of a 33 % reduction in consumption, three years ahead of schedule .

In June 2019, the Department for Communications, Climate Action and the Environment published Ireland’s All of Government Plan on Climate Action. The Plan puts an onus on public sector institutions to lead the way in reducing carbon emissions. Academic Year (AY) 2018/19 saw University College Cork become the first campus in the world to be awarded the Green Flag from the Foundation for Environmental Education for the 4 th time. The University also took part in the pilot year of the new Times Higher Education Impact Ranking, being ranked 21st overall and number 1 for SDG12: Responsible Consumption and Production. This ranking brings together our operational performance and the research, teaching and engagement activities of the university. Our STARS gold award was a key part of the submission

UCC retains 2nd place in University of Indonesia Green Metric University Rankings 2015

UCC’s efforts in the area of sustainability have resulted in the Universitas Indonesia (UI) Greenmetric World University Ranking awarding a second in the world ranking for the second year in a row.

UCC are proudly supporting Cork Bike week 2015 which runs from 13th June to 21st June 2015 as part of National Bike Week.

Birgit Greiner recently became the 700th person to purchase a bike through the Cycle-to-Work Scheme here in UCC since the scheme started in 2009.

On Friday 17th June, President Michael Murphy launched the 2016 UCC Sustainability Strategy.  UCC is regarded as Ireland’s ‘Green University’ and in combination with the University’s Strategic Plan 2013-2017 the implementation of this Sustainabilty Strategy will further enhance this reputation and performance.

Work began on Wednesday 6th July on a one-stop shop for most student services in an extension to one of University College Cork’s oldest buildings – the Windle Building.

More can be read about the extension on the Irish examiner

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/ucc-to-create-student-hub-in-15m-extension-408693.html

Follow: http://studenthub.ucc.ie/ to keep up to date with all aspects of the development.

Like the An Taisce Green schools programme, the Green Campus involves students and staff who are passionate about the environment and sustainable living, from all disciplines, working together in areas such as: Food, Health & Well-being; Heritage & Natural Resources; Recycling & Waste Management; Energy; and much much more.

The last number of months have been busy for UCC Green Campus.  Highlights have included the launch of our “Ditch the Disposables” campaign, as well as welcoming a new group of UCC Green Campus interns to the programme.  We are also celebrating ten years since UCC began the journey to becoming a Green Campus, with the launch of this new website.

“Meatless Monday” is a global movement aimed at encouraging everyone to eat meat-free one day a week.  44 countries worldwide take part in this campaign, and UCC is playing its part.  On Meatless Monday, the main restaurant will offer meatless meal options for students and staff that wish to take action to help our environment.

UCC’s position as a globally leading “green” university has once again been recognised with a top ten position in the UI Green Metric World University Ranking.  Achieving an impressively creditable 9th out of a total of 619 universities worldwide, UCC’s position in the UI Green Metric represents a global ranking of sustainability activities across operations, research, education and engagement.  The result reflects both the commitment and action in UCC to advance sustainability across the entire university. In addition, UCC was again the top ranked Irish university for the 7th year in a row, endorsing our reputation as Ireland’s “green” university.

Welcome to the UCC Green Campus Newsletter for Christmas 2017. As the year draws to a close we would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has been a part of our Green Campus journey in 2017. This year has once again seen UCC make significant reductions in our energy usage and waste generation; this trend of continual improvement is at the heart of the Green Campus Programme.

Welcome to UCC’s Green Campus Newsletter for Spring 2018. It has been another busy term for the Green Campus Committee. We have launched a new farmer’s market on campus, and continue to partner with staff and students across the university to run campaigns and events. UCC’s university wide module in Sustainability has had another successful run and UCC continues to lead the way in sustainability with the recent decision by the university to sign the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment.

On the East Side of the Berlin wall, there once stood a symbolic green plant sprouting from a mural (seen above), accompanied by the words ‘Wachsen lassen’, meaning Let Grow. Today, in the plant’s absence, sits a display of single-use water bottles, fast food containers, disposable coffee cups and other plastics, reflecting an all too familiar scene.

From a distance, I assumed it was a seal. I’d seen one a few weeks back down by Grand Parade. Floating along, it then plunged its head under, hunching its back upward, and lifted its long pointed tail into the air behind it, before following the rest of its body beneath the water.  Staring at ripples left behind I reached for my phone. It didn’t take long until it popped back up with what appeared to be an eel between its paws – a solid favourite in the otter diet. What followed was an extremely impressive display of hunting skills by one of Cork’s resident otters.

UCC Green Campus Intern, Killian Kelly, on what the new EU-wide ban on neonicotinoid pesticides might mean for UCC’s newest residents.

As the month of July comes to a close, so too does the ‘Plastic Free July’ challenge which saw people attempting to reduce, or completely eliminate single-use plastics from their shopping lists the entire month of July.

UCC Green Campus has had a particularly exciting Summer. In May, our Sustainability Summer School welcomed students and staff from the USA, Columbia, and El Salvador. In late Spring, we welcomed seven honey bee hives to the North Mall Campus.

University College Cork has become the first institution outside of North America to achieve a gold star rating from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE).

UCC now joins Princeton, Cornell and UC Berkeley in receiving the highest standard, Gold ‘Sustainability Tracking Assessment and Rating System’ (STARS) for excellence in sustainability.

The year has gotten off to a busy start with the launch of our Green Campus “Living Laboratory” Fund. We are also in Year 4 of the University’s hugely successful University Wide Module in Sustainability and are gearing up to welcome colleagues from across the globe to the UI Green Metric International Meeting in April of this year.

On Monday April 22nd is International Earth Day 2019 with this year’s theme being “Save our Species”.  From the smallest insects to the largest mammals, alarming facts are being reported daily on the decline of the world’s species.  Ireland is not immune, with for example 37 of our bird species and 30 of our 98 species of bee at risk of extinction.  The primary causes of species declines are habitat destruction, exploitation, and climate change.  Here are some things that we can all do in our everyday lives to make a difference in our local environment.

Read more about how UCC recieved it's 4th Green Flag.

Find out how UCC are responding to the Climate Emergency.

It’s been another busy few months for UCC Green Campus; we are particularly excited about the fact that, in June, we became the first University in the world to be awarded a fourth Green Flag from the Foundation for Environmental Education.

On Wednesday 19th February, UCC will celebrate 10 years of becoming the first University in the world to be awarded a Green Flag from the Foundation for Environmental Education.  UCC ran the pilot Green Campus programme, with support from An Taisce, after a group of students, who had come from Green Flag schools, came up with the idea.  The students wanted to have a say in how the university managed its environmental impact and saw the Green Flag programme as the ideal opportunity to engage with management.

We have learned a lot during lockdown; one of the most striking aspects has been the way that we humans have turned to the natural environment to help us cope with the mental anguish that COVID-19 has brought to our lives.  The link between time spent in green space and mental health and wellbeing is well established.  In taking time for nature we are also taking time for ourselves. 

We began this year with the excitement of celebrating our 10th anniversary. The aim was to reflect on the positive things that have been achieved over the last ten years, whilst also looking forward to what needs to be achieved over the next decade. Little did we know that this reflection would come during such an unprecedented global crisis as the COVID-19 pandemic. First and foremost, our thoughts are with our UCC community as well our partners, at home in Ireland and across the globe.

Following on from a successful pilot in 2019, our UCC Green Campus “Building Back Better”  E-bike trial starts on Monday 29^th June 2020.  The initiative is a collaboration between UCC Green Campus and our friends at The Bike Shed, Dennehy’s Cross.

Every day our Estates Office actively track and monitor 95% of the Universities energy load through its online energy metering platform. It records data from 192 energy meters across the estate. Working with our significant energy users to promote energy conservation, the University was on target, pre closure, to reduce its annual energy load by 1% absolute, a 6^th straight year of reducing our energy use.

UCC recently launched a new project (funded by the National Forum for Teaching and Learning) to strengthen our institutional commitments towards sustainability by developing a suite of digital resources to assist teaching staff with the integration of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into UCC curricula.  The project is being jointly led through Green Campus and UCC’s Centre for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (CITRL).  It builds on the success of our University Wide Module in Sustainability run through the Department of Sociology and Crimnology, with input from all four Colleges in the Univeristy.

As we head into the 2020/21 Academic Year, we are acutely aware of the difficulties faced by many of our staff and students over the last six months. We wish everyone the very best of luck over the next year and hope that Green Campus can continue to be a valuable asset to the campus community in these tough times.

Our beautiful campus is not only a place of learning and independent thinking but is also a home to 27 different forms of biodiversity habitats.

Needless to say the closing of the campus in March 2020 due to the COVID pandemic had a big impact on our energy performance for the Academic year 2019/20. Our weekly electrical consumption reduced by 40% while our natural gas consumption, used to heat our buildings, reduced by over 50%.

By the end of the academic year the University reported that the total energy load reduced by 11%, when compared to the 2018/19 academic year.

Between the winding boreens and the coastal highways of Cork, UCC’s Electric Bikes have travelled them all, over the past 6 months and not without the help of our friends at the Cork Bike Shed who serviced and maintained our fleet throughout. Our E-Bike trial has continued to be a resounding success, both in and out of the varying levels of Covid-19 Lockdown. Happy staff have enjoyed the benefits of the E-Bike trial and restricted their excursions in line with the travel limits.

Welcome to the first of our monthly energy bulletin where we summarise the energy performance of our Estate. In the coming months we hope to inform you of the energy trends across the Estate, the measures that the UCC community are undertaking to reduce and conserve energy as well as an update on ongoing energy conservation projects.

Welcome to our energy update covering UCC's energy use in April 2021...read on 

The UCC Dark Skies Project.

Read more about UCC Green Week 2021

Every year UCC, like other public bodies, are required to undertake an exercise to calculate the energy performance of our buildings and display that performance through a Display Energy Certificate (DEC). The original intent of the DEC process was to give building owners an idea of how their buildings are performing in comparison to othe

Welcome to our March Energy newsletter. This month, we sat down with Pat Mehigan, UCC's Energy Manager, to discuss UCC's Energy Story.

Earth Day 2020 (April 22^nd) will be remembered by many for a variety of reasons, not least because, while we all continue to be divided by distance during this difficult time, we remain very much united in the global fight against climate change. As one of the most sustainable universities in the world, UCC aims to lead by example and encourage action against climate change in all of its activities and operations. Faced with this complex challenge, UCC quickly realised the need for a clear roadmap to a sustainable future, leading to the establishment of the 2019-20 Climate Action Project, aimed at developing a Climate Action Plan for UCC.

At the start of this year we were visited by Primary School students from all over Cork County as part of our 10 Year Green Flag Anniversary. We were inspired by the hopes that these students have for the future and they challenged us to do better!