UCC’s commitment to the Sustainability and Green Agenda is clearly demonstrated with the university having become the world’s first Green Flag Campus for third level institutions in 2010 awarded by the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) and, more recently, the first third level institution worldwide to be awarded certification for ISO 50001 Standard (Energy Management Systems).  Implementation of this standard can lead to reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, energy cost, and other related environmental impacts, through systematic management of energy.

UCC also achieved success at the recent Sustainable Energy of Ireland Awards (SEIA) with the Western Gateway Building (WGB) selected as the winning entry under the Renewable Energy Systems category. In addition, the Project Management Group, the Mechanical and Electrical Engineering designers of the WGB won the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) Sustainable Design and Research Award 2011 for a research paper on the design of the mechanical systems in the WGB.

Professor John O’Halloran, Head, School of School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences (BEES), UCC welcoming the university’s remarkable achievement said:  “As an education establishment, we place a strong emphasis on sustainability.  This ethos is embedded across the entire university through our research, teaching and practice of environmental sustainability.  One example is the Environmental Research Institute (ERI) which houses 150 researchers is built in contemporary sustainable design with its many sustainable energy features such as solar panels, geothermal heat pumps and heat recovery systems funded by Sustainable Energy Ireland.  These research outputs are directly translated by our own Buildings & Estates management systems in energy, water conservation and waste management.”

The online ‘green’ ranking for world universities was spearheaded by Universitas Indonesia (UI). This is the second year of this ranking system which allows universities in both the developed and developing world to compare their efforts towards campus sustainability and environment friendly university management.

The student body at UCC now totals almost 20,000 full-time students with c. 14,000 following undergraduate programmes while c. 4,000 are engaged in postgraduate study and research and 3,000 international students representing 100-plus countries worldwide on campus.  The university became the first Irish University to achieve a ‘Five Star’ ranking in QS Stars 2011 and the only Irish university to improve its position in the QS world rankings in 2011.

Picture:  Environmental Research Institute

 

 

 

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