UCC is named Green College of 2012
(l-r) Stephan Koch, Barrie Curley, and Mark Poland of Buildings and Estates, UCC
(l-r) Stephan Koch, Barrie Curley, and Mark Poland of Buildings and Estates, UCC
The university received the Green Travel Initiatives Award and the Green School/College Award at the Ireland Green Awards ceremony on Thursday night, 19 April, in Dublin.
Since winning a Green Award in 2011, UCC has achieved some more great results, becoming the first university in the world to achieve ISO50001 for energy management.
UCC was also awarded a fourth place ranking in the UI Green Metric World University Ranking 2011. Some further initiatives saw UCC receive awards for energy design from SEAI, increase its recycling rate, reduce energy and water consumption, enhance the biodiversity of the campus, and even build a wind turbine.
The university is committed to a green, sustainable operations policy, of which commuting is an important part. UCC has a Commuter Plan in place with a full-time Commuter Plan Manager, in office since 2006.
The successful “Cycle-to-Work” scheme, high quality bike parking and changing facilities, and the introduction of the UCC CampusBike fleet have shown significant results. The number of UCC staff members cycling to work has doubled in four years to 11 per cent.
The Green Awards aim to celebrate excellence in sustainability and to encourage green best practice amongst Ireland's organisations and individuals. This year, they attracted over 150 entries.