2013 Press Releases
Green award for UCC
UCC has won an Excellence in Environment award at the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Awards 2013 held by Chambers Ireland in Dublin.
Winning the category for Large Indigenous Company at the awards, held on 12 September 2013, the judging panel selected UCC for the sustained excellence of its Green Campus Programme. Servier (Ireland) Industries Ltd was a joint winner in the category. The tenth annual awards were partnered by Business in the Community Ireland, and run in association with the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government.
Each winner was presented with a specially commissioned trophy designed by Tipperary Crystal, which UCC’s Barrie Curlie, Estates Administer collected.
Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Minister Phil Hogan T.D said “I am delighted that my Department continues to support these awards which highlight the unique ways in which companies at the heart of this country’s economic development do business in a sustainable and ethical manner. I would like to congratulate not only tonight’s winners but also those who have been shortlisted and who continue to showcase the best of Irish business both at home and abroad.”
UCC was the first university in the world to be awarded the status of a Green Campus by the Foundation of Environmental Education and An Taisce in 2010, and its renewal earlier this year is a world first for the international Green Flag campus programme. It followed a rigorous re-evaluation by an expert panel of UCC’s performance in this area, after which An Taisce once again granted the international accreditation. It was student-led environmental initiatives in 2007 that were the catalyst that led to UCC’s first Green Flag award, in conjunction with an extensive environmental review by the Buildings & Estates Department at UCC and academic staff.
The Green-Campus programme has seen UCC take significant strides forward in its sustainability. Recycling rates have increased from 21% in 2007 to 75% in 2013, with a plan in place for this figure to exceed 90% in the coming years. The total campus energy consumption, which relies exclusively on green provision, has been reduced by 9%. The number of UCC staff members cycling to work has doubled from 6% in 2007 to 12% in 2012. The campus landscape, external spaces and public walkways have seen marked upgrades. This award is further recognition to the work on the Green Campus programme that is on-going by the students and staff in UCC.