Eco-Schools in Northern Ireland Celebrate 20 Years at a Special Event

Eco-Schools Northern Ireland hosted a special event to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Eco-Schools programme in March 2015. Over 2000 school pupils, teachers and guests gathered to enjoy speeches, presentations, workshops, exhibits and awards.

The event organised by Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful, the environmental charity that operates the Eco-Schools Programme in Northern Ireland, was created to thank pupils and teachers for their unwavering dedication and to provide a forum to inspire new ideas. 

Northern Ireland Eco-Schools have a number of reasons to celebrate. They were one of the first countries in the world to join the programme, and the first country to award a Green Flag, to Downpatrick Nursery School in 1994. In recent years the programme has been going from strength to strength and in 2015 Eco-Schools Northern Ireland were proud to announce that 100% of their schools are now part of the Eco-Schools programme and working their way towards Green Flag excellence.

Key speakers opened the event: Mark H Durkan, Minister of the Environment; Ian Humphreys, CEO of Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful; and Daniel Schaffer, CEO of the Foundation for Environmental Education, all congratulated Northern Ireland Eco-Schools on reaching this landmark moment and encouraged pupils to look to the future and continue to make Northern Ireland and the World a greener, cleaner place.

Eco-Schools were delighted to be joined at the celebration by Daniel Schaffer, CEO of the Foundation for Environmental Education and Bríd Conneely, International Eco-Schools Director. There were also guest Eco-Schools representatives from Scotland and the Republic of Ireland and pupils from the Republic of Ireland Eco-Schools attending.

Northern Ireland are now looking forward to hosting the Eco-Schools National Operators Meeting in November 2015 which will see representatives from FEE and the 59 Eco-Schools countries worldwide come to Northern Ireland to share good practice and discuss the on-going development of Eco-Schools for the benefit of young people and our environment globally. As the host nation Northern Ireland is eager to provide visitors with a rich and welcoming cultural experience and will showcase some of the great work being implemented in Northern Ireland’s schools.

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A World First for Cork University Hospital as it Raises the Green Flag

On 8 April 2015, Cork University Hospital celebrated becoming the first hospital in the world to be awarded the prestigious Green Flag by An Taisce’s Green Campus programme on behalf of the international Foundation for Environmental Education. The flag was raised by Minister for State Kathleen Lynch, Department of Health. The Foundation for Environmental Education was represented by Mr José Archer, President of ABAE-FEE Portugal.

Key achievements in 2013 and 2014 for the CUH Green-Campus team include:

  • Reductions in waste of 11% despite an overall 10% increase in hospital activity in that period. This includes a 205 tonne reduction in waste going to landfill, a 21 tonne decrease in clinical waste and a 77 tonne increase in recycling.
  • 860 MWhr decrease in gas consumption
  • 1,185 MWhr decrease in electricity consumption
  • 785 tonne decrease in CO2

Patricia Oliver, Director of the An Taisce Education Unit, commended CUH on their efforts towards achieving the flag, citing the commitment of staff and students to the programme as well as crucial long term support from hospital management. Ms Oliver added: “A Sustainable Healthcare Environment Steering Group within CUH leads the direction of the hospital in reducingenergy, water and waste disposal costs. There is a strong feeling of togetherness and team work as everybody is moving towards making sustainable practices the norm and the way things are done across the CUH campus.

CUH’s CEO Mr. Tony McNamara said, “By creating a healthier environment for patients, staff and visitors, we are taking an important step in achieving the best outcomes for our patients and supporting community health.”

In 2010, University College Cork were pioneers in gaining the world’s first Green Flag for a third level education institute, an award that has been renewed on an annual basis ever since. As an acute teaching hospital and an academic partner with a Green Flag university, CUH were eligible to work towards gaining Green Flag certification and shared many environmental based projects with their UCC colleagues. CUH joins An Taisce’s national network of 21 third level Green-Campus colleges, ten of which have been awarded a Green Flag including:

  • UCC
  • Trinity College
  • DCU
  • Dundalk IT
  • GMIT Mayo
  • GMIT Letterfrack
  • Ballsbridge CFE
  • Coláiste Dhúlaigh Coolock
  • Pearse College

 

Green Key and Eco-Schools partner up for the World Days of Action

FEE Portugal launched a challenge for the Portuguese Green Key Hotels to take part in the Eco-Schools World Days of Action.

 

At the annual Eco-Schools Teacher seminar (23-24-25 January) in Janeiro, Portugal, three teachers were awarded with a voucher of 1-2 nights at a Green Key Hotel for the work they have been doing to make their school more sustainable. FEE Portugal launched the idea of a prize to the Green Key hotels, and it was taken up by a large group of hotels wanting, not only to offer that prize, but also willing to take part in the WDA.  It was generally very positively accepted, and the hotels will also now be involving guests and staff with the schools activities from 20 - 24 April. The goal of the prize is to keep motivating the teachers that are leading really good projects in schools.

The World Days of Action is a project implemented among Eco-Schools by FEE International, the biggest ESD (Education for Sustainable Development) programme in the world, and it is being highlighted in Portugal through a partnership between schools and hotels, who are joining forces to work towards more and better sustainability and social responsibility.

Stay tuned to see the actions at the next WDA and find out who wins the next couple of nights generously offered by the following hotels: Herdade do Vau, Real Abadia, Hilton, Neya, Melo e Alvim, Tradicampo, Pestana, Porto Novo, Hotel Orca Praia, and Vila Baleira.

Eco-Schools South-Africa wins United Nations Award

A joint water project initiated by the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) and WESSA Eco-Schools has won a United Nations-Water “Water for Life” Best Practices Award.

The annual “Water for Life” Best Practices Award aims to acknowledge and promote efforts to meet international commitments made on water and related issues by 2015. The award recognises outstanding projects that are working to ensure sustainable long-term management of water resources and to help achieve the water and sanitation targets of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), Agenda 21 and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation.  The theme of the awards for this year was “Water and Sustainable Development”.  


The DWS/WESSA Eco-Schools Water Project was awarded in the category “Best participatory, communication, awareness-raising and education practices” and shares the award with Project India.

Congratulations to Eco-Schools South-Africa!!