UCC hoists world’s first Green Flag

23 February 2010 - - University College Cork has become the first 3rd level college in the world to be accredited with the prestigious international ‘Green Flag’ award.

The award, presented by Minister John Gormley on behalf of An Taisce, is the result of an initiative undertaken by UCC students and staff which has seen the university save €300,000 in waste management costs, reduce waste to landfill by nearly 400 tonnes and improve recycling from 21% to 60% over the past three years.

UCC has also managed to conserved almost enough water this year to fill the equivalent of the Lough of Cork.

The Green-Campus programme, operated in Ireland by An Taisce, is similar to the Green-Schools programme for primary and post-primary schools. UCC students approached An Taisce to request that it could be extended to their third level surroundings.

“It was quite a leap, transforming a programme geared for the typical school environment of a few hundred students to a complex campus of 130 acres, 16,000 students and almost 3,000 staff,” explained Dr Michael John O’Mahony of An Taisce.

The first step was for the students to establish a Green-Campus Committee, in conjunction with the Buildings & Estates Department and academic staff. An environmental review followed.

“There were absolutely no recycling facilities for students walking on the campus”, recalls Maria Kirrane, a student representative on the committee. “In fact, our very first action was to put on overalls and dive into the skips to see exactly what types of waste were being disposed of!”