University first to win top mark for green efforts

UNIVERSITY College Cork is the first third level educational institution in the world to be accredited with the prestigious international Green Flag award. The award, given to UCC president Michael Murphy, is a direct result of the Green-Campus programme undertaken by students and staff over the last three years.

But the award was not for his efforts alone or those of his staff.

The university's Green Campus programme was a student-led initiative, as Dr Murphy is quick to acknowledge.

"It was these students, who had been part of the Green Flag programme at secondary school level, who believed from the outset that the concept could be transferred successfully to an institution of UCC's size and that by raising awareness throughout the university, we could, together, make a real difference," he says.

The Green-Campus programme, operated in Ireland by An Taisce, 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%. Furthermore, UCC has conserved almost enough water this year to fill the equivalent of the Lough in Cork.

That's a lot of water under the bridge, so how did they do it?

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.

"Many of the students came from Green Flag schools so this was not a new idea to them.

"In fact, our very first action was to put on overalls and literally dive into the skips to see exactly what types of waste were being disposed of!"

However, she admits to being horrified at the rubbish they found.

"It was a lot worse than we expected. We sifted through everything and the only thing going for us was that it was a fine day; otherwise it would have been absolutely horrible."

With the enthusiastic support of Barrie Curley, of the Building and Estates division, the students and staff set about changing the face of the university.

In addition to staff recycling systems that previously existed, new recycling facilities for students are now available in front of the lecture halls, and in the canteens, where the staff is trained in minimising waste.

Students in lecture theatres and laboratories are alerted to turn off lights and electrical equipment.

University maintenance vehicles are now running on biodiesel. Carpooling has been introduced to facilitate lifts to and from campus.

Enhanced Park & Ride and bike parking areas are designed to encourage more sustainable travel.

Each year the Students' Union holds a Green Awareness Week on campus, where real actions are supplemented by academic talks on environmental sustainability.

"It is quite a leap, transforming the Green-Schools programme, geared for the typical school of a few hundred students, to a complex campus of 130 acres, 16,000 students and almost 3,000 staff," explains Dr Michael John O'Mahony of An Taisce. "In population terms UCC is bigger than your average Irish town, so bringing together all the necessary parties and practices to develop it into a sustainable Green-Campus was a real challenge."

Mark Poland, director of Building and Estates, agrees: "This initiative has provided a great forum for environmentally-conscious members of staff and students to assist in how we tackle our environmental responsibilities as a university community."

An Taisce, on behalf of the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE), granted the international accreditation after a rigorous assessment by an expert panel.

UCC is now looking to build on the award. "We'd like to make it easier for students to cycle to college, possibly through a bike purchase scheme", says Maria Kirrane. "Also, while UCC is a beautiful campus, many of the plants here are non-native. We're looking to address biodiversity on campus." In addition a programme to convert the college food waste into compost has commenced and even rain-wash harvesting is on the agenda.

A number of other third level institutions in Ireland will be applying for a Green-Flag shortly.

Green-Campus is an international environmental education programme, environmental management system and award scheme that promotes long term, whole college action for the environment.

It is broadly similar to the Green-Schools programme and is for all third level institutions (colleges, universities etc).

Both programmes are initiatives of FEE (The Foundation for Environmental Education) and in both cases successful applicants receive the Green-Flag award. Green-Schools began as a pilot project in 1994.

Currently, over 32,000 secondary schools from 47 countries in Europe, Africa, North America, South America, Asia and Oceania are participating in the programme and almost 10,000 have been awarded the Green Flag.