University College Cork (UCC) is truly Ireland’s green university, a fact testified by being declared in fourth position in the UI World Green Metric University Rankings. UCC beat off stiff opposition from 178 universities worldwide, renowned for their environmental credentials, to attain this outstanding achievement. The award was based on information submitted by universities around the world on criteria that demonstrates commitment to the ‘green agenda’ and sustainability, in areas such as space utilisation, energy efficiency, water use, transport, etc.
UCC’s commitment to the Sustainability and Green Agenda is clearly demonstrated with the university having become the world’s first Green Flag Campus for third level institutions in 2010 awarded by the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) and, more recently, the first third level institution worldwide to be awarded certification for ISO 50001 Standard (Energy Management Systems). Implementation of this standard can lead to reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, energy cost, and other related environmental impacts, through systematic management of energy.
UCC also achieved success at the recent Sustainable Energy of Ireland Awards (SEIA) with the Western Gateway Building (WGB) selected as the winning entry under the Renewable Energy Systems category. In addition, the Project Management Group, the Mechanical and Electrical Engineering designers of the WGB won the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) Sustainable Design and Research Award 2011 for a research paper on the design of the mechanical systems in the WGB.
The online ‘green’ ranking for world universities was spearheaded by Universitas Indonesia (UI). This is the second year of this ranking system which allows universities in both the developed and developing world to compare their efforts towards campus sustainability and environment friendly university management.