Tyndall National Institute at UCC has recently received certification under the ISO 50001 (Energy Management System) standard, and is one of the first research institutes of its kind in the world to receive this award. ISO 50001 is an international standard for energy management which assists organisations in their drive for energy efficiency, reduced consumption, a lower carbon footprint and lower costs.

Tyndall National Institute is one of Europe’s leading research centres, specialising in ICT hardware research, with about 450 staff, students and academic and industrial visiting researchers. Tyndall undertakes internationally-leading research into information and communications technology.

“We are delighted to have been awarded ISO 50001 certification, which is a direct result of the implementation of progressive energy management policies and initiatives as well as adhering to a sustainable design policy during our expansion programme over a number of years. Tyndall is a process-intensive research facility with exceptionally high levels of energy utilisation throughout the year. We implemented state-of- the-art energy efficient systems in our new research building and retrofitted the existing buildings with highly energy efficient equipment. Despite almost trebling our site footprint in recent years, we have reduced our energy consumption by 30% in real terms, an impressive result of our effective energy management policies.” says Cormac Harrington, head of operations at Tyndall National Institute.

University College Cork (UCC) recently separately became the first third level research institution worldwide to achieve the ISO 50001 standard.

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.

University College Cork (UCC) has become the first third level institution worldwide to be recommended for ISO 50001 Standard (Energy Management Systems). ISO 50001 is an international standard that enables organisations to establish the systems and processes necessary to improve energy performance, including energy efficiency, use, and consumption.

UCC was the first third level institution to implement this internationally recognised standard since it was launched just over four months ago. UCC is also the first public sector body in Ireland to be recommended for certification to ISO 50001. Implementation of this standard can lead to reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, energy cost, and other related environmental impacts, through systematic management of energy.

The university, which has 2,740 staff and 20,000 students, has a long track record in energy management and has been particularly successful in winning grant support from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) to support energy saving initiatives. UCC currently has projects involving lighting, metering, heat recovery, ventilation, photovoltaics and wind energy. under way across the campus.

Enerit software was used to allow rapid implementation of ISO 50001. This standard became internationally recognised in June 2011 and promises to reach over 500,000 organisations worldwide.

The ISO 50001 award to UCC follows on the award of the world’s first Green Campus Flag for third level institutions by An Taisce and the FEE (Foundation for Environmental Education) in 2010.

Some 300 researchers and delegates from a wide variety of scientific and engineering disciplines will gather at University College Cork (UCC) from April 6-8th to participate in The 21st Irish Environmental Researchers’ Colloquium (ENVIRON 2011). The Colloquium offers a unique forum for researchers, government and industry to discover emerging areas of environmental, energy and marine research along with potential environmental technologies for the future.

The theme of this year’s colloquium is ‘Towards 2020: Environmental challenges and opportunities for the next decade’. The ‘2020’ date reflects the many environmental targets that have been set for the next decade particularly in the areas of climate change reduction in EU greenhouse gas and renewable energy generation.

The 2011 ENVIRON colloquium has the Environmental Protection Agency as a new partner in the event, along with the Environmental Sciences Association of Ireland and UCC. The 2020 date is appropriate to the Environmental Protection Agency which has established goals for key environmental challenges in the area of climate change, clean air, water, soil and biodiversity and sustainable use of natural resources as part of its ‘2020 Vision –Protecting and Improving Ireland’s Environment’.

Professor Michael Depledge (former chairman of the UK Science Advisory Committee on the Environment & Climate Change) will deliver the colloquium keynote address on Wednesday, April 6th (8pm, Devere Hall, UCC) on the topic of ‘Health and the Value of Nature’. The seminar is open to the public and all are welcome.

The colloquium programme will begin on Thursday, April 7th with a plenary session involving a number of high profile speakers who will speak on the colloquium theme of environmental challenges and opportunities for the next decade; speaker will include Professor John Sweeney (NUI Maynooth), Laura Burke (director of the EPA’s Office of Communications and Corporate Services) and John Mullins (chief executive of Bord Gais).

The 2011 colloquium research programme contains more than 150 oral and poster presentations which will be presented under the sub-themes of:

* Water Quality

* Energy & Climate Change

* Marine and Coastal Research

* Biodiversity and Ecosystems

* Environmental Management

* Environmental Technologies

* Environment and Health.

ENVIRON 2011 also has a range of additional training seminars, symposia and workshops including:

* Ocean Studies – Avenues for Employment; Creating a Career from Studies of the Sea

* Geospatial technologies – their value for your real world applications

* Science Communication workshop

* 3rd Annual Postgraduate Research Symposium on Environmental Law

Life Coaching

All workshops are free to colloquium delegates. The colloquium organisers are cognisant of the current economic environment and have introduced a special one-day registration fee of Eur150 and students/OAPs/unemployed can register for Eur100. For more information on the colloquium programme and to register for the event visit www.esaiweb.org/content/environ2011.

Tyndall National Institute, UCC is this year’s winner of the ‘Renewable Energy Systems Award’ for its new research building. Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) announced the winner at its seventh annual Sustainable Energy Awards in Dublin recently.

The state-of-the-art semiconductor research facility is heated by energy generated from its data servers, saving 12% on energy costs. “We are delighted to receive this award which is a marvellous recognition of all the efforts of those involved in ensuring the new building was designed to the highest scientific, services and energy efficient standards,” says Cormac Harrington, head of business operations at Tyndall. “Reducing energy usage right across our process intensive facility is a core philosophy at Tyndall, and each heating and cooling system is designed to be kept as close as possible to ambient temperature, to minimize the carbon footprint of the systems.”

The new 5,000 sq m research building, which demands stringent room and humidity requirements, is heated by the energy generated from substantial clusters of data server, avoiding almost 2,000 MW of natural gas usage per year. These servers are a critical research tool at Tyndall, providing researchers with large-scale computational ability to complete intensive theory modelling programmes.

This is part of a sustainable development programme at Tyndall to reduce energy usage and carbon footprint across the site. By implementing energy saving measurements throughout the site Tyndall has already succeeded in achieving a 40% reduction in its overall energy usage.

CAPTION:

Pictured (left to right): Brid Horan, executive director  of ESB Services and Energy Solutions; Pat Mehigan, facilties manager, Tyndall; Cormac Harrington, head of business pperations, Tyndall; and Brendan Halligan, chairman of SEAI.