South Eastern Regional College (SERC) has scored a ‘double’ at the Sustainable Ireland Awards 2011, with recognition for its new Environmental Skills Centre at Newtownards and for taking the lead in sustainable development.
The College was presented with the ‘Sustainable Building Project of the Year’ award, sponsored by Constructing Excellence in Northern Ireland (CEni) and the Centre for Sustainable Technologies, at a glittering ceremony at the Ramada Hotel in Belfast where the keynote speaker was Environment Minister Alex Attwood.
It also picked up the award for ‘Leadership in Sustainable Development,’ sponsored by Wright Recycling.
The VIP gathering heard that while old, fuel hungry buildings may be relics from the past; there were still quite a few of them around. However, with the advent of sustainable and renewable energy technologies and the growing levels of innovation, their days are numbered.
SERC lifted one of its awards for investing £3.7 million to convert one such old three-storey building in Newtownards into a state-of-the-art Environmental Skills Centre, creating more space with less cost and incorporating a biomass boiler, solar panels, low energy lighting, water saving devices and even landscaping that encourages biodiversity.
Leadership
An independent panel of judges, who were also looking for an individual or an organisation that inspires others and leads by example, said SERC was ‘nothing short of outstanding, taking a strong lead in making others more aware of the need and opportunities for sustainable development.’
They also praised SERC for offering specialist training and support in renewable technologies and generally ‘promoting an inspirational, innovative and inclusive learning environment.’
SERC is the second largest Further Education College in Northern Ireland, with five campuses throughout County Down and a sixth in County Antrim. The lifeblood of the local community, with over 1,100 staff, 30,000 enrolments, clients from 1,400 business and a £45 million budget, it is firmly committed to supporting integrated economic, environmental and community growth, shaping the community by promoting an inspirational, innovative and inclusive learning environment.
This was the sixth year of the Energy, Environmental & Waste Management awards, organised by the Hillsborough based publishers of Sustainable Ireland magazine, 4SquareMedia, to celebrate the contribution industry makes to the environment and to sustainability.
There were 13 categories, ranging from Best Energy Manager and Best Waste Carrier to Biodiversity Project of the Year and Best Use of Renewable Energy Sources.
Minister Attwood told the event: “The implementation of our Waste Strategy has led to great strides in recycling waste. Our 2006 target for recycling domestic waste was 35% but in fact we’ve achieved nearly 36% in 2009/10.
“This is quite an achievement, given we were at only 10% in 2002. This is down to everyone playing their part whether it’s Government, Local Government, the business sector or the individual citizen.
“But we can do much more. I want Northern Ireland to be recycling 60% of its waste by 2020. Ambitious? Yes, but doable in my opinion and a challenge for all of us here today.”
Support
The Environmental Skills Centre is supported by the DEL Connected project. Through Connected, businesses now have coordinated access to the full portfolio of expertise represented by the six Regional Colleges and the two Universities - in terms of research, product development, knowledge transfer, innovation and training - thereby assisting them to boost their competitiveness, develop new products and increase market opportunities.
Connected is here to encourage, ease and increase potential knowledge exchange links between academia and industry, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)