The Visit Cork Sustainability Strategy 2020 – 2023 outlined a vision and action plan for increasing sustainability throughout Cork tourism and events by working with the industry to produce and develop more sustainable outcomes. As part of this commitment to sustainability a number of KPIs were included in the strategy to track the performance of Visit Cork in reaching these sustainability goals.

Below is a graphical dashboard which displays Visit Cork’s performance on the KPIs originally set out in the Visit Cork Sustainability Strategy 2020 – 2023 (with green signifying ‘Complete’, amber signifying ‘In Progress’ and red signifying ‘Not Complete’):

And for the full Visit Cork Sustainability Performance Report 2020 – 2021 click HERE or below:

Cork Convention Bureau (CCB), in its role as an International Destination Management Organisation, is hugely aware of the demands for environmental best practice within the MICE industry. To continually improve, we have needed to ensure our member hotels are third-party accredited for sustainability certification. Recently 8 CCB Member Hotels achieved third-party sustainability certification through the Green Hospitality Awards programme and an Eco-label audit which was heavily subsidised by CCB.

Key benefits of the programme:

• Calculate individual MICE event carbon footprints – enabling reporting and/or offsetting – using the International Hotel Carbon Measurement Initiative (HCMI) methodology
• Create KPI’s for Energy, Water, Waste – allowing for quantifiable target setting
• Identify cost saving opportunities

We are delighted that 8 of our member hotels have recently achieved the Green Hospitality Award Eco-label through this programme and joined many of our other hotel members in holding third-party accredited sustainability certification.

You can now find all our members who are ‘committed’ to sustainability (have taken part in sustainability training) or ‘engaged’ in sustainability (hold third-party accredited sustainability certification) on our Hotel Members page: https://www.corkconventionbureau.com/ccb-associates/hotels/ 

In March 2020, University College Cork celebrated 10 years since becoming the first University in the world to be awarded a Green Flag from the Foundation for Environmental Education. Green Campus involves a seven-step programme and a cycle of continual improvement. Campuses are fully reassessed, by a panel of external experts, every 3 years. UCC has successfully renewed it’s Green Flag 4 times.

The Green Campus Programme in UCC has evolved significantly since its inception. Strong commitment and support from the highest levels in the university has contributed to embedding sustainability across our operations, teaching, research and outreach. The student-led Green Campus Committee, chaired by the Student’s Union Deputy President, meets regularly to discuss ideas and campaigns to improve our campus. These meetings feed into biannual meetings of the Green Campus Forum, which takes its membership from across all functions within the University. The forum ensures continuity and strategic oversight throughout the academic cycle.

Some of UCC’s Green Wins during this time include:

For more information on UCC’s sustainable initiatives click HERE.

 

In December 2020, the inaugural Visit Cork Green Award was awarded to Fernhill House Hotel & Gardens in Clonakilty for their continual work on sustainable initiatives throughout the year.

This Award was set up to encourage and reward our tourism partners who made a commitment to operating sustainably and in 2020 we were delighted to present it to Fernhill House Hotel & Gardens.

Michael O’Neill and his team at the hotel deserve huge credit for there work on sustainability there including:

• Using solar panels for hot water and electricity
• Using their own well for water
• Growing their own food
• Planting 3,000 trees, as part of a larger project to plant 20,000 trees all around Clonakilty in 2020

Michael O’Neill manager of Fernhill House Hotel & Gardens receiving his award from Evelyn O’Sullivan and Jeremy Murray of Visit Cork

The submission process for the Visit Cork Green award 2021 is now open to all Cork tourism businesses, who can submit an application for the award by clicking HERE.