Midlands Gateway Chamber launches Gateway Sustainability Challenge
Published by Karen Cunningham in Thursday 4th March 2010
On the 1st April the Midlands Gateway Chamber will commence the Gateway Sustainability Challenge for the business community in the Midlands to start saving money on their energy waste and water bills. The short term goal of the project is to improve the competency of all businesses in the Gateway Region in terms of sustainability. The particular focus of this phase of the project is to up-skill and strengthen awareness of all businesses in the region on matters relating to Energy, Waste and water usage and their costs.
The longer term objective of the project is to overcome the challenges of regional sustainability poised by Irelands only polycentric Gateway. This is a 3 year project broken down into sustainable bite sized phases. Phase 1 Pilot programme (March 2010 to Oct 2010) Phase 2 Inter-town Gateway Sustainable Challenge (2010 to 2011) Phase 3 Inter-EU Sustainable Challenge (2011 to 2012)Dominic Doheny President of the Midlands Gateway Chamber said “That the overall purpose of the challenge is to strengthen the position of the Midlands Gateway Region as a front runner in terms of EU and the regions energy revolution. As the potential for EU wide investments in sustainable energy currently remains largely untapped, we hope that the Challenge will provide a Forum to focus the regions entrepreneurial spirit and ensure the Midlands Gateway achieves essential Public, Private, and EU investment in sustainable business developments.”Paul O Reilly Vice-President Midlands Gateway Chamber notes that sustainability is the key area for indigenous growth for the future and it is essential that all businesses adopt a policy of encouraging awareness and up skilling across all employee levels. With the Sustainability Challenge we are looking for businesses who will commit to making savings of up to 10%. It is widely accepted that savings between 10 % and 20 % can be made by organisations simply setting in place effective business sustainability management systems. The pilot programme supported by SEI and has a number of voluntary mentors to assist the selected businesses achieve their target reductions.”“Under the pilot scheme Small, medium and large businesses will be challenged to reduce their energy usage bills by up to 10% over a six month period and in return the Midlands Gateway Chamber will provide support from energy masters. The challenge is open to all chamber member businesses ,so it is advisable to apply for inclusion in the scheme early as places are limited for the pilot phase. Large and small industries, shops, offices, restaurants, hotels, hairdressers, banks, bakeries etc are welcome to participate and ideally we would like a spread of applicants across the business types and sizes.” Paul said.The competition will have 3 categories – energy ,water and waste. And an overall category sustainability which includes all three. The winners will be chosen by measured cost saving reductions in energy , water and waste verified by metered readings and invoices together with demonstrated management systems implemented over the course of the study.The finale of the Sustainable Challenge will take place in October 2010 where the winners of the various categories will be announced.“Sustainability needs cross party support and commitment from all levels of industry and on a business and domestic front if it is to make progress” Paul O’Reilly commented.For more information on the Gateway Sustainability Challenge please contact Karen Cunningham on 087 948 0007 or info@midlandsgatewaychamber.ie