On April 1 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 poysed by Irelands only polycentric Gateway. This is a three year project broken down into sustainable bite-sized phases: Pilot programme (March 2010 to Oct 2010 ); Inter-town Gateway Sustainable Challenge (2010 to 2011 ); Inter-EU Sustainable Challenge (2011 to 2012 ).
Dominic Doheny president of the Midlands Gateway Chamber said “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.”
The competition will have three categories – Energy ,Water, and waste; plus 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.
For more information on the Gateway Sustainability Challenge contact Karen Cunningham on (087 ) 9480007 or email [email protected].
