The prestigious Green Flag Award was presented to nine schools from across the county, at an awards ceremony held in Hotel Kilkenny, on May 20. Three schools were awarded Green Flags for the first time and a further six schools successfully renewed their Green Flags.
The awards were presented to pupils from the Green-Schools committees of each school by An Taisce, which runs the programme in partnership with Kilkenny County Council.
Green Flags are an international symbol of a school’s environmental sustainability and are awarded to schools for their efforts in reducing waste, conserving water and energy, and promoting sustainable travel to school.
Speaking at the awards ceremony Rachel Boyle Green-Schools Officer with An Taisce congratulated the schools on their efforts and achievements and recognised that, “the county is now reaching a point where Green-Schools is being run in the majority of schools in Kilkenny and this is having a major impact, not only the behaviour of school children towards the environment but also on their parents as students continue to bring the message home.” The Green-Schools programme is co-ordinated by An Taisce, operated in partnership with Local Authorities and is supported by the Department of Environment, Heritage & Local Government and Department of Transport. The programme also has a number of commercial sponsors. These include Repak, ESB Independent Energy and the Wrigley Company Limited.
Repak are the lead sponsor of Green-Schools in Ireland and Dr Andrew Hetherington, CEO, said’ “An Taisce’s Green-Schools programme is one of the most successful Eco-Schools programmes that takes place in 47 countries. Repak recognises this and the greater impact the programme has on the wider community in changing behaviour and increasing understanding of our environmental impact. Repak’s sponsorship of the Green-Schools programme aims to help An Taisce increase participation from 75 per cent to over 95 per cent of all Irish schools over the five years of the sponsorship. We are delighted with the continued growth in both registrations and number of new flags awarded. Since the beginning of the school year last September over 200 new schools have registered for the programme, 288 schools have received the prestigious Green Flag for the first time and 694 schools have renewed their Green Flags. There are now almost 3,400 schools participating in the programme, representing some 686,000 students and over 47,000 teachers nationwide.”
