Students from schools in Belfast and Dungannon, Co Tyrone, scooped the top awards in the Ballygowan/ECO Young Environmentalists Awards this year.
A team from St Patrick's Girls Academy, Dungannon won the senior prize with their project, Recycling Aluminium & Paper (RAP) and a team from the Belfast Model School for Girls picked up the junior award for their energy project, Wake Up You Lazy Bones, Get on Your Feet.
Hundreds of young people from schools and youth clubs submitted projects, choosing from five environmental areas, Air, Water, Energy, Waste and Biodiversity. In the winning project, RAP, the students developed a waste management plan for the school and a recycling scheme for aluminium and paper waste on the school grounds. The team also identified disposal firms for the school to work with and a group of students developed a can-crusher for use in the school. The other winning team carried out a survey on the mode of transport used by students to come to school and then actively encouraged students to walk to school by plotting routes to and from the school and organising a walking/bus day. Elaine Nevin, co-ordinator of the ECO awards describes the reasons behind the initiative. "We want to encourage young people to consider how global environmental issues may be tackled at a local level. The standard of entries this year has been exceptionally high and the projects have shown how young people can effect change and improve our environment." For details of entry requirements for next year's Ballygowan/ECO Young Environmentalists Awards, tel: 01-6625493 or e-mail ecounesco@eircom.net
CONGRATULATIONS to the Irish Landmark Trust which won one of the 30 inaugural conservation awards given out by the Northern Ireland Environment and Heritage Services last month. The Irish Landmark Trust won the award for Ballealy Cottage, a 19th-century restored deerkeeper's cottage in Randalstown, Co Antrim.
Other buildings which received conservation awards include Parliament Buildings in Belfast, Bangor Town Hall, in Bangor, Co Down, the Verbal Arts Centre, Derry, Runkerry House, Bushmills, Co Antrim and Ballydugan Mill in Downpatrick, Co Down. The awards are part of a series of events celebrating 30 years of listed buildings in Northern Ireland. The Irish Landmark Trust, which is based in Dublin, restored Ballealy Cottage in 1999. As with its other properties in the Republic, it is available for holiday lettings. Tel: 01-6704733 or e-mail info@irishlandmark.com for more details. See www.ehsni.gov.uk for full details of the conservation awards.
A REMINDER to anyone keen to celebrate World Oceans Day today that there will be walks, talks and information on how we can conserve and protect our seas and oceans by the pier in Howth, Co Dublin, all day.
Participating environmental groups include the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group, Coastwatch Ireland, Birdwatch Ireland and the Irish Wildlife Trust.
THE current practice of maintaining a constant indoor temperature in offices is anathema to Italian architect, Mario Cucinella and his Irish architect wife and partner, Elizabeth Francis. Like many other eco-architects, they believe that truly energy efficient buildings should be maintained with a minimum of heating and cooling and that office workers will cope with variation in exchange for more natural ventilation and light. Examples of the eco-architectural projects of Mario Cucinella Architects are on display at the RIAI Architecture Centre, 8 Merrion Square, Dublin until June 14th.
HALF of Irish towns were found to be either "heavily littered" or "very heavily littered" in the most recent Irish Business Against Litter survey, carried out by An Taisce.
The Coombe/ Liberties area in Dublin, Longford town, Sligo town, Tralee, Co Kerry and Ballina, Co Mayo, were the five urban areas at the bottom of the league table on street cleanliness while Fermoy, Co Cork, Mullingar, Co Westmeath, Wexford town, Armagh city and Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh all received "litter free" status. "An improvement in litter levels [since the last survey] is evidence of the league taking effect among local authorities," comments IBAL chairman, Tom Cavanagh. "The league is predicated on the belief that exposing the performance of local authorities in this very public way will compel them into action. The Government itself has been running tables of this kind for some time but keeping the results under wraps means they are ineffectual."
Irish Business Against Litter believes that local authorities need to put seven-day clean-up procedures in place as the summer festival season begins.