Horizons Sylvia ThompsonMore than 50 Irish hotels took part in Greening Irish Hotels, the first Irish initiative to reduce the environmental impact of the catering sector.
The initiative involved each participating hotel undergoing a detailed cleaner production audits and developing cleaner production programmes. Overall, more than 1,000 tonnes of waste was diverted from landfill, carbon dioxide output was reduced by 3,000 tonnes and more than 5,000 tonnes of water was saved.
"The Irish hotel industry has been environmentally benchmarked for the first time in this pilot programme, which has delivered the blueprint for better, greener business for Irish hotels," says Larry Stapleton, director of the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Environmental Assessment. "We would like to see the momentum from this programme to be carried forward. It is replicable across the whole accommodation and catering sectors and can also serve as an example to other service sectors and thus promote the greening of the Irish economy."
The programme was developed by the Irish Hospitality Institute and part-funded by the Environmental Protection Agency. See www.epa.ie for Greening Irish Hotels report.
The water underground
Hidden Streams - a New History of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown by Brian Mac Aongusa (Currach Press) is a timely contribution to our understanding of sudden and severe flooding. Local historian and former RTÉ controller of programmes, Mac Aongusa studied historical geography at University College Dublin. In this book, Mac Aongusa recalls the former landscape and character of south County Dublin, where there are about 30 rivers and streams between the River Dodder and the River Dargle. With much of the area now developed and suburbanised, many of these old watercourses have been forced underground or been absorbed into the main urban drainage system.
However, recent record levels of rainfall and subsequent flooding have brought them back into focus. Hidden Streams looks at the pattern of these waterways, how they influenced settlements and most importantly, how they must be taken into consideration in future drainage policy so as to avoid more severe flooding in the future.
Nature is our muse
Landscape as a source of inspiration is one of the themes of a public lecture on Monday, November 5th at 6pm in the Royal Irish Academy, 19 Dawson St, Dublin. The lecture, entitled Irish Landscape and Locality: Connections to Literature and Lyrics will be given by Prof Rolf Loeber, who with his wife Magda is the author of A Guide to Irish Fiction (Four Courts Press, Dublin, 2006). The book documents the geographical distribution of Irish literary talent from 1650 to 1900. According to Prof Loeber, song books published in the 18th and 19th century were often printed in provincial towns that produced fewer works of fiction. They also, he believes, formed a stronger link between the oral culture and the printed word. A native of Holland, Prof Loeber has worked as a professor of psychology and psychiatry in the United States for the past 40 years. Admission is free but advance booking is essential - loeberdiscourse@ria.ie or 01-6762570.
Eco Web
www.friendsoftheirishenvironment.net
A dynamic campaigning website that provides an environmental news service and highlights many local issues, such as clear-felling in Irish forests or the Coastwatch Ireland campaign against cockle dredging in Waterford Bay.