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UCC goes green for World Environment Day

2 Jun 2015

ÉîÒ¹ÑÇÖÞ¸£Àû¾Ã¾Ã College Cork will be 'going green' this weekend to celebrate World Environment Day (WED).

WED is the United Nations' principal vehicle for encouraging worldwide awareness and action for the environment, and as one of the World's leading green universities, UCC will be celebrating the day in a special way.

UCC was the first third level education institute in the world to recieve the Green Campus award and in 2013, was the first to renew its Green Flag status.

UCC is also currently second in the world ranking (for two years in a row) in the Greenmetric World ÉîÒ¹ÑÇÖÞ¸£Àû¾Ã¾Ã Ranking which compares the efforts of universities towards campus sustainability and environment friendly university management. Other universities making the overall top ten include ÉîÒ¹ÑÇÖÞ¸£Àû¾Ã¾Ã of Nottingham (1), ÉîÒ¹ÑÇÖÞ¸£Àû¾Ã¾Ã of California, Davis (4), ÉîÒ¹ÑÇÖÞ¸£Àû¾Ã¾Ã of Oxford (5), ÉîÒ¹ÑÇÖÞ¸£Àû¾Ã¾Ã of Connecticut (7) and ÉîÒ¹ÑÇÖÞ¸£Àû¾Ã¾Ã of California, Berkeley (9).

Impact your world’s future: register your activity for 5 June,

— UN Environment (@UNEP)

UCC's quadrangle and Aula Maxima will be bathed in green lighting this weekend to celebrate World Environment Day which takes place on Friday, June 5th. UCC’s Vice-President for Teaching & Learning, Professor John O’Halloran, a central figure in UCC's sustainability efforts, put the continued success down to "...the student led, research informed and practice focused mission of our green agenda."

Impact your world’s future: register your activity for 5 June with

— UN Environment (@UNEP)

The theme of this year's WED is "Seven Billion Dreams. One Planet. Consume with Care." According the UN, by 2050, if current consumption and production patterns remain the same and with a rising population expected to reach 9.6 billion, we will need three planets to sustain our ways of living and consumption.

WED is the opportinity for everyone to realise the responsibility to care for the Earth and to become agents of change. According to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, "Although individual decisions may seem small in the face of global threats and trends, when billions of people join forces in common purpose, we can make a tremendous difference."

You can find more information about World Environment Day and more information about the UCC Green Campus project .

Pledge to ride your bike to work on 5 June to commemorate

— UN Environment (@UNEP)