PRESS RELEASE ISSUED 24^th JUNE 2009

THIRD GREEN FLAG FOR SCOIL CNOC MHUIRE SNS KILLINARDEN

Scoil Cnoc Mhuire SNS, Killinarden raised its third Green Flag for Water on Thursday 18^th June 2009 to the beat of samba drums made from recycled tubs and tins. Deputy Mayor of South Dublin County Council, Councillor Eamonn Maloney attended the flag raising ceremony and he congratulated the staff, pupils, board of management and parents association at Scoil Cnoc Mhuire SNS for their hard work and dedication in protecting and improving their environment.

To achieve the Green Flag for Water the Green Schools Committee at the school created an action plan which was quite ambitious, achievable actions were selected and completed including litter picking and planting in the school grounds, recycling waste arising in the schools, reducing paper use, energy use monitoring, creating a water information DVD, installing water hippos to save water in the toilets, a water survey was sent home, a water audit was carried out and a competition held for all pupils called Guess how many litres competition.

Recent research by An Taisce on the economic value of the Green-Schools programme to schools in Ireland has revealed that the programmehassaved schools in Ireland aminimum 2 million in waste, electricity, water and fuel costs this year.The results reveal a minimum of 12 tonnes of waste diverted from landfills in Ireland every school day by schools undertaking the programme. Because the programme also involves the wider community, the overall savings to the wider community could be several times the 2 million euro saved by the schools involved.

The Green Schools Programme is going from strength to strength in South Dublin County said Claire Hinch, Assistant Environmental Awareness Officer with South Dublin County Council To date 51 of 100 primary Schools in South Dublin County have been awarded the Green Flag from An Taisce and seven of the 34 Secondary Schools in the County have the Green Flag Award.

By the end of January 2009 there were over3,100 primary, secondary and special schools in Ireland participating in the programme. This represented over 75% of all schools in Ireland. The Irish Green-Schools programme is one of themost successful within the international network. One of the main factors in the success of the Irish Green-Schools programme is the partnership between the Environmental Education Unit of An Taisce and Local Authorities i.e.the financial and time contribution of the Local Authorities to the programme.

For further information contact Claire Hinch, Environmental Awareness Section

chinch@sdublincoco.ie