Water Shortages and Water Charges: in summary there is not enough water and we must pay for what we use. ECOS helps all types of businesses to address their requirements in a sustainable manner, both economically and environmentally, by providing Expert environmental knowledge Independent advice Proactive solutions Reduce – Reuse – Recyle Water – Rainwater – Greywater...

The European Commission has announced the final and biggest ever set of calls for proposals for research under its Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). €8.1 billion will support projects and ideas that will boost Europe’s competitiveness and tackle issues such as human health, protecting the environment and finding new solutions to growing challenges linked to urbanisation and...

In the 20-year gap between the two Rio summits (1992 – 2012), the earth’s population has grown from 5.4 billion to more than 7 billion – a leap of almost 30 %.  This has had a knock-on effect on global use of natural resources, in tandem with increasing per capita consumption levels. Although greenhouse gas...

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a number of statutory roles which include: Licensing, enforcement, monitoring and research Communicating information about the quality of Ireland’s environment. The EPA is conducting a survey is to assess its strengths, weaknesses and opportunities in communicating environmental information to its stakeholders.  http://epa.ie/

Funding of €337,000 has been allocated to local authorities by Mr. Phil Hogan, T.D., Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government to fund projects under the Local Agenda 21 (LA21) Environmental Partnership Fund 2012. Matching funding by local authorities will bring shared potential partnership funding to €674,000. The Fund promotes sustainable development by assisting small...

Tourism is a resource-intensive industry that leaves a big footprint on the environment.  More and more European hotels are thus adopting environmental management schemes which add value regarding: Legal compliance with environmental legislation; The measurement and evaluation of environmental performance against objectives and targets; Continuous improvement of that environmental performance; Strong employee involvement; Environmental core indicators facilitating...

Prevention of waste production and pollution is more efficient and economically viable than non-compliance with legal requirements. ECOS helps all types of businesses to cost effectively comply with legal requirements and prevent pollution. ✓         Reduce the input of materials and energy ✓         Reuse or sympathetically dispose/treat of wastes ✓         Employ the most...

The EPA has published greenhouse gas emissions projections for the period 2011 to 2020.  The projected trends for greenhouse gases and give a picture of Ireland’s ability to meet EU and international targets with respect to greenhouse gas emissions: Ireland can comply with its Kyoto obligations (2008 – 2012) with regard to greenhouse gas emissions....

The Advisory Council on Science, Technology and Innovation (ACSTI) made a series of recommendations on how best to support research centres in Ireland with a view to optimising future potential social and economic returns from State investments in research, development and Innovation (RD&I). The report, entitled, Sustainability of Research Centres, looks at the makeup and...

The WATER SERVICES (AMENDMENT) ACT 2012 has been published wherein provision has been made to require households to register their septic tanks by February 1 2013. Registration can be completed online at www.protectourwater.ie The act incorporates new rules on septic tanks which will oblige homeowners to make sure they are working properly and not polluting...