RISEC to host an awareness walk as part of Dublin Climate Action Week

Image courtesy of Eoin Meegan

Ringsend Sustainable Energy Community (RISEC – www.risec.ie) are hosting an awareness walk as part of Dublin Climate Action Week. For the event, members of the group will lead people around the area and show them the sustainable projects they have led in the community so far through Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) grants.

A community grant with SEAI must be run through a sustainable energy community such as RISEC. A Sustainable Energy Community is a group of people working together to achieve energy efficiency, to implement renewable energy measures and to adopt smart energy solutions. 
The walk is scheduled for Thursday the 16th of September from 7-8pm, starting at Clanna Gael Fontenoy GAA Club. The walk will end in the Fair Play Café with some tea and biscuits. The walk is free to attend, no booking is necessary, and all are welcome. Please see www.risec.ie or contact risecommunityinfo@gmail.com for more information. 

One of RISEC’s most recent projects in the local community was in conjunction with Railway Union Sports Club in Sandymount. This year Railway Union has decided to broaden its horizons and have created a sustainability team in order to bring down the club’s carbon footprint and help in the fight against climate change. Through the SEAI community grant program, they have partnered with RISEC and committed to three sustainability projects. 

The first of which will reshape the electricity consumption from their tennis courts at Claremont Railway LTC. Now one may jump to the conclusion that tennis courts do not use much energy, however, halogen floodlights are quite inefficient and replacing them with LED lights will save the club around 10,000 kWh of electricity. The second project Railway Union put forward was to replace their petrol fueled lawn-mower with an electric lawn-mower. Once more this will reduce the club’s annual CO2 emissions by around 5 tons. The final project is to install an energy management information system. Currently the club only uses electricity bills to monitor their energy usage. An EMIS will allow them to view their energy usage in real time and allow them to realise where they are wasting energy.  Railway Union plans to build on these projects and develop a roadmap to a low carbon sustainable future in the coming years.