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Cork’s Local Green Deals
A milestone in sustainability
As part of the EU’s Climate-Neutral & Smart Cities Mission, Cork City is leading the way in climate action through Local Green Deals (LGDs). A Local Green Deal is a formal partnership between an organisation and the city to take impactful climate actions in its organisation or spheres of influence. These partnerships bring businesses, community groups, and voluntary organisations together to drive real, measurable sustainability initiatives across the city.
On February 13th, 12 organisations, including Cork Chamber, officially signed their Local Green Deal with Cork City Council and The Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr. Dan Boyle. Cork City’s new LGDs are delivering tangible change across energy efficiency and building retrofits, renewable energy adoption, waste management and circular economy initiatives or community-led biodiversity projects.
Cork Chamber’s Local Green Deal reaffirms our commitment to taking impactful climate action, both through our own operations and by supporting our members and community with sustainability-focused offerings. By deeply integrating sustainability into our network, we are actively contributing to Cork’s ambition as an EU Climate Neutral & Smart City.
Achieving Cork City’s long-term sustainability ambitions requires further collaboration across businesses and local authorities. We are delighted that out of the other 11 signatories, 9 were Cork Chamber members. Furthermore, Cork Chamber enabled and assisted the following members in their Local Green Deals journey: AIB, Ballymaloe Foods, ENABLE Ireland, Springboard Communications, Trigon Hotels, University College Cork and Velo Coffee Roasters. Members Boston Scientific and Ballyphehane Community Association were also successful in their applications.
Cork City wins European Commission award at Intelligent Cities Challenge conference
Between the 5th and 6th of March, Cork City’s approach to climate action was recognised on the European stage in Brussels at the Intelligent Cities Challenge Conference & Mayors-Business Forum: from Challenge to Change through Local Green Deals.
A highlight of the event was that Cork was selected among over 60 cities participating in the EU Intelligent Cities Challenge across 18 EU Countries and 5 non-EU countries to receive the ICC award for “Most LGDs signed in the ICC Programme with consistently high quality” for achieving the highest number of high-quality LGDs. This recognition cements Cork’s leadership in sustainability and its commitment to climate action through local collaboration.
Also, Alicia Mateos-Cárdenas, our REEValue & Sustainability lead, joined Paul McGuirk, Senior Executive Officer at Cork City Council and other representatives from Dortmund and Gliwice on a panel discussion on Local Green Deals deployment in the energy sector. Other panel discussions also brought representatives from across other European cities and focused on mobility, tourism, culture and built environment sectors followed by a Mayors–Business Forum.
The conference concluded with a final panel on the future of city-business collaboration, where Oliver Moran, Deputy Lord Mayor of Cork City, presented on Cork’s approach to embedding sustainability into the city’s fabric in which he highlighted the important role Cork Chamber has played. “The key is that it is a whole-of-city collaboration between the city, as an instigator, and all the stakeholders involved. Cork Chamber has been instrumental in this through their commitment to the principles involved, acting as a bridge between the city council and businesses and shoring up leadership among its own members. What they have recognised is that a commitment to sustainability enhances the reputation of the region and increases their attractiveness as employers, which is essential for drawing top talent to our city. Their commitment to the concept of Local Green Deals signifies a strong intention from the business community to engage in these transitions actively,” Cllr. Oliver Moran, Deputy Lord Mayor, concluded.
At Cork Chamber, we are proud to see Cork City Council being recognised for its leadership in securing an impressive number of Local Green Deals and we are delighted to have enabled and assisted some members to engage with the Local Green Deals process while also delivering our own. This achievement reflects a shared ambition across the city to drive meaningful progress on sustainability. The award highlights the power of collaboration in building a greener, more resilient city region. With businesses, government and the wider community work together, we can make Cork a model for sustainable growth and innovation.
