Danone Ireland partners with FoodCloud to deliver Nutrition Education Programme

charity and community group partners with an annual webinar and the provision of recipes and nutritional information. The aim is to help charities and community groups around Ireland in making the most of surplus food and preparing nutritionally balanced meals for those who use their services.

By contributing to its Community Support Programme, Danone aims to help FoodCloud increase the volume of food redistributed by 10% and grow the number of charities and community groups it supports by 50 new charities annually. The three-year partnership will also allow FoodCloud to distribute the equivalent of over 600,000 meals. Furthermore, Danone’s unlimited volunteering policy means its more than 740 employees around Ireland can support FoodCloud at its three food distribution hubs in Dublin, Cork, and Galway.

Danone Ireland, a leading health-focused food and beverage company, has announced a three-year partnership with FoodCloud, a social enterprise tackling the twin issues of food waste and food insecurity in Ireland. The partnership will help educate and empower community groups nationwide to prepare nutritious meals using surplus food.

Through the partnership, Danone’s registered dietitians and nutritionists will directly support FoodCloud’s 600

Killian Barry, Managing Director at Danone Ireland said: “We believe that large food companies like Danone have a responsibility, not only to address waste along the food supply chain, but to support health at all stages of lifethis includes helping to ensure that people have access to information and education about food and nutrition.”

Danone Wexford, Rocklands, Wexford, Y35 V1HD Tel: 053 916 5300 www.danone.ie

Expanded supports for businesses to invest in energy efficiency and renewable heating

Increased supports are now available for energy efficiency, heat pump and biomass installations — to support business to improve efficiency and switch from fossil fuel. In addition, capital grant support, of up to €3 million or a biomass tariff of up to €3.5 million over 15 years, is now available — for renewable heat and energy efficiency projects in buildings and industry. The aim is to urgently reduce fossil fuel use in commercial buildings and industry.

Support Scheme for Renewable Heat

The Sustainability Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) will immediately implement a broad suite of changes in the Support Scheme for Renewable Heat (SSRH) to increase support levels, target larger energy users, and ensure that appropriate support is available for deployment in buildings and industry. This includes an increase in the support for heat pump installations to a maximum of 40% of costs, up from the current level of 30%.

The SSRH has to-date provided 15-year biomass support tariffs to 90 installations, with 30 installations commissioned and already receiving regular payments. This equates to a total committed support of €35 million over 15 years and 90GWh of renewable heat annually. In addition, the SSRH has provided grant support of more than €500,000 to heat pump projects. Projects already supported include agriculture, industry, hotels, nursing homes, leisure centres, and buildings in both the private and public sectors.

Excellence in Energy Efficient Design

The Excellence in Energy Efficient Design (EXEED) scheme will immediately increase maximum grant funding available and change evaluation thresholds to ensure appropriate targeting of grant funding.

The Excellence in Energy Efficient Design scheme has to date provided support to over 200 companies — equating to a total committed support of €15.6 million. The EXEED projects to date either completed or currently being implemented represent 190GWh in primary energy savings, 34.7 ktCO2 savings and €8.5 million in annual cost savings. The programme has engaged with a variety of sectors including pharmaceuticals, food and drink, retail, hospitality, agriculture, mining/quarrying and manufacturing.