Obtuse Angle

PAT LEHANE

Kirby sponsors Heroes’ Retreat

Mark Flanagan, Group MD, Kirby Group Engineering with Zoe Langsdale, Programme Manager and Alan Kerins, founder of Heroes’ Retreat and CEO of Iconic Camino. They are pictured at the Kylemore Abbey Global Centre in Galway as they launched this new programme. Kirby Group Engineering is the first company to get on board and sponsor Heroes’ Retreat to the tune of 50,000.

Selling energy short?

With seven domestic and eight commercial gas suppliers serving the Irish marketplace, and each one offering incentives and discounts, it’s hardly surprising that we have a very high level of switching.

On the face of it, this is supposedly good for consumers and is the perfect example of a freemarket, deregulated economy. Question is though, does it lead to an overall reduction in energy use and carbon emissions, or simply undermine the value of energy and reinforce the expectation that energy should be cheap?

Free heat pumps the answer?

More than 20 organisations in the UK, representing everything from energy companies to builders and civil society groups, have called on the UK Government to provide low-income households with free heat pumps.

Ironically, this follows the scrapping, after only six months, of the UK’s green homes grant programme which saw only a fraction of the targeted homes insulated.

If they go ahead with a free heat pump scheme without addressing the insulation issue first, then they are going down yet another sustainability cul de sac.

Ireland would do well to closely monitor the debate and developments that ensue on this as they will undoubtedly deliver learning outcomes from which we can benefit.

Extreme E equals extreme contradiction

What a massive contradiction Extreme E, the FIA-sanctioned off-road racing series for electric SUVs, is. It takes in desert, ocean, glacier, Arctic and Amazon locations – all chosen to raise awareness of climate change and show social and environmental support for those locations. How does racing massive SUVs, powered by resource-sapping batteries, across delicate eco systems, help save the environment?

Extreme E also plays the gender equality card – teams must comprise a male and female driver – while additional tokenism is the RMS St Helena which runs on “ultra-low-sulphur diesel.”

Unless so-called green-supporting initiatives like this are called out for what they are, we’re wasting our time. See Extreme E SUV “acting green” above!

Lindab walks to aid LauraLynn

After a month of walking the roads, beaches and hills of Ireland, Lindab (Irl) employees have reached the end of their LauraLynn childrens’ hospice fund-raising campaign.

Support from industry colleagues and friends has so far raised just over 6000 for this very deserving cause. However, the fund is still open for donations so, if you would like to donate, log on to https://lnkd.in/gxtqRS7 and make a contribution.

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