SDG Alpha - Issue 42
Hello friend, and welcome to SDG Alpha, a fortnightly newsletter about Innovation, Impact Investing, and Sustainability in Ireland.
If you’re not a subscriber, and you want to keep getting the latest news and analysis delivered straight to your inbox every second Friday, sign up here.
As ever, thank you for reading; now, let's begin.
Issue 42! Being a hoopy frood who knows exactly where his towel is, the number 42 has a special place in my heart.
In truth, I’m mildly surprised that I’ve made it this far with the newsletter, which started life as a personal writing project to help me wrap my brain around sustainability, impact, and innovation.
That writing project has evolved into a community: as you read this, you are part of a growing group of business leaders, innovators, and investors who can imagine a world where humanity’s needs are balanced against the needs of the ecosystem that supports us, and you’re curious about the path that will take us there.
Utopian fantasy? Possibly. Worth fighting for? Certainly.
It remains a privilege to drop these emails into your inbox every fortnight, and I’ll continue to do so for as long as I feel it continues to bring value to this community.
As a quick aside, earlier this week I completed the training to become a B Leader: the two-day course gave me the tools, and more importantly, 36 enthusiastic new accomplices, to help the Irish business community better understand the many benefits of certifying as a B Corp. In a nutshell, B Corp certification enables a company to become a force for good, to pursue profits with purpose, and to strive for an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economy. If you’re interested in discussing further I’m DYING to test out my new knowledge - hit me up.
Shout out to my new B Leader colleagues, it’s going to be a pleasure saving the planet with you all.
Here’s the news round-up for Issue 42:
Bord na Móna announced its largest ever funding package for renewable energy projects, with a combined €430M of debt and credit facilities secured from Bank of Ireland, BNP Paribas, and ING.
The Guinness Enterprise Centre (GEC) is investing €500K to build out a sustainability cluster in the heart of Dublin 8, and improve their own energy and biodiversity footprint (18,000 bees currently call the roof of the GEC their home!)
Social Entrepreneurs Ireland are seeking applications for the Changing Ireland Accelerator, which will support a cohort of social entrepreneurs with a year-long programme, and access to €60K of funding supports. Applications close on March 14.
The State is continuing the drive to develop the infrastructure needed to support the growth of Irish-based renewable energy projects, with ESB and Rosslare Europort agreeing an MoU that will see a major upgrade of facilities in the port.
Which is very timely, as Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan, announces a public consultation on the State’s plans to hugely expand the nature and volume of offshore renewable energy (ORE) projects. The public consultation is open until April 20.
We’re on a roll here with ORE news updates, so I’ll keep going: Blue Gem Wind have been awarded a marine licence for Erebus, a 100MW floating wind development to be located off the coast of Wales. Blue Gem Wind is a joint-venture between Simply Blue Group, the Cork-based developer of marine renewable energy projects, and TotalEnergies, the French petro and energy conglomerate.
And once we have all these ORE projects up and spinning, we’re going to need to shunt that power to our happy trading partners on the continent. One company with a plan to do just that is SuperNode, whose founder and Chair Eddie O’Connor published a new book laying out how a European “super grid” provides a pathway to energy security and decarbonisation.
Kerry Dairy Ireland and Bank of Ireland have announced the launch of a new financial product, designed to reward Kerry’s farming partners for adopting sustainable farming practices. While there’s a high degree of complexity beneath the surface of this (transparency, measurement, and reporting on these new activities, for a start!), money talks and it’s encouraging to see how a focus on sustainable finance can drive behaviour change.
Two updates relating to research commercialisation: the Technological University of the Shannon (TUS) have secured €1.95M to develop bioeconomy demonstration sites in Tipperary and Offaly; and the Atlantic Technological University (ATU) announced the launch of Data2Sustain, one of the new European Digital Innovation Hubs - Data2Sustain will deliver a programme to increase the capacity and speed of SME transformation, with a focus on the circular economy and sustainability areas.
And, in further academic related news, UCC and Queen's University Belfast announced a new joint initiative, the Sustainable Development Solutions Network Ireland, which will provide funding for SDG-related development schemes, student bursaries, and new taught programmes for students on both sides of the border.
Last piece of university-related news: TU Dublin and Maynooth University are both running separate Green Weeks from March 6 - 10: both schedules are full of a huge range of events, catering to a broad spectrum of interests and formats. The TU Dublin schedule is here, or click here to see the schedule for Maynooth University.
And two useful seminars from your friendly Local Enterprise Office: Dublin City LEO are hosting SoCircular, an in-person event on March 9 which will focus on the social economy and circular economy; and also on March 9 (but earlier in the day, so you could do both!), South Dublin LEO are hosting a workshop exploring social enterprise as a business model - there’s a particularly strong speaker line-up for this one.
The Design and Craft Council of Ireland are running a competition to recognise Irish designers and creators who are bringing sustainability principles into their work. Voting is now open in the Irish Business Design Challenge, and there’s some fantastic examples of green, circular, and social justice creativity on display amongst the many nominees. Obviously, we’re very biased towards team HaPPE Earth, who are participating in Cohort 3 of Accelerate Green, so if you’re flummoxed about who to award a vote to, then pick them!
Finally, the Linnte na Farraige art installation has been installed at Blackrock Martello Tower in Dublin, and it’s deservedly freaking people out. The art project is a strikingly simple representation of potential rises in sea-level; I saw the version at the Spanish Arch during a recent visit to Galway, and I was haunted by the sight for the rest of the day.
To close out the issue, it's time for "Three, Sixty", where we pose three questions on the theme of sustainability to an impact entrepreneur or innovator, to get a better understanding in sixty seconds of how they're working to achieve the SDG targets. Peter McGarry is the Founder of the Earth Foundation which is home to the annual teenage environmental competition, the Earth Prize. In its first 2 years, teams of students from 144 countries have participated in the Prize. The 2023 Prize is down to the Finalist phase, and registrations for 2024 will open very soon at www.theearthprize.org.
On a personal level, what impacts of the climate/biodiversity crisis are you most concerned about?
I am particularly concerned about seeing young people, frustrated and anxious about climate change and environmental sustainability, resorting to extreme acts to bring attention to this issue. Throwing tins of tomato soup over artworks or glueing yourself to a road is a sad use of human ingenuity and potential. As a father of four I can empathise with these activists' desperation and urgency, but I feel we need to channel this energy in a positive way to accelerate change.
Which of the UN SDGs did you start the Earth Prize to address?
When we started the Earth Prize, we didn’t set out with the SDG framework in mind at all. We simply wanted to channel the passion and frustrations young people have into something positive. We knew we needed to inspire and educate, but also mentor and empower. So quality education SDG 4 was paramount in our efforts, and we made a big push to involve kids in not just developed countries, but also in refugee camps, slums and inner cities. Our Educator of the Year in 2022 was a teacher in a refugee camp in Jordan, she has been a true inspiration to her own students but now to many others worldwide.
We received over 700 submissions from teams in 116 countries this year, and I can tell you that the problems kids are tackling to solve are incredibly diverse and touch on almost every SDG, but in particular numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14 & 15. They don’t frame their solutions in SDG terms, but often in very local and personal terms - environmental sustainability and its effects are very real to them!
How does your business model enable the transition to a low carbon, or more sustainable future?
The current generation of politicians and corporate leaders will probably not take the hard decisions needed in time, so I see the coming generation, the students around the world in secondary schools and universities leading this transition, getting us to a sustainable future. I strongly believe that through inspiration, education, mentoring and empowerment this coming generation of change makers will be ready to solve the many problems that we currently face. By holding a global competition with a world class ecosystem I feel is the best model to channel youth away from extremism and despair and toward a solution based positive mindset. Hopefully the Earth Prize will play a small role in preparing these future leaders for the tough road ahead of them.
And, that's a wrap for Issue 42 of SDG Alpha! I hope you found it useful, and as always, if you did, please let us know, and don't forget to share! :)
Stay safe.
twitter | linkedin | resolve
