World Sustainability Day!

We are passionate about sustainability, reducing our carbon emissions and improving biodiversity. We have been working hard over the past few years and we have set ourselves some ambitious targets in an effort to become more sustainable.

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Bord Bia - Origin Green Certification

Origin Green is the worlds’s only national food and drink sustainability programme, enabling the industry to set and achieve measurable sustainability targets that respect the environment and serve local communities more effectively. We were recently awarded our Origin Green certification and this is something we are immensely proud of.

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Acres

Acres is Ireland’s new agri-environment climate scheme under Ireland’s CAP Strategic Plan. This new €1.5 billion flagship agri-environment scheme is a farmer-friendly scheme to help address biodiversity decline while delivering an income support for up to 50,000 farm families in Ireland. Our home Ballyvolane House is participating in this scheme and we have planted wild bird crops, erected bird and bat nesting boxes and nesting tubes on our lakes for waterfowl.

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Climate Conscious Food

We employ a Climate Conscious Food ethos at Ballyvolane House. Simply stated, it is making food choices with sustainability in mind. It’s being aware about where your food comes from, how it was grown and choosing options with the lowest carbon footprint. While packaging is important, other aspects and their impact are also considered, such as growing methods, food production, and livestock conditions. We hosted a Climate Conscious Food panel discussion and lunch at Ballyvolane House in September as part of Feast - East Cork Food and Drink Festival.

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Trees On The Land

Trees on the Land is a charity and not-for-profit project from the Green Economy Foundation in collaboration with The Woodland Trust in Northern Ireland. We planted 300 native species of trees at Ballyvolane House last year.