STUDENT'S STUDY INPUTS TO 'ONE PLANET' COMMUNITY PROJECT AT MAGHERAMORNE
18-5-11

For well over five years now, WWF has worked with us at Lafarge to explore the possibility of establishing at Magheramorne what would be only the fifth WWF-endorsed 'One Planet' community project in the world. The intention is that in the new village to be built next to the lough on the old cement works site residents would aim to use only their fair share of the earth's resources.

There are ten principles underpinning the 'One Planet' living concept – including zero carbon, waste minimisation, sustainable transport and the use of local resources – for which targets will be set. The starting point for setting these targets is to understand what the situation is today in Northern Ireland in respect of the subject areas covered by each of these principles. As far as we are aware, this exercise has never been done before for Northern Ireland.

WWF's Northern Ireland office regularly takes student placements from the postgraduate course in Leadership in Sustainability at Queens University. Earlier this year they were joined by Alison Cleary from the Leadership in Sustainability course who was set the challenging task of researching existing information sources to identify and record the current Northern Ireland average environmental levels in respect of each of the ten principles. Following on from eight weeks of research at the WWF office, Alison has now completed her report. This will be a very helpful information source as we move on to the next task, that of setting targets as part of a Sustainability Action Plan.

Seen in the photo below at the Magheramorne site is Alison discussing her findings with Lloyd McInally (left), Lafarge Regeneration Manager, and Geoff Nuttall, WWF NI Director.

[Left to right] Lloyd McInally (Lafarge), Geoff Nuttall (WWF NI) and Alison Cleary at the Magheramorne site.