National SDG Week 2024 was celebrated in Nicholas O’Dwyer Ltd with a series of events in our Dublin office

National SDG Week, 20th to 29th September 2024, was celebrated in Nicholas O’Dwyer Ltd with a series of events in our Dublin office.

We kicked off with Jim Oliver, MD, Ciarán Duignan, Head of Sustainability, Alison (Ali) Harvey 🇪🇺, Principal Town Planner & Project Manager – Environment & Planning and Leslie Marce, Project Engineer, all members of the Sustainability Committee, who gave a brief introduction about the Sustainability Development Goals, which were then discussed in-depth as to how we could deliver them in work and in our day to day lives.

On Monday 23rd we were privileged to have a presentation from Jamie Blunden, Principal Carbon and Sustainability Consultant with Nature Positive’s Carbon and Sustainability Team on his significant experience within the construction industry in the UK and further afield.

On Tuesday 24th, we were visited by Anne Moore, Sustainability Manager, Gas Networks Ireland. Anne spoke about Ireland’s gas network and GNI’s sustainability initiatives with stakeholders and communities and how sustainability is being mainstreamed in ESG Reporting.

On Wednesday 25th we had the pleasure of listening to Marion Jammet, Head of Policy and Advocacy, Irish Green Building Council (IGBC). Marion is responsible for IGBC’s policy and advocacy campaigns, including Building Life. As part of this role, she develops IGBC’s policy positions and leads on the engagement process on consultations and draft legislation.

Marion represents IGBC on World Green Building Council – Europe policy task force and Renovate Europe Committee and gave an insightful talk on the various tools to measure embodied carbon in the built environment and placing biodiversity at the core of places, buildings and infrastructure.

On Friday 27th we were delighted to welcome Lorcán Scott, Biodiversity Officer, Ireland’s Office of Public Works (OPW). Lorcan gave a very interesting talk on the biodiversity enhancing initiatives at OPW sites around Ireland and the importance of infrastructure design to enable wild salmon to succeed on fish passes around the country. He also talked about the importance of native species including red squirrels, pine martins, etc. and the need for biodiversity audits and mapping.

The Sustainability Development Goals SDGs are important in our work and also in our day to day lives and all at Nicholas O’Dwyer will continue to work towards meeting these targets.