Project to showcase how sufficiency is operating on Leeside
Cork City Council is one of many organisations across Europe that have come together on a special project.
Cork City Council recently hosted a study visit for the European FEEL (Frugal Cities through Energy Efficiency and Low Tech Communities) Project to showcase how sufficiency is operating in the city.
With a focus on housing, the partners heard from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland on retrofitting homes using low-tech means and then visited the Ardrostig Housing Development in Bishopstown.
Built with more sustainable lifestyles in mind, the development on Hawkes Road has limited car spaces and is serviced by multiple bus routes so residents are more likely to use public transport, walk or cycle.
The FEEL Partnership visited Besancon, France and Överkalix Municipality in Northern Sweden this summer to experience first-hand their actions demonstrating sufficiency. In Överkalix, social wellbeing and vulnerable individuals are supported with employment opportunities and empowerment.
The municipality directly employs physically challenged individuals to help recycle materials like timber and sleds for use during winter in the town. Besancon was exemplary in community engagement actions as shown in the Hop-Hop-Hop, a community space for art, innovation, creativity, recycling and a meeting place for clubs.
Following the study visits, Cork City Council organised a stakeholder meeting to share learnings. In attendance at the meeting was a representative of the Kinship Project, a community art project developed in the former landfill at Tramore Valley Park.
The Ecolab is a meeting space for community organisations, events, workshops or simply a place to meet while exploring the park. Demonstrating sufficiency, the Ecolab was heavily influenced by the biodiversity of nearby Carroll’s Bog, and the link between our natural environment and the need for sustainable building practices.
Cork City Council Senior Executive Engineer, Brian Cassidy said: “The Interreg Europe FEEL Project is a five-year project aiming to develop a sufficiency approach to resource management. Resources are in finite supply across Europe and with instability due to violence, increasing temperatures and growing migration, demand for resources has substantially impacted economies, product availability, biodiversity, social equality and justice. By being more careful in how we use our resources, more residents can better access our finite resources.”