Sustainability and Society
We will work with all in the ecosystem to support the system change. We will support learning, and skills development across society to deliver our ambitions.
Our Aims
We are committed to ensuring that our business operations support efficient use of resources. Managing the environmental impact of our activities is key.
Our aims under this pillar are to:
- Create and inform societal awareness of the challenges we face and the role we can all play
- Support learning and skills development across society to achieve the transition
- Support and promote diversity and inclusion
- Promote a culture of health and safety
Education and Skills
SciFest
SciFest promotes science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) education in secondary schools.
The EirGrid ‘Climate and Delivering a Cleaner Energy Future’ award is presented to students who design a creative, innovative approach to utilising energy from clean resources. The partnership started with the SciFest@School programme. We have since expanded the partnership and the award to include SciFest@College and the SciFest National Final.
EirGrid are proud to be a project partner of SciFest.
Business Action on Education Programme
In 2022, we concluded our first two-year student mentoring programme with Leaving Certificate students from Ellenfield Community College (previously named Margaret Aylward Community College) through the BITCI Business Action on Education Programme.
We have renewed our involvement for the 2022-2024 Leaving Certificate cycle.
DCU Access Programme
The DCU Access Programme makes "education attainable to young people from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds".
As part of our support, we offer students from the programme an internship in EirGrid over the summer through the Access to Work programme.
Young Social Innovators
Young Social Innovators (YSI) empowers young people to use their talents, insights, passion and creativity to come up with innovative solutions to social challenges.
EirGrid is the Climate Action and Energy partner with YSI.
Biodiversity
The twin crises of climate and biodiversity are interlinked. In 2019, the Irish government declared a climate and biodiversity emergency.
While leading the transition to a low carbon future, we are also committed to monitoring and improving the effectiveness of our biodiversity actions.
We already avoid or reduce impacts on biodiversity when developing grid projects.
We are now aiming higher, by addressing how we can restore nature.
Diversity and Inclusion
A diverse and inclusive organisation achieves the best outcomes for our business, our customers and society.
It enables us to realise our purpose 'to transform the power system for future generations'.
We have an exciting and ambitious strategy to enable us to do that.
Customer and Industry Engagement
Many of our customers are key enablers to meeting the 2030 targets.
They contribute through electricity generation (including microgeneration), interconnection and supplying services needed to operate the system with increased generation from renewable sources.
Community Benefit
Making the grid more efficient and sustainable will often involve some disruption to the local community.
Our community benefit policy recognises the importance of the local communities who support our work. Under this initiative, we create a community benefit scheme in proportion to the scale of the project.
Energy Citizens Roadshows
EirGrid has run a series of Energy Citizens Roadshow events to inform local communities of our plans to future-proof the electricity grid. As part of this, we provide information on microgeneration, home retrofitting, energy upgrades and regional energy development issues.
Friends of the Earth Ireland and Renewables Grid Initiative
In 2021, we launched a joint project with Friends of the Earth Ireland and the Renewables Grid Initiative. The projects aims to engage communities and groups around the country on Ireland’s energy transition.