From left: Eamonn Sayers, manager, Guinness Enterprise Centre; Eamon Ryan, TD; Michael O’Hara, co-founder, Techies Go Green; and Dr. Mary O’Riordan, CEO, HaPPE Earth. Image: Guinness Enterprise Centre
Alongside the new partnership, the GEC will be investing €500,000 into making its premises more sustainable.
The Guinness Enterprise Centre (GEC) announced today (24 February) a new partnership with non-profit Techies Go Green.
As part of the partnership, the GEC will become the headquarters of Techies Go Green, a movement of IT and tech-oriented companies who are committed to decarbonising their businesses. The non-profit will use the facility as a base of operations as well as to host educational events for signatories.
Alongside the new partnership, the GEC is building on its own green strategy by investing €500,000 into making its premises more sustainable.
The majority of the funding – made available through an Enterprise Ireland Regional Enterprise Transition Scheme grant – has already gone towards numerous upgrades across the building, including more heat-efficient windows, a new heat pump system and sensor-controlled LED light fittings.
Michael O’Hara, co-founder of Techies Go Green and managing director of DataSolutions, said: “We are thrilled to partner with an organisation that is internationally recognised as one of the best new business incubators in the world and one that has sustainability as one of its core objectives.”
Eamonn Sayers, manager at the GEC, added: “Together, the GEC and Techies Go Green want to lead the change towards a more sustainable and greener future. We want to be at the forefront of the circular economy and create a space where like-minded companies can work and grow in tandem.
“That means broadening our own climate agenda and placing sustainability at the heart of everything we do. Education is the first step, followed by action.”
The partnership was announced at an event launched by Minister for the Environment and Climate Eamon Ryan, TD.
“What’s happening at the GEC right now is also a preview into the future of smart business and innovation in Ireland,” said Ryan.
“There are two interrelated, clean industrial revolutions going on at the moment – one is happening in the response to our climate crisis and the shift to renewables in particular. The other is happening in technology and digitalisation.
“The GEC sustainability cluster encapsulates both, providing a hub for young, creative technological and green start-ups with a new base for Techies Go Green, while also embedding sustainability and the circular economy in everything that happens onsite itself. It’s clever. It’s collaborative. It’s the way forward.”
Established in 2000, the GEC was created as an entrepreneurial ‘superhub’ for start-ups to develop their enterprises in a shared space. It currently supports a community of more than 150 companies, including 10 organisations working in the sustainability space.
Last December, the GEC launched a new healthcare innovation cluster to foster collaboration between start-ups, medical practitioners and patients.
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