Council staff to take part in Bike Watt Challenge

Council staff to take part in Bike Watt Challenge at Energy Awareness Day - Mon, July 11

On Monday next, Donegal County Council will launch its Staff Energy Awareness Campaign in the County House in Lifford where staff will be asked to use their pedal power in the 'Bike Watt Challenge'.

Speaking prior to the launch John McLaughlin, Director of Roads and Housing Capital with Donegal County Council explains that “this is all part of our Energy Awareness Campaign which is about giving staff information about energy, the importance of conserving it and advising on simple ways to save energy both at work and at home.  While this campaign is targeting staff, members of the public are also welcome to drop in and check out some of the demonstrations and even take part in the Bike Watt Challenge."

The Bike Watt Challenge will show staff how much energy they can produce through pedal power and other activities on the day will include presentations and demonstrations on energy saving in the home and at work and the launch of the Best Staff Energy Saving Idea competition.  Activities will start at 11am with the official launch taking place at 1.30pm.  Staff awareness days will also take place in each Municipal District in September.  

“This is an important part of our Energy Management approach where we have set out the Council’s policy in relation to energy and put in place objectives and targets for energy performance improvement over the next number of years.  We have identified a number of Significant Energy Users or SEU’s within the organisation including Public Lighting, our Ofices and Cultural Services Buildings, Fire Stations, Landfill sites and our Transport Fleet" says John McLaughlin.

 “An important part of this process is about identifying opportunities for improving energy performance and we believe that our staff are well placed to help identify these opportunities.  We have conducted energy assessments on a number of buildings and we are putting in mechanisms to monitor consumption and this data will be analysed regularly and used to develop performance indicators.   However, our staff have a very important role to play in all of this and for this reason our Energy Awareness Campaign will be critical to our success”.

 Cllr. Terence Slowey, Cathaoirleach is delighted to see this initiative being launched and believes that it is an important step within the context of meeting the targets set at national level.  

 “This campaign is an important part of the Council's energy management system and the Council is continuously striving to deliver savings and efficiencies in energy consumption and this initiative is important if we are to achieve our targets of a 33% reduction in energy use by 2020.  I am delighted to see the Council leading out on this initiative as it will no doubt be an exemplar for other businesses both in the public and private sector."