South West College, home of the global trendsetting Erne Campus, has won the prestigious Beacon Award for Education for Sustainable Development.
The awards, billed as the ‘Oscars of Further Education’ were presented at a special ceremony in the Houses of Parliament in Westminster.
SWC received the prize for its Climate Action Campaign, a multi-faceted initiative which has been designed to integrate sustainability into every aspect of college operations.
This includes a comprehensive Net Zero Action Plan, a Sustainability Action Plan, and providing Carbon Literacy training to all staff and students.
Celine McCartan, Principal, said: ‘This is a fantastic achievement and illustrates the time, effort and resource that has been devoted to our sustainability initiatives over the past decade … South West College has positioned itself as a champion for sustainable practice and this award is a welcome reflection of that.”
The college’s Erne Campus, designed by Hamilton Architects, is an exceptional public sector project that is of national and international significance in terms of sustainability, renewables and low carbon emissions.
At 8,000sqm, this £34m project was the world’s first educational – and remains the largest – Passive House Premium rated building, and was also the first in the UK to achieve both PHP and BREEAM Outstanding accreditations.
It has reduced energy bills by an estimated 86% per annum while delivering a state-of-the-art educational resource for 2,800 full and part-time students, and acts as an exemplar for its construction students and the entire construction industry.
Recognised as one of 26 UN Centres of Excellence for High Performance Buildings, it ranks alongside the Apple 2 campus in California, and was awarded Project of the Year and Public Sector Building of the Year prizes in RICS Awards 2022.
As Government prepares to roll out its ZEB policy for all public sector buildings, Erne Campus will continue to play a significant role, nationally and internationally, in breaking down barriers to success.
