Gas Networks Ireland enters new community partnership with Inner City Enterprise
Gas Networks Ireland has entered into a three-year partnership with Inner City Enterprise (ICE), a non-profit organisation offering advice and support to unemployed people from Dublin’s inner city to set up their own businesses. Currently in the first year of sponsorship, Gas Networks Ireland has formed a mentor panel of five employees to support the award-winning start-up, the Grow Dome Project.
The Grow Dome Project is focused on sustainability and community engagement, promoting green technology and food production as well as providing employment, training and social spaces for communities. Each individual dome has the capacity to grow 6,000 plants and will be financially self-sufficient. So far the project has supported the installation of two grow domes. Back in 2014 the first grow dome was constructed in the Liberties. The second dome has been constructed at the Dublin City University campus in Glasnevin, with the launch scheduled for later this year.
The Gas Networks Ireland mentor team will offer practical business advice and share their expertise in the areas of sales, marketing and digital to help the project grow and develop.
Commenting on the initiative, Corporate Responsibility Manager, Julie O’Donoghue, said
“I’m delighted to announce that Gas Networks Ireland has entered into a partnership with Inner City Enterprise for the next three years. Gas Networks Ireland provides energy for over 30,000 businesses in Ireland. These businesses range from the very biggest companies to the smallest start-ups. This sponsorship is a great fit for our corporate responsibility strategy and a natural progression to our existing employability and school retention community partnerships in secondary schools.
At Gas Networks Ireland, we aim to implement the principles of sustainable development across all aspects of our operations. The fact that the Grow Dome is also a sustainability project ties in with our ongoing commitments in this area, along with the recent publication of the company’s first Sustainability Report and the development of our new Sustainability Strategy”.
Pictured above are Corporate Responsibility Manager, Julie O’Donoghue and Corporate Affairs Manager, Louise Browne with Evanne Kilmurray, CEO of ICE and Niall O’Brien, founder of the Grow Dome Project.
