Cork University Hospital is the first academic healthcare organisation in the world to reach international Green Flag status for efforts to reduce its environmental impact.

The school’s first green flag was awarded for work on reducing litter and waste.

The energy savings achieved by Scoil Cholmcille from work on its second flag have been considerable.

The third flag that schools in the Green School programme can earn is for water conservation.

Walking to school may be tough work for little legs, but pupils at Scoil Cholmcille take it all in their stride, Education Correspondent Niall Murray reports

Irish children’s mission to make the world greener and cleaner saved 1.35m kilometres of school trips last year under just one part of the expanding Green Schools programme.

A SCHOOL which has virtually eliminated its waste output and grows its own vegetables was presented with its first green flag yesterday.