Visit Cork, which includes leisure tourism brand PureCork, has announced the launch of their Green Award competition for 2024 and is encouraging tourism businesses across Cork to apply. The Visit Cork Green Award was established in 2020 to encourage and reward businesses in the tourism sector across the county that demonstrate a commitment to operating sustainably.
Previous winners of the award include Fernhill House Hotel & Gardens, Cork International Hotel, The Imperial Hotel, and Ballyhass Adventure Group, which won a ‘highly commended’ award last year.
Now open for 2024, the Visit Cork Green Award is looking to identify best practices in sustainability across the tourism industry in Cork. Whether you are a hotel, restaurant, tourist attraction or tour operator, Visit Cork want to hear how your business has developed their sustainability strategy and initiatives over the last few years, in areas such as Environmental, Social, Governance and Economic Sustainability.
Head of Visit Cork, Seamus Heaney, expressed the significance of these awards, saying, “We are delighted to be launching our Visit Cork Green Awards for 2024. It is important that we recognise businesses in the tourism sector that are going the extra mile to become more sustainable. Increasingly, we are finding that businesses starting out on their sustainability journey are looking for inspiration, and best practices from peers can inspire others.”
Heaney noted Visit Cork’s commitment to its own sustainability journey, explaining, “For a small organisation like ours, it was simply a question of getting started and taking regular, manageable steps to make improvements. Cork has just placed 21st out of over 100 destinations in the Global Destination Sustainability Index 2024. This benchmark is carried out with rigorous third-party evaluation of over 70 criteria across a destination's environmental, social, supplier and destination management performance, so we are proud to see Cork ranking so highly. In a sector that is increasingly dominated by discussions on sustainability and positive impact, Cork must continue to strive for excellence in order to compete with other leading locations for business and leisure tourists.” 
Last year’s winner, The Imperial Hotel said it’s a huge honour to receive the accolade. General Manager Eoin Daly said, “We work hard every day to ensure we become one of the most sustainable hotels in the country. We are always looking for ways to reduce our footprint, care for and protect the environment, and give back to the communities we are part of. We are also engaging with the SEAI and hope to execute several larger projects over the next year. We are not only tasked with significantly reducing our carbon footprint, but we are also responsible for taking care of an historic building which has been a part of Cork City for over 200 years. Receiving the Visit Cork Green Award demonstrated just how far we have come and gave a great boost to our entire team.”
The judges will be looking forward to seeing the initiatives undertaken by applicants to improve their sustainability performance and will be particularly focused on how the applicants demonstrate: Leadership/Vision; Innovation/Creativity; Communication/ Storytelling; Community/Stakeholder Engagement; and Impact.
The deadline for applications is Thursday 9th January 2025 and the winner will be announced at the Visit Cork conference in early 2025.
To apply, businesses must complete the online application form: Green Award Application 2024: https://forms.gle/g8cZHb8xC2Y5TBqQA
