Good News Friday: North West Businesses Embrace Environmental Accountability

Environmental sustainability is high on the agenda of business at the moment and Chamber member and patron, RiverRidge, has just announced the publication of its first annual Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) report. This shows RiverRidge’s commitment to transparent reporting while providing an annual update on the progress it has made towards its ESG goals and ambitions.

RiverRidge is a leading waste and resource management organisation, and the first in Northern Ireland to publish such a report, which has allowed it to streamline and prioritise all existing and future sustainability initiatives.

Brett Ross, CEO of RiverRidge said: “The publication of our first ESG report is a major milestone for the company and among our many important goals and ambitions is our ambition to reduce our overall carbon footprint over the coming 15 years. We have a clear roadmap to achieving this by transitioning our collection fleet to renewable fuels, investing over £50 million in new waste treatment technologies, as well as converting our sites to over 70% renewable power.”

Anna Doherty, Chief Executive of Derry Chamber said: “It is great to see that members of our business community in the North West are pushing their companies to be more sustainable. Protecting the earth for future generations is something we should all be prioritising. For RiverRidge to be at the forefront of this in Northern Ireland’s waste and resource management industry is something that makes the entire Chamber family very proud.”

Derry City and Strabane District Council is hosting the first of 11 Industrial Decarbonisation for Northern Ireland (IDNI) workshops on February 7th, at The Playhouse. Led by Invest NI, the project is a consortium of stakeholders including Manufacturing NI, Mineral Products Association, Ulster University, Queens and all 11 councils.  As a business leader, the challenges of energy prices, increasing policy and regulation, and consumer demands mean that your decarbonisation plan will be the cost of entry to doing business. IDNI has been developed to assist businesses in managing these increasing competitive pressures and Derry and Strabane District Council want to ensure our region is at the forefront of these activities. This session is an opportunity for you to learn more about how this initiative can help you. If you are interested, please confirm your attendance by emailing Allison Reain ‘allison.reain@investni.com’, from Invest NI’s Green Economy Team who will confirm registration details.

The Chamber continues to champion net zero and our 2024 event schedule includes a Net Zero Series beginning with the workshop ‘Getting to Net Zero’ with Will Ennett on 23rd February in North West Regional College. There are still a limited number of places available. Reserve your place HERE.