Local Authority Prevention Network

Since its inception, CTC has become recognised as a centre of excellence in the field of environmental management and one of the leading Irish and European proponents of cleaner production and preventive approaches to environmental protection. [Link to CTC site, CTC Logo]

CTC has remained active in environmental research and consultancy providing valuable advice and assistance to a wide range of clients, national and international. These include individual companies, sectoral groups, and umbrella industrial oragnisations – CTC has an industrial portfolio of over 150 companies. Other clients include local authorities, national agencies, Departments of the Irish Government as well as several Directorates General of the European Commission – CTC has carried out 93 environmental research projects with over 100 partners from more than 30 countries.

In the last 15 years, much work and many projects have been undertaken in the CTC. The projects and activities fall into several different categories with respect to the following diagram, where the scale of economic activity may be considered as:

• Macro-scale refers to a region, e.g. preparation of a waste prevention plan, development of a protocol to implement new legislation, or management of a cleaner production programme
• Meso-scale typically refers to an industrial sector, e.g. sectoral benchmarking, or to consideration of a product chain, e.g. life cycle assessment
• Micro-scale refers to an individual enterprise, e.g. cleaner technology audit, assistance with IPC licensing, installation of an environmental management system, preparation of “green procurement” guidelines, or training of staff.

Many projects span more than one of these categories, e.g. inventorying VOC emissions encompasses individual companies as well as the entire sector.

Researching the socio-economic factors that promote the adoption of cleaner technology requires consideration of the influence of the local framework of regulation, inter-personal communication, networks, support mechanisms, etc., as well as the particular characteristics of companies in the region.

CTC’s work in preventive environmental approaches has been highly acclaimed and is closely linked to several national policies and initiatives. CTC consultancy, research and development work has driven national and regional programmes and methodologies such as:

• National Waste Prevention Programme (NWPP);
• Environmental Technologies Action Plan (ETAP);
• National Hazardous Waste Management Plans (1 and 2);
• National Task Force on Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE);
• Implementation of the Solvents Directive in Ireland;
• The Markets Development Group for Recycling;
• The Cleaner Greener Production Programmes (CGPP) (1 and 2);
• Local Authority Prevention Demonstration Programme (LAPD);
• Local Authority Prevention Network (LAPN)
• The Identification of Hazardous Waste in Ireland;
• Several Regional and Local Authority Waste Management Plans (Cork County, Cork City, Dublin Region, North East Region, Midlands Region, Mid West Region, Connaught Region);
• Environmental Award System for Hospitality Sector (GHA);
• Waste Characterisation in Ireland;
• National Training Programmes;
• Environmental Grant Aid Studies