The Home Energy Saving Kit is the ultimate toolkit that helps you save energy at home.
With 5 easy-to-use tools and 6 practical exercises, this kit allows you to get a better understanding of the energy usage in your home, problem areas that may need your attention and ways to improve energy efficiency.

Did you know by implementing easy energy saving measures, you could reduce your energy bill by up to 20% while improving the comfort of your home and helping contribute to a better environment at the same time. It’s a no brainer.

The Home Energy Saving Kit is available to borrow from all Meath Libraries. You can borrow it for 3 weeks at a time and have the option to renew the loan if nobody else is waiting. To borrow a kit please contact your local Meath library.

You may not realise it, but by cutting the grass in our gardens and on our green areas, we reduce the number of wild flowers and plants which bees need to collect pollen in order to survive, make honey and to pollinate other plants. Although bees and other insects can be seen as pests the reality is that the loss of our bees will mean a reduction in the quality and quantity of our locally produced fruit and vegetables.

Two of the native Irish bee species have already become extinct but there are simple steps which you can take which will help to save the bees and other pollinators in Ireland.

-    Plant flowers and shrubs which will flower in spring and autumn
-    Leave an area of your grass uncut so that flowers such as daisies and dandelions can flower there
-    If you do not have a garden and only have a balcony you can grow herbs in plant pots which will flower throughout the year
-    Plant fruit trees
-    Plant bee friendly plants such as lavender and comfrey

Want to take action to help the ecosystem in your area but not sure how?
Here are some things you can do this summer to promote biodiversity:
1.    Cut your grass on a 6-week rotation. Cutting less often allows wildflowers to grow and provides important food for insects, especially pollinators like bees.
2.    Use mineral sun cream. Most sun creams contain chemical UV filters that often cause allergies. When they end up in the sea, lakes and rivers, they can disrupt the hormonal balance of animals and are partially responsible for coral bleaching.
3.    Limit outdoor lighting at night. Artificial light can disturb many species – for example nocturnal animals can have difficulty seeing obstacles, prey and predators. 
4.    Organise a neighbourhood clean-up. By getting together and cleaning up rubbish, you will limit the pollution of ecosystems.

While we are responsible for emissions and adaptations, we are also influencers in such areas as energy, waste management, air quality, biodiversity, surface water management, planning, building control, transport choices etc.

We have responsibilities in terms of energy usage and choice of supply/source in our public lighting, buildings, depots, leisure facilities, in our housing stock, and our fleet. We are committed to achieving targets set for 2020 and 2030 in respect of energy efficiency, increase in renewables and decreases in Green House Gases (GHGs) associated with these areas of responsibility.

Local Authorities are best placed to identify risk and vulnerabilities and to action them, across a wide spectrum of areas and under a variety of EU, National and Local Policies and Regulations

The main purpose of the Climate Action Strategy (above) is to outline practical actions that will help County Meath adapt to and mitigate against climate change, and specifically across the key sectors over which Meath County Council exercise at least some level of operational control or influence.

Our recent application to URBACT (a European exchange and learning programme promoting sustainable urban development) to localise the Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) has been successful.  This pilot project, ‘SDGs in cities’, will bring 19 towns and cities from across Europe together to learn from each other, build capacities to the localisation process and develop tools for localising the SDGs. 39 cities applied, with Trim being the only Irish town selected. The project which will last approximately 20 months is 70% co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund.

The pilot has four areas; awareness, establishing a local agenda, planning the implementation and monitoring and evaluation.