Dublin City's Minus 3% Project

Dublin City

There was a great reaction to the MINUS 3% All-Island Conference which was organised by Dublin’s sustainable energy agency, Codema and took place on the 25th November 2010 in the Wood Quay Venue. The conference heard how Dublin City Council has cut its carbon emissions by over 700 tonnes by implementing the MINUS 3% project into the local authority. Campaigns to encourage changes in staff behaviour, the adoption of eco-friendly driving methods by the council’s fleet drivers, virtualisation of computer servers and energy upgrades to the lighting system have all contributed to Dublin City Council making a significant impact on reducing its carbon footprint.

Dublin City Council is a partner in the MINUS 3% Project, a European initiative which aims to reduce energy consumption in local authorities by at least 3 per cent each year, with an overall reduction target of 33 per cent by 2020. Along with Dublin, there are five other cities involved in the project; Derry, Graz (Austria), Malacky (Slovakia), Maribor (Slovenia) and Teruel (Spain). The conference highlighted the work that has been carried out to improve energy efficiency in local authorities around the country and to highlight future plans for increasing energy-efficiency even further. The MINUS 3% project is a practical example of how large organisations can use less energy effectively.


The following actions have been carried out in Dublin City Council as part of the MINUS 3% project:

• A ‘Switch Off’ Campaign began in the Council in April 2009 which encourages staff to switch off lights and appliances such as computers, photocopiers and printers when not in use. By the end of 2010, Codema calculate that this campaign has achieved observational energy savings of 23%, which is the equivalent to saving over €11,000 annually, or 70 tonnes of CO2. A survey of over 500 Dublin City Council staff members was also carried out by Codema, with 97 per cent of those surveyed agreeing that the campaign has had a positive effect in raising energy-awareness throughout the local authority.

• An Eco-Driving Campaign began at the end of 2009 with the aim of getting all of the council’s drivers to reduce their carbon footprint by 3 per cent by adopting eco-friendly methods into their everyday driving. Dublin City Council also ran Occupational Training Courses for all drivers which included the principles of eco-friendly driving. A 3 per cent reduction in the carbon footprint of drivers is the equivalent of saving 280 tonnes of CO2 each year or €91,000 in fuel costs.

• Server Virtualisation: Since 2008, Dublin City Council’s IT Department has been working to virtualise its computer servers. Server virtualisation reduces the amount of physical servers, which in turn reduces the amount of energy and cooling required. In addition, 50 per cent of computers in Civic Offices now operate from virtual desktops which use only one tenth of the energy of normal desktop PCs. This is an ongoing process which has so far reduced power usage by 40 per cent and saved 260 tonnes of CO2 per year.

• Upgrading of lighting system: 850 down-lighters have been replaced in Civic Offices by low-energy lighting. Each light that has been replaced has saved 85 watts, which is a saving of nearly 160,000 kilowatt hours annually or 96 tonnes of CO2.


In addition to this project, significant energy savings have been achieved as a result of the regeneration of housing in Ballymun. By the end of 2010, 28 per cent energy savings have been realised since work on the first phase began. This is the equivalent of 175,000 tonnes of CO2 and these savings will continue to increase as Phase 4 of the regeneration is completed. This is a huge achievement, as prior to the regeneration, Ballymun accounted for over 30 per cent of the council’s entire energy demand. The old tower blocks were very energy inefficient; they received heating from a single boiler house and much of this heat was lost through windows, walls and roofs. One of the aims of the Ballymun Regeneration Project was to provide warm and healthy housing for the residents and to reduce the overall energy consumption of the area. This was achieved by building to a higher specification than the building regulations at the time, with particular emphasis on insulation of both the fabric and the glazing and the installation of high-efficiency condensing gas boilers.