Yesterday, Ireland played host to an International Sustainability Summit as part of the Volvo Ocean Race finale in Galway City. More than 150 delegates from the finance, clean-tech, venture capital and sustainability sectors, as well as policy-makers, headed to Galway from Dublin at 6.45am aboard a special train Iarnród Éireann had provided in light of the sustainability theme. Here we show a video extract of some of the delegates who spoke about Ireland’s green economy opportunity.
Firstly, Jane Cregan from Iarnród Éireann spoke about why the company chose to put on a special sustainability train for the conference. Then Mike Hayes, partner, Energy and Natural Resources, KPMG, spoke about how we are on the eve of a global shift to a global green economy.
Eibhlin Johnston, vice-president, Business Development Trust and Fiduciary at J.P. Morgan, spoke about how J.P Morgan is seeing a shift in investment funds across the globe towards the sustainability area. She touched on how Ireland has a match for that in its servicing portfolio, as the IFSC has been in Ireland for 25 years now.
Barry O’Flynn, director, Sustainability and Cleantech Services, Ernst & Young, spoke about the relevance of the Sustainability Summit in getting the clean-tech community in Ireland together to discuss Ireland’s potential to lead in this area and create jobs.
And Brian Motherway, CEO, Sustainable Energy Authority Ireland, spoke about the significance of getting business leaders together at a high level in Galway to talk about sustainability and how Ireland is excelling in areas such as ocean energy and the natural resources it has.
More reports and video to come next week from the International Sustainability Summit.
