EasyPro and Climate Action Week 2025
16th October 2025
In celebration of Climate Action Week 2025, the below blogpost by Dr Sean Travers from Carr Communications explains the annual Irish event, how the EasyPro Project contributes to it, and the project’s university pilots.
What is Climate Action Week?
It’s Climate Action Week in Ireland, an annual event coordinated by An Taisce on behalf of the Department of Climate, Energy and Environment. This week brings together schools, community groups, universities, businesses and public bodies to learn about climate change, share solutions and commit to reducing emissions. The event aims to raise awareness about climate change and its impact on Ireland, encourage individual and collective action, showcase real-world solutions that are already making a difference, and promote collaboration between the government, academia, business and civil society.
The event takes the form of a pop-up climate festival. Throughout the week, there are online and in-person events all over the country, ranging from panels and exhibitions to tree planting and film screenings. In Ireland, Climate Action Week supports the goals of the Climate Action Plan, which aims to cut Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions by 51% by 2023 and reach climate neutrality by 2050.
So how does the EasyPro Project support the goals of Climate Action Week? Read on to learn how!
EasyPro supports Climate Action Week
A significant way that Ireland can reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and meet its Climate Action Plan targets is to use Energy Performance Contracting (EPC). This is where energy service company (ESCO) partners with a client organisation to install energy-saving measures in their buildings and guarantees a certain level of energy savings, while getting paid based on the amount of energy saved over time.
However, EPCs are complicated and expensive to procure. Enter EasyPro! The EasyPro Project responds to these challenges by developing a tailored EPC Facilitation Service and procurement framework to reduce the costs and complexities of energy efficient building renovations.
The EasyPro Project focuses on the Higher Education sector and will be piloted at Irish universities that support the project, with plans to roll-out the solution to the rest of the Irish public sector and beyond to public sectors in other EU Member States.
EasyPro pilots
Starting with the public sector when implementing EPC is strategic. Public bodies like universities manage a large number of buildings, which are often older and energy inefficient. The potential for savings and emission reduction is significant, and allows for immense, measurable energy and carbon savings from the outset. As such, implementing EPC in public buildings is an efficient way for Ireland to meet its Climate Action Targets.
Furthermore, public bodies like Irish universities can lead by example, as they have a privileged and respected position insofar as they are seen as credible teachers and sources of knowledge. Among the aims of the EasyPro Project is to demonstrate that a standardised EPC process is feasible and financially viable, as well as build trust and awareness in the model among private organisations. This paves the way for the model to be scaled to the private sector as the market matures and confidence grows. In addition, early EPCs in public buildings like universities provide transparent performance data on savings, costs and best practices, which helps to refine policy and inform market development.
Looking ahead
Climate Action Week serves as a reminder that achieving net-zero requires collaboration between researchers, governments and industry. EasyPro’s work on EPC demonstrates that research, in combination with the project’s industry-led team, can be more than theoretical. It can turn knowledge into action and support the shared global commitment to climate resilience.
