Collaboration and partnerships
How we work with others to address some of our greatest sustainability challenges.
Background
We provide a public service that seeks to deliver our statutory remit at all times, in the most sustainable ways possible.
Many of our sustainability challenges are systemic in nature; the whole is often far greater than the sum of its parts. That is why we work together and collaborate positively with all our stakeholders in partnerships aimed at enhancing our capacity and results to address some of our greatest sustainability challenges.
The skills and knowledge we share among groups of like-minded people often deliver unseen possibilities for positive change.
Our Vision, Mission and Values guide our approach to open, positive collaboration and innovation. If you want to learn more about our core approach you can visit Our Vision section.
Interconnectedness
Interconnectedness is a sound basis for profound innovation and positive change. Working in collaboration, whether in formal or informal settings, often helps to shift mindsets and supports collaborators in realising opportunities and links between their work and the possibilities for positive change.
Sustainability and innovation are becoming an integrated field, and are proving highly compatible and impactful when seeking to implement positive change. Inland Fisheries Ireland continually seeks scalable innovative solutions to our sustainability challenges.
Our Green Team network provides an effective platform for internal collaboration. Collaboration and innovation initiatives and groupings support the broadening of perspective, the combination of perspectives, an enhanced understanding of the challenges we are facing and a deepening in our capacity to address these problems in a collaborative way. And we are developing innovation groups and communities of practice to foster impactful learning and potential change.
Our levers for sustainability and positive change
We believe there is vast potential for Inland Fisheries Ireland to drive positive change for sustainability by using several key "levers" that we are able to control influence and undertake in collaboration with others. We believe the following elements are critical to achieving our sustainability goals:
- Organisational culture – a transparent, accountable and professional organisation.
- Collaboration and partnerships – we work closely with others and act with respect and integrity.
- Integrated systems – we innovate and collaborate to maximise our positive impact on our sustainability challenges.
Innovation
A good example of innovation benefitting sustainability in Inland Fisheries Ireland was demonstrated in our successful implementation of a 'remote renewables technology project' on the Owenriff and Erriff River systems. Inland Fisheries Ireland deployed solar PV panels and IOT 'internet of things' technology to power and communicate remotely with a fish counter, resulting in significant savings in staff travel time. Significant savings in carbon have resulted with a reduced requirement to travel to the site for maintenance. Data from the site are uploaded via an SMS card and issued as an email - overall a much more effective and efficient way of working with a significant health and safety risk eliminated in the process (staff were previously carrying heavy batteries over long distances in rough terrain). The installation has the added benefit that it can be relocated easily for use in other similar projects in remote locations.