Trinity College Dublin’s Annual Green Week was launched by Senator David Norris when he unveiled the College’s first campus wetland. Designed to maximise habitat diversity, the pond, situated in the College Biodiversity Centre behind Front Square, will be a useful research and teaching tool for students of the School of Natural Sciences. Wetlands make up some of the world’s most valuable environmental networks but are increasingly under pressure from human settlement, pollution and global climate change. The new TCD pond will give students and scientists an opportunity to conduct research on the sustainable development of these important assets.
Other Green Week events include guided walks highlighting Trinity College’s trees, bird life and buildings; workshops on growing your own vegetables, bicycle maintenance, and a Junk into Funk fashion show in the Pavilion Bar on Friday February 25th. A number of competitions will also be held during the week including the Super Student Society competition sponsored by WEEE Ireland, a photography competition, an energy competition and a pub quiz with a prize of a bicycle sponsored by Kingspan.
As part of the Green Week 2011, Trinity College Dublin has signed up to the Green Campus programme with the Environmental Education Unit at An Tasice. Through this programme TCD aims to encourage the College community to continue its efforts in creating a green and sustainable environment on campus. The seven step programme provides an ideal way for fostering environmental awareness in third level institutions in a way that links to everyday activities and study, and ties in with the operational requirements of complex multi-use facilities.
An important role of Green Week is to promote the environmental activities which run throughout the year on campus. One such project, which will support the Green Campus initiative, is TCD’s involvement in e3. This energy conservation collaborative programme between UCD, DCU, DIT Bolton Street and TCD, involves monitoring and targeting energy consumption within specific campus buildings. Since the beginning of the e3 project in 2004 over 2,800 tonnes of green house gases have been saved in TCD alone, the equivalent of taking 1,000 cars off the road for one year. The current development of the e3 monitoring and targeting system will enable College to work towards the strategic plan for a green campus and the longer term Government Public Sector energy efficiency target of 33% reduction in energy use by 2020.
TCD Green Week is a unique opportunity for staff, students and visitors to the College to celebrate nature and it provides a forum to encourage the exchange of experience and tips on best practice for reducing carbon output and other ways to protect the environment both within and outside College.
