Trinity Sustainability

Contact Us House 1
Trinity College Dublin
Dublin 2
Ireland
D02 DK07

View the contact page for more contact and location information

sustainability@tcd.ie

Strategic Plan

Trinity’s Strategic Plan for 2020-2025 defines the mission of the University as follows:

'To provide a liberal environment where independence of thought is highly valued and where all are encouraged to achieve their full potential'.

Goal number 5 of the plan, ‘We will shape our organisation and focus research around the challenge of achieving a sustainable and healthy planet’ is a commitment to sustainability on a global scale. Bringing different perspectives together, we are committed to finding ways in which as many members of the university as possible can contribute to furthering the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and to prepare our students to lead their lives as responsible global citizens.

Some of the objectives within Goal no. 5 include:

  • commit to strong ethical leadership in all we do, from research to staff development and throughout the activities of our entire university community
  • create a UN Sustainable Development Goal Hub using our research data to monitor research in all fields linked to the UN SDGs
  • by the end of 2020, have set targets for the significant reduction of our carbon footprint
  • provide leadership in sustainability through improvements in energy use, reduction in waste including single-use plastics, promoting areas such as sustainable transport and biodiversity, and ensuring all new buildings are based on sustainability principles
  • support and conduct civically-engaged research thereby increasing the number of research outputs connected to UN SDGs by 20% by 2025
  • promote civically-engaged research across the university and host public engagement events relating to the UN SDGs in our schools and research institutes, highlighting to the wider public and policymakers the impact of our work
  • build the teaching programmes and research projects of the CHARM-EU alliance around the grand challenge of 'Reconciling Humanity with the Planet'

Trinity also commits to embedding the skills of independent thought and action throughout our curricula and promoting the values of pluralism, social justice and environmental sustainability in our wider engagement.

We also have a role to play in the creation and development of a more just and egalitarian society. Cultivating an academic culture that respects the dignity of people and promotes the sustainability of the natural world, enables us to ensure that all our research, including that of our students, is conducted to the highest ethical standards.