Green-Campus Climate Challenge

Published: Tuesday 10 February 2026 - 12:10

5 animated people with hands in air. globe with gold trophy over it

It is widely recognised that reducing carbon emissions in the atmosphere is essential. Every ton of CO₂ released accelerates climate change, driving extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and biodiversity loss. These changes threaten not only ecosystems but also human health, food security, and global economies. By reducing emissions, we slow the pace of warming, protect vulnerable communities, and preserve resources for future generations. Although the generation of carbon emissions are often systemic and need political support to drive reductions, there are changes that can be made at a consumer level.

Green-Campus Climate Challenge

The Global Action Plan Climate Challenge aims to raise awareness about consumer level emissions. It is hoped that raising awareness of these types of emissions will inform people about what type of change is needed and can help drive behaviour change. Students and staff of Technological University Dublin joined the Climate Challenge achieving significant environmental impact and student and staff engagement. Over the two-week initiative, participants collectively saved 5,578 kg of CO₂e, equivalent to the amount absorbed annually by more than 113,000 m² of trees.

The challenge saw forty seven members across fourteen teams logging sustainable actions daily (together logging 5,698 activities). Each participant contributed an average saving of 160.5 kg CO₂e, demonstrating the power of small, consistent changes.

The top-performing teams included:

Ariele’s Student Team – 221.02 kg CO₂e saved

Charlie’s Student Team – 165.41 kg CO₂e saved

Climate Heroes (Staff team) – 131.27 kg CO₂e saved

The most popular eco-friendly actions were simple yet impactful: avoiding unnecessary printing (logged 363 times), switching off lights (338 times), and recycling waste (317 times). Other frequent actions included reducing disposable container use and preventing food waste.

Speaking about his experience of the challenge Kevin Catapang, General Engineering student (TU805) says

“I think it was a great challenge and I had lots of fun doing it. There was a lot of new foods I got to try and tons of new experiences I learned, so it was a great way to really track everything! It definitely made me more aware of the amount of energy consumption and sustainable things that were around me"

Team lead Ariele Calajate (Biomedical and Molecular Diagnostics student, TU866) remarked:

"This challenge pushed me to try new things, like vegetarian/vegan options that I wouldn’t have been exposed to otherwise. For my team, it was so surprising to see how sustainable our lifestyles already are, we just needed that little push to become more mindful of our impact!”

The challenge demonstrated that if scaled nationally, similar initiatives could cut Ireland’s consumption-based emissions by nearly half—underscoring the profound impact of collective action.

Shared Impact

At TU Dublin we are committed to progressing the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through collaboration and action. This project aligns with SDG 13: Climate Action. A target within this goal is to improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation and impact reduction.

This project aligns with a number of Green-Campus themes such as Energy, Litter & Waste, Transport & Travel and Water. This project supports the implementation of TU Dublin’s Climate Action Roadmap by reducing energy and waste.

Green-Campus Open Call

The Green-Campus Open Call can help bring ideas like these to life by making micro-grants available to selected project ideas submitted in response to the open call. The Green-Campus programme encourages a partnership approach to environmental education and management. To optimise the potential for impact, the Green-Campus Open Call programme encourages project proposals that can be implemented using the Living Lab approach and that include exploration, co-creation, experimentation and evaluation phases. You can read more about the TU Dublin Living Lab and access living lab planning templates here.