Nine Green-Campus Open Call 2025 projects funded
As part of Green-Campus Open Call 2025, nine projects were awarded funding to progress environmental and sustainability activities under the themes of:
- Biodiversity (2026 Major theme under the Green-Campus Programme)
- Litter & Waste
- Energy
- Green ICT
- Greening Laboratories
Green-Campus Open Call 2025 is designed to help bring ideas to life by making micro-grants available to selected projects. The initiative encourages a partnership approach to environmental education and management, and participants are encouraged to develop projects that can be implemented using a living lab approach.
Introducing the projects:
1. re:model - Linenhall
Led by Laura Carroll, lecturer at the School of Architecture, Building and Environment, the re:model project introduces an innovative circular‑economy materials‑sharing system in the School of Architecture by installing student‑designed mobile cabinets that enable reuse of model‑making materials, reducing both waste and costs. By involving students across all years in designing, prototyping and managing the system, the project fosters peer‑led sustainability engagement while collaborating with academic staff and technical teams. Designed using a co‑creation approach, the initiative provides a scalable model that could be replicated in other design‑focused schools across TU Dublin.
2. Clean Campus Challenge – Tallaght
The Clean Campus Challenge project, led by lecturers Hilda Burton and Dr. Patricia Medcalf from the School of Marketing & Entrepreneurship, is an innovative student‑driven behaviour‑change campaign in which Advertising and Marketing Communications students co‑design anti‑littering interventions with academic staff, the Green Campus team, and Campus & Estates. Through research on successful litter‑reduction strategies, mapping litter hotspots, organising clean‑ups, and developing targeted visual and emotional engagement campaigns, students actively influence their peers’ attitudes and behaviours toward waste on campus. Embedded within academic modules and built around a collaborative co‑creation process, the project mobilises multiple campus stakeholders and offers a scalable model for behaviour‑change initiatives across other TU Dublin campuses.
3. Reusable Packaging for Bakery Students (Grangegorman)
Led by Lecturer Sheona Foley from the School of Culinary Arts & Food Technology, this project builds on several previous initiatives, including last year's Green-Campus Open Call project, which aimed to raise awareness and encourage behavioural change around food waste reduction and the minimisation of single-use packaging. The proposed intervention provides students with a sustainable, reusable alternative packaging for taking away surplus baked goods from practical bakery lectures, thereby reducing both food and packaging waste generated through class activities. The project seeks to build capacity within the school by increasing awareness of sustainable bakery practices, to support the adoption of the solutions trialled and contribute to broader food waste reduction targets for TU Dublin.
4. Sustainability Charters for Student Societies (Tallaght & Blanchardstown)
Led by Charlie Beaudelot, PTO for Sustainability at TU Dublin Student’s Union this project introduces an innovative micro‑grant system that empowers student societies and sports clubs to co‑create Sustainability Charters tailored to their activities. Working in collaboration with Student Volunteering the project aims to foster peer‑driven climate action. Involving Students’ Union partners, volunteers and external organisations, the project builds sustainability knowledge through workshops, mentoring and shared campaigns. Beginning in two campuses and designed for expansion, it creates a scalable framework that embeds sustainability into student life across TU Dublin.
5. Inside Disposable Tech: Exploring Material Circularity (Bolton Street and Grangegorman)
Coordinated by School of Art and Design and Mechanical Engineering Lecturers, Ceri Almrott and Keith Colton, this project builds on ongoing research in the Materials Intelligence Lab exploring the environmental impact of single-use electronics. The findings will feed into a hands-on workshop and exhibition during TU Dublin Green Week 2026, showcasing how design can turn waste into awareness.
6. The TU Dublin Bioblitz and Photo Competition (Tallaght)
Coordinated by School of Mechanical Engineering lecturers Gerard Ryder and Niamh Plunkett, TU Dublin Bioblitz is an innovative project designed to raise awareness of biodiversity in the campus environment by using gamified, clue‑based activities that engage teams of TU Dublin staff, students and graduates and students from local primary and secondary schools in competitively observing and cataloguing species across the Tallaght campus during Green Week and Climate Action Week 2026. Participants will be provided with a gamified campus map and sampling tools such as pooters, microscopes and images from wildlife cameras located around the campus. Their data will be uploaded to the National Biodiversity Data Centre’s citizen‑science portal. The project also includes a biodiversity photo competition with local exhibitions, and will be fully documented to allow this innovative gamified model of biodiversity engagement to be replicated across the TU Dublin campus network.
7. Reconnect the Disconnected - outdoor micro-garden at Aungier St
Co-ordinated by Sustainability Education & Innovation Lead Lucia Walsh, this project aims to revitalise an area of the Aungier Street Campus courtyard. Developed in partnership with TU Dublin staff and students, Dublin South City Partnership (DSCP), and local social enterprises including the Grassroot Guild and See the Light Production, this multi-stakeholder project will innovatively transform the space into a modular outdoor micro-garden. Once complete the micro garden can serve as a nature‑based learning and wellbeing space where workshops, storytelling and community events can strengthen (re)connection to nature, while supporting urban ecology. Its modular, low‑impact design and collaborative approach to development and maintenance can allow replication across other campuses, supporting scalability of the solution.
8. Reconnect the Disconnected - biodiversity awareness & appreciation
Co-ordinated by Sustainability Education team, Lucia Walsh, Olivia Freeman and Ken Boyle, this cross‑campus initiative uses creative, artistic and science‑based workshops to reconnect students, staff and communities with local biodiversity, engaging environmental artists, scientists and student groups in a co‑created programme of activities. Each campus develops tailored actionsleaving visible legacy elements that grow environmental awareness. Its coordinated modular model is inherently replicable and scalable and is designed for long‑term integration into TU Dublin’s sustainability education strategy.
9. Veganuary
Led by Mina Eusebio, VP City Campus at TU Dublin Students’ Union, the Vegan for January’ campaign will run throughout the City Campus from 26-29th of January. Students will be able to sample free plant-based food from local businesses and learn more about the health, financial and environmental benefits of a plant-based diet. The events planned will explore students’ interest in vegan food and gather insights into students’ response.
Learn more about the Green-Campus Open Call solutions explored in 2024 and the impact they have made across TU Dublin.
All Green-Campus Open Call 2025 projects are supported through the Strategic Alignment of Teaching and Learning Enhancement (SATLE) fund.
