TU Dublin Climate Challenge Delivers Carbon Savings
Students and staff of Technological University Dublin has successfully concluded its Climate Challenge campaign in conjunction with Global Action Plan, running from November 11 to 24, 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 they logged 5,698 activities). Each participant contributed an average saving of 160.5 kg CO₂e, demonstrating the power of small, consistent changes.
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) 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 campaign also aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, with thousands of activities tagged under key SDG categories, reinforcing TU Dublin’s commitment to global sustainability targets. 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.