Climate Resiliency
Students and staff are enthusiastic supporters of sustainability-focused programmes and strategic projects. The TU Dublin Green-Campus Committee are one of many groups which run a number of environmental and biodiversity initiatives. These include re-wilding of parts of the campus landscape, volunteer clean-ups in local areas and riverbanks, reducing use of plastic in cafeterias, and supporting plastic re-use projects. National Green Week in March provides a particular focus for seminars, workshops, films and talks exploring topics related to climate action, sustainability and protecting our environment.
Under our risk management processes and Strategic Risk Register, TU Dublin reviews and assesses the associated risks of climate change and its impact across our operations over the short, medium, and long-term. TU Dublin acknowledges the environmental impacts inherent in our existing service and operations. We also anticipate that significant operational changes will be required to achieve our commitments to the decarbonisation of our campus infrastructure to achieve carbon neutrality across Scopes 1 and 2 by 2040 and achieve total reductions (Scopes 1, 2, and 3) to net zero by 2050.
To manage climate related risks such as achieving absolute emissions reductions set by government and extreme weather events, TU Dublin will reduce our generated emissions by deploying a range of proven technologies across our operations, and we will review our current campus infrastructure to optimise its use. We will also actively increase opportunities to develop new initiatives as part of our campus infrastructure to support the advancement of innovative technologies and systems-based solutions through applied research, innovation with industry, and community partnering and engagement.
Given the challenges associated with meeting absolute emissions reduction targets, TU Dublin's Climate Action Roadmap necessitates a review of the increased emissions related to all planned TU Dublin developments in the context of the public sector's contribution to Ireland's overall emissions impact on our planet. To play our role of ‘leading by example’ will be challenging and will require sustained effort and financial investment. However, TU Dublin has undergone significant transformation throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and recent Organisational Design, demonstrating our ability to respond resiliently.
