The Undercover Environmentalist:
Climate change is rapidly moving up the political agenda. As we experience more frequent and more extreme weather, as the international climate change models predict we will, people are beginning to ask the question, “what are we doing to address climate change and its main culprit, greenhouse gas emissions”? Is the extreme weather we are experiencing this winter just a taster of what will be “the norm” in the future?
Trinity celebrates its 12th annual Green Week between the 17 – 21 February 2014. This is Ireland’s longest running college-organised green week and is dedicated to all things sustainable. It was originally set up in 2003 in memory of the late Professor Simon Perry of the Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering Department, who founded the first version of the green campus committee in 1993 and was one of the visionaries behind the Luas light rail for Dublin.
The 2014 Green Week also celebrates Trinity’s receiving of the Green Flag campus award last year from An Taisce. The main challenge for Green Week this year is to reduce waste generation and increase recycling. Trinity currently struggles to get above 40% recycling for waste generated, compared to UCC’s current recycling rate of 75%, so there is plenty of scope for improvement. Other areas of focus are climate change and greenhouse gas emissions. As part of Trinity’s green flag application, the green campus committee set the ambitious target of reducing the College’s footprint by 3% per year between 2013 and 2020 (a cumulative total of just under 22%). This compares well to Yale University’s ambitious target of a 43% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions between 2005 and 2020. The Trinity target ties in well with the official College policy on Sustainable Development, which commits the College to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, though the official data has yet to be published by the College. This policy was due for official review in 2013 to see how effective its measures have been to date. It is hoped the official data will show a decrease in the College’s footprint as this would be a good first step in seeing if we are doing our bit in addressing climate change by walking the walk, not just talking the talk.
A full list of the events to be held during TCD green week can be found on the green pages website (www.tcd.ie/greenpages).
