Green Week has returned to Trinity ahead of the greenest holiday of all, St. Patrick’s Day. Students can expect a variety of activities, seminars, talks, and sustainability measures being carried out across campus during the week. With events already commencing and student engagement ramping up, let’s look at what Green Week is all about.
“[Green Week] is meant to build community, to raise awareness, to highlight best practice, to share ideas and knowledge”, said Jane Stout, the Vice-President for Biodiversity and Climate Action and the current overseer for the Trinity Sustainability Office. “Also to ask the hard questions, bring in sectors not traditionally involved in ‘green’ issues, and to mainstream sustainability issues.”
The “mainstreaming” of these issues seems to be the main focus of the week, with art installations, notice boards, and green-adorned objects being planted all over Trinity to raise awareness for key issues. Students also took to the arts block to host clothing swaps and to raise awareness on issues such as climate change and the lack of reusable items on campus.
Monday and Tuesday bring a variety of events to campus, including the first day of Trinity’s Clothing Swap, which seeks to highlight waste in the fashion industry while giving students the chance to swap old clothes for new ones. Also having its first day is the Trinity Sustainability Sculpture Series, which will give several artists experimenting with the themes of environmental issues and climate change the chance to showcase their work to students.
On Wednesday, students will also have the opportunity to attend a plant swap with Trinity Urban Garden, a gardening space run by students near the Sports hall where students can safely try their hand at growing their own food. Further, a climate anxiety talk with the Psychology Society will be held in the Global Room, where students will be given the chance to talk openly about their worries for Earth’s future. Both events will be held by the Student’s Union, with further information found on their website.
Also on Wednesday, the Trinity Sustainability Office will be hosting its Climate Action and Sustainable Development Series, with the day’s topic being focused on climate and its relation to health. Alongside this, a sustainable fashion seminar will be held in the large pod of the Arts Block in conjunction with the Trinity Clothes Swap.
Thursday and Friday bring with it another eclectic group of events from both the Sustainability Office and the SU: with Trinity On The Move, Green Labs, a sustainability testing facility, and Climate Camp Ireland all hosting events across campus on Thursday. On Friday, the Students Union has planned a variety of different Student Initiative workshops on everything from SME’s and their relation to the climate, to reusable water bottles. Also planned is an accountability protest aimed at Trinity’s continuing ties to companies such as Coca-Cola, which produces over 2.7 million metric tonnes of plastic waste annually.
Also taking place throughout the week is screening of Deirdre O’Mahony’s recent short film ‘SPUD’ at the Douglas Hyde Gallery. The film seeks to abide by “the relevance and use-value of tacit agricultural knowledge to food production today and the potato’s importance to global food security in the face of climate change”.
Green Week will be on until March 15th, and students are encouraged by both the SU and the Sustainability Office to participate.
“It’s for everyone in college and beyond…involving, engaging, educating”, Stout added. “It’s a team effort.”
