A green week careers talk with KPMG held in the Business School was disrupted by a DJ set organised by the Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) Campaigns group.
Posters were hung up leading into the lecture hall with one reading: “KPMG are investing $100 million into AI (Google cloud alliance) expecting more than a billion dollars in return. More AI equals more data centres equals more water usage.”
Trinity’s Sustainability Manager Jane Hackett approached TCDSU President Jenny Maguire to say “it’s not a greenwashing event” and “you are talking over me”. Maguire responded that the music was loud.
In a statement to The University Times, Maguire said “We can never be a green campus unless we challenge the financial and societal powers that are destroying our planet” and that “Every year, students and staff are forced to do volunteer labour to cover up the university’s shabby commitment to true environmentalism”.
Some students who perform specific tasks during Green Week are paid, such as social media ambassadors. Some external partners that set up events are also paid by Trinity, with the benefit going directly to students such as the swap shop, cycle clinic and repair clinic.
Most of the staff that are involved do so to give students opportunities that they might not otherwise have, such as meeting Mary Robinson, meeting professionals in industry to highlight the availability of careers that focus on sustainability, and informative talks on environmentally positive things like making ponds and dealing with climate anxiety.”
Students gathered around the DJ speakers, with some dancing and others filming the spectacle. One student watching stated “I think it’s really cool”.
Isha, an MSC student of finance, who was in the lecture hall when the protest began said: “We were discussing a group assignment that is due next month, and this randomly came out. This was not cool, because we were having some important discussions.”
Patrick Flynn – one of the dancing protestors and the Secretary of Trinity’s Environmental society said: “The AI boom is such a prevalent boom at the moment […] the environmental complications of that is pretty well-documented.”
“Even in the Irish context it’s particularly pressing. We’re data centre central here, we’re on course to have 30% of our energy used in data centres alone, which will be massively fueled by the AI boom. I think that’s something that should be looked at critically, and I think these glossy events under the name of sustainability certainly isn’t doing that.”
The group’s signs also criticised the College’s relationship with Coca-Cola and Ryanair – the total sum of these partnerships amounting to millions of euro.
KPMG has been contacted for comment.
Editors note 13/03/25: This article was amended to include College’s comment.
