Green Gown Awards UK & Ireland 2024 finals
TU Dublin is a finalist across five categories in the Green Gown Awards UK & Ireland 2024, and is the only university in the Republic of Ireland to be a finalist among the 84 U.K. institutions.
TU Dublin finalists are now working on their stage 2 applications with judging taking place in October.
| Award Category | Project | School / area | Lead |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2030 Climate Action | Decarbonising-by-District: How TU Dublin are pioneering two district heating projects | TU Dublin | Rosie Webb |
| Next Generation Learning & Skills | Sustainable shelter sleep-out for homelessness | School of Architecture, Building & Environment | Kirk McCormack |
| Student Engagement | Enactus TU Dublin – from dwindling numbers to international success | Student Societies - Enactus | Sean Breen and Lucia Walsh |
| Sustainability Champions -Staff | The Mindful Kitchen Project Team | School of Culinary Arts & Food Technology | Annette Sweeney |
| Tomorrow's Employees | The IMPACT of NEMOS – An Irish Case-study for developing food sustainability competencies: educator professional development and service-learning as a signature pedagogy | School of Food Science & Environmental Health | Julie Dunne and Rena Barry-Ryan |
About the projects
Sustainable shelter sleep-out for homelessness: For the last three years, first-year students of the Architectural Technology course at TU Dublin have built and slept out in their own shelters to experience the effects of climate, consider sustainability in a visceral way, and raise awareness and funds for homelessness. They were challenged to create structures, with only a pallet of recycled materials, that could house them overnight, maintain 20 degrees internally, achieve 100 lux daylight levels, and stay dry. They travelled to their encampment, erected their shelters, and braved the elements to eventually raise over €5,000 for Focus Ireland’s Shine A Light charity. Crucially, there was an emphasis on precise measurement of carbon and the structures being de-constructable so components were reusable next year. What began as a fun class assignment to bring new college students together, has grown into a design project and public event that instils good learning outcomes for a good cause.
The Mindful Kitchen Project Team: Building Sustainability from Within Integrating mindfulness as a pedagogy for sustainability education to support understanding, competence and action, is recommended (Wamsler et al., 2018). The mindful kitchen project is an innovative approach in culinary arts education promoting ‘sustainability from within’ in taught modules. Modules · 2019: The Mindful Kitchen Health and Wellbeing module was the first of its kind globally in culinary education which uses a mindful approach to working and being in the kitchen and heightens chefs’ awareness of self-care within the kitchen. · Using this module as a foundation, additional modules were co-created by students and lecturer teams: o During COVID-19, a team of 14, created The Mindful Kitchen: Creativity and Social Gastronomy module to further explore their creativity, embed positive education principles and give back to those in need through food. o In 2024, a team of 11 co-created a tailored module for embedding an applied food sustainability approach in the curriculum, The Mindful Kitchen: Creative Food Sustainability.
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The Green Gown Awards has been awarding sustainability excellence since 2004, recognising the exceptional sustainability initiatives being undertaken by universities and colleges internationally and regionally. The Green Gown Awards are administered by The Alliance for Sustainability Leadership in Education (EAUC) of which TU Dublin is a member of.
The Green Gown Awards 2024 will take place at a ceremony Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh on 13 November, following the EAUC Scotland conference. The event will announce the winners and celebrate the 20th anniversary of the awards.
Best of luck to all finalists!