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Sustainability

Trinity’s environmental credentials stretch back as far as 2008 when we launched our Sustainable Development Policy. College properties comprise a significant and integral part of the Dublin conurbation. As an educational institution it has a role in, and a responsibility to, society to promote sustainable development throughout its activities. This means that teaching, research, services and administrative operations should be conducted in a manner that protects and enhances the environment, conserves natural resources, reduces greenhouse gas emissions, and supports the community and society as a whole. This policy applies across all parts of the university and is led by CSD. Trinity is committed to:

• Balanced development with regard to the environment, economy and society.
• Managing its campuses in a manner that protects and enhances the local and global environment by establishing quantitative goals for environmental performance.
• Developing its buildings and services with due consideration for the environment using life cycle analysis.
• Reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
• Promoting intelligent resource use, namely sustainable transport use, minimisation and re-use of products, environmentally preferable procurement, recycling of waste streams, energy management and water conservation.
• Incorporating the principle of sustainable development into the teaching, training and research activities of the university as far as possible.
• Continuous environmental improvement and pollution prevention throughout its activities.

Since achieving Green Flag status in 2013, Trinity has been working to deliver on its commitment to become a more sustainable university by 2020. Since 2012, we have delivered the following key highlights:

1	Energy, Climate Change & Greenhouse Gas Emissions	Increasing renewable energy generation by 2% per annum
2	Waste Management, Recycling & Litter Reduction	On schedule to reach our target of 50% recycling waste Zero waste going to landfill All users are within 100m of a litter bin
3	Water and Wastewater	Water usage reduced by 10% Reduce wastewater release by 10%
4	Sustainable Transport	90% of college users using sustainable transport - Increased bicycle usage by 10%
5	Resource Use & Sustainable Food	50% of food being Fairtrade, locally produced, eco-sensitive or humane
6	Green Procurement	100% of tenders requested to submit environmental information 100% increase of construction tenders using green criteria
7	Education & Research	100% of staff and students aware of Green pages 10% increase in Sustainability Course Content
8	Communication, Student Involvement & Transparency	Met all requests for information on the environment Green Campus Committee Annual Report delivered on all environmental aspects
9	Trees & Biodiversity	Over 1,300 trees across University grounds. Increased green spaces and enhanced bio-diversity areas

We have achieved this by creating further environmental and energy awareness as it relates to our business. We have set up a Green Pages Website, actively promoted the ‘bike to work’ scheme, switched our electricity requirements to renewables where possible and we are moving towards a system of sorting all our recycling at our desks and doing away with individual bins where possible. If you are visiting Trinity, we encourage you to use public transport wherever possible – this is particularly efficient given our city centre location.