A New Leaf: Trinity plants trees in Santry

Posted on: 12 October 2022

Universities throughout Ireland are taking part in the week by offering events for staff and students to learn about the climate crisis and undertake local actions.

A New Leaf: Trinity plants trees in Santry

Trinity students and staff gathered today at the Santry Sports grounds (part of the Trinity campus)  to plant 280 trees as part of An Taisce’s Climate Action Week.

 The week of action is backed by the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications to support schools and universities. 

Members of Trinity’s Estates and Facilities team including Environmental Services Coordinator David Hackett and Craft Gardener Team Leader John Parnell Jr. prepared the site at Santry, which has already seen biodiversity increase in recent years through rewilding and tree planting.   Volunteers including Provost Linda Doyle, Sustainability Manager Jane Hackett and Students’ Union Environmental Officer Erin O’Dowd were there to plant the trees, along with staff and students from various areas in College.  

Trinity students and staff line up with spades, ready to plant treesStaff and students in a field planting trees

The trees planted include Alder, Sycamore, Birch, Scots Pine, English Oak and more. We know that planting trees have many benefits from supporting local biodiversity, cleaning our air, capturing rainfall and eventually storing carbon as mature trees. It is estimated that the potential carbon which could be stored in the 280+ trees once they reach maturity would be almost 14,000 tons. 

Trinity’s Sustainability Manager Jane Hackett added:“We are coming together to plant these trees to show our commitment as a community to take real, meaningful action not only for our climate crisis, but also to positively affect nature.” 

To get involved in the Green Campus Committee you can email sustainability@tcd.ie or visit www.tcd.ie/provost/sustainability for more information. 

Media Contact:

Katie Byrne | Public Affairs and Communications | katie.s.byrne@tcd.ie | +353 1 896 4168