Sustainability - News & Events | Trinity College Dublin

Secret, undeclared pesticide ingredients may pose a risk to people, pollinators and the environment

Scientists are calling for greater transparency in the full ingredient list of pesticides, arguing that farmers and consumers deserve to know exactly what is in them.

21 Feb 2024

Environment|Research|Science|Sustainability

New era dawns for the retrofitted Rubrics

The beautiful red-brick building, built between 1699 and 1705, will now be home to new staff while they ‘find their feet’ in Dublin, as well as provide short-term accommodation for visiting scholars, student accommodation and a new reading room

15 Feb 2024

Community|Sustainability

Trinity researchers secure EPA funding to support sustainability and societal transformation projects

Four researchers from Trinity – Dr Patrick Morrissey, Dr Paul Liston, Professor Margaret Jackson and Professor Pete Akers – have won funding from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to pursue new research projects.

14 Feb 2024

Awards and Funding|Environment|Research|Society|Sustainability

Westport food security project wins community climate action collaboration

A Westport climate action project that will cultivate mini-forests and edible landscapes to enhance food security has been announced as the national winner of a community climate justice project call out by Trinity College Dublin.

14 Feb 2024

Business|Community|Environment|Sustainability

“It might sound like science fiction fantasy, but AI urbanism is not far away”

An international group of researchers is warning against the creation of AI-led autonomous cities, outlining fears that diverse AIs may eventually perform social and managerial functions in an unsupervised manner without human input.

6 Feb 2024

Culture|Research|Society|Sustainability

New lab allows scientists to test impacts of climate change in precisely controlled infrastructure

Scientists in Ireland are now able to study the impacts of past, current and future climate change in precisely controlled climatic and atmospheric conditions.

6 Feb 2024

Environment|Research|Science|Sustainability

Mindset change needed to fight biodiversity loss

If our loved ones were at risk of collapse, we’d do anything to help them recover. We need to do the same for the planet, writes Prof. Jane Stout in The Irish Times

6 Feb 2024

Community|Sustainability

Trinity Tree of the month - the Giant Redwood

This month we are bringing you one of our old ‘native’ tree species, Sequoiadendron giganteum, referred to as Giant Redwood or Wellingtonia. These are some of the most massive trees in the world, with the tallest living specimen standing at 84m tall with girths of 35m. They can live almost 3,500 years, making some of them the oldest living organisms on earth.

31 Jan 2024

Sustainability

Silent fields: a cocktail of pesticides is stunting bumblebee colonies across Europe

Trinity's Professor Jessica Knapp writes, along with colleagues, about a recent study and the concerning results it delivered with regard to the plight of some of our precious pollinators.

29 Jan 2024

Environment|Research|Science|Sustainability

Trinity research pivotal in Ireland’s Climate Change Assessment, with heat extremes to become more frequent and severe

Technological advancements will only deliver short-term benefits if Ireland doesn’t take steps towards transformative change according to the report, which saw contributions from Trinity researchers.

25 Jan 2024

Environment|Research|Science|Society|Sustainability

Trinity boosts sustainable aviation fuel research with new partnership

This adds a fresh dimension to Trinity's work on SAFs, which now involves four main projects with a shared goal of making air travel better for the planet.

25 Jan 2024

Business|Research|Sustainability

100 trees given away to mark launch of Trinity’s Sustainability Strategy

Key targets of the strategy include reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 51% by 2030 and reaching net zero emissions by 2040 across all categories of emissions.

24 Jan 2024

Community|Environment|Sustainability

New €2.3 million project seeks to deliver next-gen, sustainable 6G networks

The collaborative ENERGISE project, led by researchers from CONNECT at Trinity College Dublin, and involving Intel and other key industry partners targets significant energy reduction in mobile networks.

15 Jan 2024

Awards and Funding|Research|Sustainability

Central banks should be fighting the climate crisis – here’s why

Professors Martin Sokol, Trinity, and Jennie Stephens, Northeastern University, argue the case for central banks catalysing a more just, equitable and climate-stable future in this piece for The Conversation.

5 Jan 2024

Environment|Society|Sustainability

AI could make cities autonomous, but that doesn’t mean we should let it happen

Trinity's Prof Federico Cugurullo believes we should be very careful before handing control of our cities to AIs. He writes about AI urbanism and the challenges ahead in this piece for The Conversation.

4 Jan 2024

Culture|Science|Society|Sustainability

Yes, climate change is a crisis. But let’s stop using the language of war

We talk about the need for improved flood defences, the need to protect ourselves against the forces of nature. But what we really need is to work with nature, writes Prof Iris Möller in an analysis piece first published in The Irish Times.

19 Dec 2023

Research|Science|Sustainability

Tree of the Month - Erman’s Birch

This December, we are bringing you one of the more iconic Trinity trees, Betula emanii or Erman’s Birch. You’ll spot these two on your right and left as you enter through the Front Gate. The Erman’s Birch were planted around 1950 to replace the Oregon Maples that once stood there. One Maple blew down in a storm in 1945 and the decision to remove the other was eventually made to restore symmetry to the area.

19 Dec 2023

Community|Sustainability

Bees are still being harmed despite tightened pesticide regulations

A new study has confirmed that pesticides, commonly used in farmland, significantly harm bumblebees – Ireland’s most important wild pollinators. In a huge study spanning 106 sites across eight European countries, researchers have shown that despite tightened pesticide regulations, far more needs to be done.

29 Nov 2023

Environment|Research|Science|Sustainability

Trinity tree of the month - the Himalayan Dogwood

November’s tree of the month is the Cornus capitata, or Himalayan Dogwood located in the Provost’s garden. It is just over 11 m tall with a short trunk about one metre in girth. Currently the tree is estimated to store 333 kg of carbon.

29 Nov 2023

Environment|Sustainability

Trinity students and staff attend COP28

The 28th Conference of Parties (COP28) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is taking place for the next two weeks in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). This year, Trinity has gained observer status which means representatives access seminars, panels and networking opportunities, but not the negotiations.

29 Nov 2023

Environment|Society|Sustainability