Impact & Opinions | Tionchar & Tuairimí

Sustainability

videos
01 August 2023

Cois Coiribe: Our Research, in Brief

Looking for insights informed by data and research?

Cois Coiribe is University of Galway’s platform for research and opinion from our global academic and alumni community – bringing clarity to tomorrow’s challenges.

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Resilient Innovation
25 July 2023
13  MINS

Straitéis na Gaeilge: An Scéal is Deireanaí

Seoladh an chéad straitéis don Ghaeilge san Ollscoil beagnach dhá bhliain ó shin, ar an 16 Iúil 2021 agus tá toradh na hoibre atá déanta ag gach uile dhuine a raibh lámh acu i bhforbairt agus i bhfeidhmiú na Straitéise go dtí seo le haithint ar fud an champais agus dul chun cinn suntasach déanta.

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Resilient Innovation
29 June 2023
9  MINS

Foreword from the President

Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh, President of University of Galway 

Fáilte go Cois Coiribe. Tá sé lán go béal arís i mbliana le luachanna na hollscoile s’againne, luachanna atá go smior inár gcomhluadar. 

I am particularly pleased that, once more, Cois Coiribe is replete with our values as a university community, as a university for the public good.

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Resilient Innovation
28 June 2023
12  MINS

Spotlight On: Cormac Mac Donncha, Vice President, Thermo King EMEA

Many of us know Thermo King as an established leader in transport refrigeration, but fewer have heard of the manufacturing giant’s plans to reduce customer carbon emissions by one billion metric tonnes, by 2030. Here, Vice President (EMEA) and University of Galway alum, Cormac Mac Donncha discusses Thermo King’s plans to become a carbon-neutral global enterprise. 

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Resilient Innovation
26 June 2023
8  MINS

Regional Business Summit: Engaging People and Leading on Sustainability

In partnership with ITAG and Galway Chamber, J.E. Cairnes School of Business and Economics Regional Business Summit: Engaging People and Leading on Sustainability was a highly anticipated event at University of Galway, drawing over 150 business leaders, policymakers and sustainability advocates from regional industries and sectors. The summit, held on 31 March 2023, aimed to foster dialogue, collaboration and innovation to address pressing environmental and social challenges while promoting sustainable economic growth in the West of Ireland.

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Resilient Innovation
22 June 2023
17  MINS

Putting a Cost on Climate Stress: AI Can Help

Dr Aaron Golden

The cost of climate stress to food production is monumental, and attempting to calculate that cost is a complex, data-driven task. 2023 ENLIGHT Impact Award Winner and PI of the TAPAS project, Dr Aaron Golden is harnessing the potential of AI deep learning to detect fluctuations in biomass production linked to climate change visible from space. This innovative technology identifies not only the cost of such climate stress, but identifies those regions most in need of intervention. 

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Resilient Innovation
22 June 2023
14  MINS

Seven Years of the Galway City Innovation District and the PorterShed

Prof John Breslin

Synopsis: 

A recent report from KPMG found that between 2021 and 2016, PorterShed had created 835 sustainable jobs across the value chain and contributed over €6 million to national economic output. Following the opening of PorterShed a Dó at the end of 2022, cofounder and University of Galway professor, John Breslin explains why more and more innovation-driven companies in Galway are clustering and thriving together. 

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Resilient Innovation
22 June 2023
19  MINS

GEOFIT: More than a Hole in the Ground

Luis Miguel Blanes Restoy

What started as a hole in the ground on the University of Galway campus grounds is now a living field-scale laboratory for geothermal technology. Beyond heating the campus swimming pool, GEOFIT’s ground-source heat pump infrastructure will act as a pilot for other European countries, influencing policy and propelling Ireland’s decarbonisation journey forward as a whole.

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Creative Galway
10 January 2023
14  MINS

Earth Writings: A Toolkit for The Climate Crisis

Dr Nessa Cronin

What makes the knowledge systems of the arts and humanities uniquely valuable in addressing our current planetary predicament? Lecturer Dr Nessa Cronin brings together artists, academics, scientists and community activists to explore this key question. Together with her collaborators, she has created a creative toolkit in Earth Writings—a critical and inquisitive lens through which to navigate the climate emergency—the impact of which is now reaching classrooms across numerous disciplines.

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21 July 2022
16  MINS

Finally, Ireland’s First Hydrogen Valley

Dr Rory Monaghan

Ireland’s offshore renewable electricity resource is at least five times greater than its demand. With green hydrogen, we can indirectly use that electricity to power our trucks, buses, factories, data centres, planes and ships, explains Dr Rory Monaghan, one of the partners responsible for Ireland’s first Hydrogen Valley – GH2. 

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Sustainability
21 July 2022
23  MINS

In Conversation With: Paul Fahy, Artistic Director, Galway International Arts Festival

Thousands of festival goers descend on Galway City for two weeks each year in July, for the Galway International Arts Festival (GIAF). The value that GIAF brings to the city and its surroundings is indisputable – attracting world-class acts to the West of Ireland, putting Galway on the global cultural map and increasing footfall to local businesses.

While sustainability has always been a goal for the festival (out of necessity as much as ethics), this year marks an important leap in its sustainability journey.

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Sustainability
20 July 2022
14  MINS

Mighty Microbes – Making Irish Agriculture More Sustainable

Prof Vincent O'Flaherty, Dr Anna Trego

As the world’s population grows, we face the challenge of producing more food while also reducing our impact on the environment. How do we increase production, reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and manage waste, all at once?

 

 

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20 July 2022
4  MINS

Connecting with Community for Sustainable Education 

Jamie Goggins, Magdalena Hajdukiewicz

Community-engaged learning with a focus on sustainability is central to the curriculum at NUI Galway’s Civil Engineering, Energy Systems Engineering and Project & Construction Management degrees. Prof Jamie Goggins and Dr Magdalena Hajdukiewicz discuss the impact on both society and the students who partake. 

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Sustainability
06 July 2022
5  MINS

University of Galway’s Sustainability Journey

Michelle O'Dowd Lohan, Sustainability Officer, University of Galway

In 2022, University of Galway was identified as Ireland’s number one university for Sustainable Development by the Time Higher Education’s Impact Rankings.

Below, Sustainability Officer Michelle O’Dowd Lohan recounts the University’s sustainability journey thus far, and its goals for the future.

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Sustainability
05 July 2022
14  MINS

Tackling Energy Consumption – We Have More Power than We Think

Prof Frances Fahy, Professor Frances Fahy

A recent study led by Prof Frances Fahy and Dr Gary Goggins shows evidence that people can significantly reduce energy use when given the tools to challenge their everyday practices.

If implemented at societal level, these savings could play a major role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and decarbonising the economy.

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Sustainability
01 July 2022
15  MINS

Transforming Waste into Energy

Prof Piet N. L. Lens

Imagine an economy in which domestic and industry waste can be used to create energy. In NUI Galway’s Ryan Institute, Prof Piet Lens and his team of microbiologists are investigating just that; using microbes to discover new ways to convert organic and inorganic waste into bioenergy.

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Sustainability
28 June 2022
15  MINS

Empowering Youth to Create Change

Elaine Nevin

ECO-UNESCO is an environmental education and youth organisation aimed at channeling the creativity of our youth into positive environmental change. NUI Galway Alum, Elaine Nevin, is ECO-UNESCO’s National Director. Here, she talks about her own journey into environmentalism and how young people today are demanding change.

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27 June 2022
10  MINS

Sustainability – A Student’s Perspective

Malena Thren In Conversation with, Tiffany Greenwaldt-Simon 

Since arriving at NUI Galway to study Environmental Science, Malena Thren has been determined to enact change.

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Sustainability
23 June 2022
16  MINS

The Power of ‘Enough’ – From efficiency to sufficiency

Prof Frances Fahy

What is the maximum level of consumption you need in order to live a good life?

While lacking the cool factor of ‘clean’ tech, questions like this one around habit and social expectations are just as crucial in encouraging a mass shift towards sustainability. Through extensive research and case studies, Prof Frances Fahy has learned that less is certainly more in the fight against the climate crisis.

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Sustainability
21 June 2022
24  MINS

Global Sea Levels are Rising – Here’s what we can do

Dr Eugene Farrell, Lecturer & Researcher, Geography, NUI Galway

Despite predictions that large parts of Ireland’s coast will be submerged underwater by 2050, Ireland is still decades away from realising the potential of nature-based solutions. Here, geographer Dr Eugene Farrell explains how we can help face the challenges of climate change by restoring key coastal ecosystems.

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Sustainability
17 June 2022

Experience the Most Biodiverse Campus in Ireland by Sound

Home to a mixture of important habitats, the University of Galway campus has been recognised as the most biodiverse university campus in Ireland. Nuala Ní Chonghaile joins Caitriona Carlin from University of Galway’s Ryan Institute and School of Natural Sciences, on a walk through the University of Galway Biodiversity Trail.

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Sustainability
15 June 2022
13  MINS

‘Sustainability is a smart business strategy’

Joanne Sheahan

Joanne Sheahan, Senior Executive for Climate Action & Sustainability with Enterprise Ireland talks about sustainability and business in Ireland.

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Sustainability
08 June 2022
17  MINS

Beyond GDP – The value of marine ecosystem services

Prof Stephen Hynes

According to the most recent climate change report from the United Nations, sea level rise, ocean heat and acidification are massively impacting the ability of our oceans to deliver many of the critical ecosystem services that we depend on, yet take for granted. Governments and policy makers have generally failed to recognise the value of these marine ecosystem services in national income accounts and project appraisals; that situation is now changing.

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Sustainability
26 May 2022
15  MINS

From the Ground Up – Irish peatlands communities reducing CO2 emissions

Professor Christine Domegan

As the world strives to reduce carbon emissions, peatlands have been dubbed the new “black gold,” storing over three times the carbon of all the forests in the world. As part of the EU LIFE Peatlands and People project, people who once dug out drains to dry up bogs for peat harvesting are now blocking those very drains as part of a large-scale rewetting process. What drives a cultural shift like this? According to Professor of Social Marketing Christine Domegan, we must match urgent calls to action with positive models for change and mutual community support.

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Sustainability
19 May 2022
25  MINS

Measuring Pollution in the Cleanest Air in Europe

Liz Coleman

Thanks to its unique location, research at Mace Head shows the extent to which the most remote areas in the world are affected by pollution.

Observing the rise of Greenhouse Gases, Liz Coleman and her fellow scientists find it increasingly important to communicate their findings to the public. In collaboration with artists Paula McCloskey and Sam Vardy, and science engagement & education expert, Mairéad Hurley, Stories of the Air/Spéirscéalta aims to do just that – driving collective action through storytelling.

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17 May 2022
7  MINS

ROPES: The Apiarist

R.J. Breathnach

Published annually by students of the MA in Literature and Publishing at NUI Galway, ROPES Literary Journal  has firmly established itself as part of the flourishing literary scene in Ireland. R. J. Breathnach’s poem, The Apiarist provoke readers to consider ourselves and our futures in relation to our threatened and fragile environments.

Originally published in Issue 30, and launched at the 2022 Cúirt International Festival of Literature.

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Sustainability
13 May 2022
13  MINS

In Conversation: Dr Matt Kennedy, Arup

Dr Matt Kennedy, A. Director of Carbon, Climate & Sustainability, Arup

Design engineering firm, Arup count buildings such as the Sydney Opera House and the Centre Pompidou among their innovative projects. As Associate Director of Carbon and Climate Change, Dr Matt Kennedy leads climate change services for Arup in infrastructure, buildings and cities. Across his 20 years of sustainability leadership spanning government, industry and academia, the NUI Galway alumnus has seen major changes in the way we think about climate change.

podcasts
04 February 2022

AI & Higher Education

Join Tom Felle and his guest Prof Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh, President of NUI Galway in this edition of the Cois Coiribe Podcast – a series that explores major societal issues and the role that NUI Galway, and our global alumni network play in creating new knowledge, in research, in policy making and in problem solving. Here Prof Ó hÓgartaigh shares his views on the future of the university as concept, campus and community.

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21 December 2021
27  MINS

AI & Higher Education

Tom Felle

Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh, NUI Galway talks to Tom Felle, Associate Professor and Head, Discipline of Journalism and Communication, about the future of higher education and how new technologies and artificial intelligence will influence the direction of learning in the next 20 years.

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28 July 2021
18  MINS

Foundations for the Future – Towards a More Sustainable World

Dr Nessa Cronin,, Prof John Morrissey

In planning for a more sustainable world, a key learning from the current crisis is that we must increasingly imagine the world in an interconnected global sense.

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17 December 2020
16  MINS

Sustainability & Covid-19 – A Setback or the Cusp of Change?

NUI Galway’s Community and University Sustainability Partnership (CUSP)  is a multi-disciplinary, voluntary team of over 30 students and staff from across the campus and community, with the common aim of establishing the university as a leading institutional model for sustainability. CUSP has been at the heart of a vital pillar of the university’s strategy – a commitment to sustainability as one of four underpinning values for everything that the university does (alongside respect, openness and excellence).

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