• Welcome to UCD's Sustainability Toolkit!

    Welcome to UCD’s Sustainability Toolkit!
    We’re so glad to have you here! 💚    ✨ 

    This whole project kicked off when Kendra, Laoise, and Riya pitched an idea to Dr Orla Kelly—what if we had a group that met once a month to chat about climate change and environmental issues?💡What started as a small idea quickly snowballed as we realised there’s so much UCD students might want to learn about climate change and sustainability. And that’s how the Sustainability Toolkit was born!🌱

    It all kicked off in April 2023 when we got funding from the HEA to start building the Toolkit. Our goal? To help UCD students understand climate change and sustainable living without feeling overwhelmed. We wanted to make a complicated topic more approachable and empower you all to get involved.

    In April 2024, Ellen, Kendra, Laoise, and Riya surveyed 323 UCD students across all 6 Colleges to find out how much they knew about climate change and what topics they were most interested in. After analysing the results, we identified four key areas that students wanted to learn more about:

    🦋Biodiversity 

    🌍Engagement 

    🥗Sustainable Food Choices

    👖Slow Fashion 

    These four themes became the foundation for the Toolkit, especially Part Two, which is all about climate action. Kendra and Laoise used Articulate to create both Part One (focused on understanding climate change) and Part Two (focused on what you can do to take action). After testing this version with students and staff, we got some great feedback and made tweaks. Fast forward to January 2025, and here we are with the version of the Toolkit you’re seeing today! 🎉

    This is just version one—we’re hoping it will grow and evolve over the years with input from all of you. In the meantime, we really hope it’s useful and that it gives you some inspiration and hope on your own sustainable journey. 🌟(You can edit or remove this text)

Available courses

UCD Sustainability Toolkit

This toolkit was created by students, for students, to break down sustainability in a way that's simple and easy to understand. Climate change is something that affects all of us—no matter what you're studying, where you're from, or what you do.  It’s here, and it’s impacting our world—but many of us aren’t sure what we can do about it. 

What is this space for?

The purpose of this toolkit is a starting point for what you need to learn about living more sustainably on and off campus. We hope it’ll inspire you to take small steps that make a big impact, and you can do it all at your own pace. Check out the two sections in Learning Materials to get started.

How to get started:
🌎 Part 1: Climate Change 101 → Watch short Youtube videos followed by a little quiz to brush up on your sustainability knowledge.
💪Part 2: What Can You Do? → Find tips and tricks to incorporate sustainability into your day-to-day life, this is a resource tool to help you get started!