Our Plan
Sustainability is a central underpinning of our ambition as an institution.
Our Plan
UCD has launched its Breaking Boundaries Strategy to 2030. Driving sustainability is a cross-cutting theme throughout the strategy which states that UCD is Ireland’s global university, an inclusive community and a driver of positive action for sustainability, and these attributes will be evident across our actions.
The strategy commits UCD to being a thought and action leader of transformational change for sustainability, and this will be as evident on our campuses as it is in our education and our research and innovation.
Key commitments include being a net zero organisation by 2040, contributing to conserving and restoring biodiversity and working to reduce the impacts of climate change for ourselves and others. UCD also undertakes to:
- develop and implement a specific action plan to reduce our carbon emissions by 51% from baseline by 2030 and place us on a path to net zero carbon by 2040.
- provide our students with structured opportunities to develop their knowledge and skills in areas such as AI and digital skills, innovation, sustainability, leadership, well-being, and languages.
- support existing large-scale cross-cutting research areas of excellence and impact, such as One Health and Sustainability ... for the benefit of society, economy and environment.
- cultivate our campuses as exemplars of, and laboratories for, sustainability, biodiversity and regeneration, advancing our education and research in doing so.
Drawing on extensive consultation with our community and stakeholders, a detailed UCD Sustainability Plan will be launched early in 2025 with specific objectives, enablers and initiatives to meet these and other commitments and fulfil UCD’s ambition to be a leader in knowledge generation, learning and action across the sustainability agenda, which includes environmental, economic, social, cultural and governance dimensions as enshrined in the UN Sustainable Development Goals.