Ollscoil na Gaillimhe - University of Galway
EN-3: Student Life

Three examples of active groups are:
1) Environmental Society

The Environmental Society primarily acts to promote a more sustainable way of life, both on campus in University of Galway and locally. We also aim to promote and engage in local action as well as collaboration with Irish and global organisations that fall under the themes of sustainability, development, climate change agriculture and food security. The Environmental Society concerns itself with awareness raising and action around issues pertaining to Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security. The society is closely linked with the CCAFS research platform, which sees scientist, professionals, policy makers, and communities working in concert to adapt to climate change.

https://socs.universityofgalway.ie/societies/ccafs 

2) Energy Society

The goal of the Energy Society is to use fact-based discussion & open collaboration to develop the understanding & awareness of energy production, consumption & its impacts. The society will host talks related to all aspects of energy, whether technological, economic or social. There will also be a discussion where members can chat about energy research going on in the univsersity, further afield or just about energy in general. These are for everyone who is interested so please feel free to contact us with any suggestions for speakers and/or topics.

https://socs.universityofgalway.ie/societies/energy 

3) Young Greens Society
The Young Greens strive to make politics relevant to young people, offering a forum to discuss sustainability policy.

https://socs.universityofgalway.ie/societies/younggreens 

Furthermore, the CUSP team is a multi-disciplinary, voluntary team of over 30 students and staff from across the campus and community partners all working together with the common aim of establishing the university as a leading institutional model for sustainability. The CUSP team operates through a multidisciplinary board - the CUSP General Board. All CUSP General Board members align to a sustainability working group. CUSP includes student representatives such as the Student Union's Environmental Awareness and Sustainability Officer.

Organic Garden
The Organic Gardening Society was established in 2010 with the aim of developing a space to grow organic fruit and vegetables on campus. A new, larger organic garden was established in 23/24 behind the Arts Science Building. Members of the society learn to grow their own fruit and vegetables in a sustainable and organic manner. They welcome members of the wider public to participate in the garden as well. Their community of gardeners get the chance to meet like-minded people, enjoy the mental and physical benefits of working in an outdoor space and, of course, enjoy the vegetable-shaped benefits of their labour. This is the first Organic Garden to be set up in an Irish University Campus.

https://www.universityofgalway.ie/sustainability/studentsresources/studentgroupssocieties/ 

Enactus Society
Enactus  is a group of students from a wide variety of disciplines of study, possessing an entrepreneurial spirit and passion for innovation who, alongside the assistance and guidance of our Business and Faculty Advisory Board, develop sustainable projects within the community with the primary aim of benefitting society. There are eight groups nationwide, making up the Enactus Ireland competition, Enactus University of Galway being one and the other seven groups are made up of third level institutions across Ireland.

https://socs.universityofgalway.ie/societies/enactus

An Meitheal Rothar is a bicycle cooperative based in University of Galway formed by students who repair and sell bicycles. They also provide free, and paid for, training on bike maintenance. They also advocate policy makers and Galway City Council for bike friendly planning, policy and infrastructure.

https://bikeworkshops.ie 

IdeasLab

IdeasLab is an open collaborative environment for our campus community to explore and accelerate ideas.  At the heart of innovation, we enhance our entrepreneurial ecosystem in partnership with our community. The IdeasLab runs four main programmes, each of which includes a sustainability dimension and supports students to devlop socially, environmentally and fiscally responsible investment and financial skills:

The enterprise challenge brings together multidisciplinary student teams to solve enterprise challenges

Start100 is a 6 week programme for students who want to develop an early stage business idea

CreateHER is a programme for female students to develop skills and ideas to create new businesses

Internship Programme: Work with other students and IdeasLab staff on projects that support out campus activities

Student Environmental Summit

In September 2023, the Environmental and Sustainability Officer of University of Galway's SU organised a climate summit in September with the SU's Climate Crew. The summit gathered a diverse range of lecturers and students together to talk about different topics such as eco anxiety, the climate ambassador programme and fracking. The event formed part of University of Galway SDG Week 2023: https://www.universityofgalway.ie/sdgweek

https://www.universityofgalway.ie/sustainability/studentsresources/studentsunionsustainability/

Imagining the Environment talk

For Culture Night and SDG Week, University of Galway held a talk and art exhibition exploring the connection between the imagination and the environment through a rarely-seen piece from the University art collection. 

https://culturenight.ie/event/imagining-the-environment-envisioning-ourselves-talks-workshops-and-late-opening-at-university-of-galway/

Climate on Culture conference

Also during SDG Week 2024, University of Galway and the Idaho Museum of International Diaspora co-hosted a conference on culture and climate change: https://www.idahomid.org/2024conference-ireland/2024conferenceschedule 

The University of Galway is a Leave No Trace Ireland member and implements the Leave No Trace Principles on its campus. It is further working on becoming an accredited training centre, in collaboration with
Leave No Trace Ireland, to provide quality tuition in Leave No Trace Principles.

The University of Galway Biodiversity Trail is campus trail is designed to guide you through our natural habitats, which are often also used for teaching and research. 

https://www.universityofgalway.ie/biodiversitytrail/

The library has a dedicated space provided and hosts workshops demonstrating sustainable life skills. The space is called the Maker Space. This includes a reuse workshop on laptops and electronics and a 3D printing workshop. Both were designed for students and staff and demonstrate the skills and materials critical in reuse. https://library.universityofgalway.ie/studying/makerspace/

An Meitheal Rothar are a bicycle cooperative on campus and they host workshops to show students and staff how to maintain their bikes, these are inclusive and are both free and paid for. https://bikeworkshops.ie/diy-bike-workshop/