| Overall Rating | Gold |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 83.66 |
| Liaison | Philippe Lemarchand |
| Submission Date | Dec. 2, 2024 |
Technological University Dublin
EN-3: Staff Engagement and Training
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
8.00 / 8.00 |
3.1 Staff sustainability network or engagement program
Narrative and/or website URL providing an overview of the sustainability-focused staff networks and engagement programs:
The Green Campus Committee and Programme encourages a partnership approach to environmental education, management, and action in third-level institutions. The programme primarily aims to ensure that members of a campus community can engage in a meaningful way to enhance sustainability on campus (Ref1). The SDG Literacy Community of Practice aims to empower faculty and students to co-create learning opportunities that will build knowledge of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and enable students to make meaningful connections between the SDGs and their focus of study (Ref2).
URL References:
Ref1: https://www.tudublin.ie/explore/about-the-university/sustainability/strategic-projects/green-campus/
Ref2: https://www.tudublin.ie/explore/about-the-university/sustainability/sustainability-education/sdgliteracy/
Does the institution have at least one staff network or engagement program focused on a topic other than sustainability that is advancing ecological integrity and/or racial equity and social justice?:
Narrative or website URL providing an overview of the staff networks and engagement programs that are advancing ecological integrity and/or racial equity and social justice:
Staff Network & Engagement Programs "advancing ecological integrity":
- TU Dublin School of Architecture works with all other Schools of Architecture in the Republic of Ireland formed a national strategic partnership to deliver Building Change: Designing a Resilient Future through Architecture Education (Ref1).
- TU Dublin Campus & Estates teams (Ref2) includes the "Environmental & Sustainability" group and the Campus Planning team (Ref3) who work with networks of national agencies such as the Grangegorman Development Agency (Ref4), Codema (Ref5), Dublin City Council (Ref6) and , National transport Authorities (Ref7), and other services to design, build, operate and maintain green buildings and campuses.
Staff Network & Engagement Programs "advancing social justice":
- TU Dublin organisation include the "Equality Diversity and Inclusion" team (Ref8) that works across the university to advance EDI and ensure we build an inclusive culture, promote equality, prevent discrimination and protect the human rights of staff, students, and everyone affected by our policies and plans. All EDI initiaties involve a network of staff and engagement with internal and external stakeholders (Ref9)
- Through the "Race Equity" programme (Ref10), TU Dublin is committed to building an intercultural university that is anti-racist and facilitates a true sense of belonging and empowerment for all members of the university community. TU Dublin signed the Higher Education Authority (HEA)’s Race Equality Anti-Racism Principles for Irish Higher Education Institutions (Ref11).
URL References:
Ref1: https://www.tudublin.ie/explore/about-the-university/sustainability/strategic-projects/action-research/building-change/
Ref2: https://www.tudublin.ie/connect/campus-estates/meet-the-team/
Ref3: https://www.tudublin.ie/explore/our-campuses/campus-development/campus-planning/
Ref4: https://ggda.ie/
Ref5: https://www.codema.ie/
Ref6: https://www.dublincity.ie/business/economic-development-and-enterprise/smart-cities
Ref7: https://www.nationaltransport.ie/
Ref8: https://www.tudublin.ie/explore/about-the-university/equality-and-diversity/
Ref9: https://www.tudublin.ie/explore/about-the-university/equality-and-diversity/edi-initiatives-in-tu-dublin/
Ref10: https://www.tudublin.ie/explore/about-the-university/equality-and-diversity/strategy-policies-action-plans/action-plans/race-equity/
Ref11: https://www.tudublin.ie/explore/news/archive-2023/tu-dublin-signs-anti-racism-principles-for-higher-education.html
The Reporting Tool will automatically calculate the following figure:
3.2 Sustainability-focused staff training
Description of and/or website URL for at least one of the institution’s sustainability-focused staff training opportunities:
The Sustainability Education team offer Continuing Professional Devlopment (CDP) on sustainability (Ref1). The team also runs the Sustainability Education Symposium with an emphasis on how the competences set out in the EU GreenComp framework can be integrated into Teaching-Learning-Assessment (TLA) design, the symposium is an opportunity for educators from across the University to hear from colleagues who will share teaching, learning and assessment practices which support the development of sustainability-focused global citizens (Ref2).
URL References:
Ref1: https://www.tudublin.ie/explore/about-the-university/sustainability/sustainability-education/professional-development/
Ref2: https://www.tudublin.ie/explore/about-the-university/sustainability/about/news-and-events/sustainability-education-symposium.php
The Reporting Tool will automatically calculate the following figure:
3.3 Percentage of employees that participate in sustainability activities
Percentage of employees that participate in sustainability activities:
Approach used to determine the percentage of employees that participate in the institution’s sustainability activities:
Narrative outlining how employee participation in the institution’s sustainability activities was determined:
TU Dublin typically carry out a large scale sustainability activity every year. As show in in TU Dublin Annual report 2022 (Ref1), Walk21 was a major programme conisting of 150 events which resulted in a single event in the participation of 60 interdisciplinary delegate and >1000 delegates globally. Over the 150 events thousands of staff and students were engage. In addition to events, TU Dublin travel survey assessing sustainable commute was conducted and 1162 TU Dublin staff responded (Ref2). In 2023, the analysis of the survey was fedback to 410 staff (Ref3). Also in the 2023 to May 2024 period, 1186 distinct staff went through the Embedding Sustainability Workshops. About 889 participated in 2023 and 297 up to May 2024 while more workshops were carried on after that. Between Walk21 and the Survey one estimates the participation of ~2000 TU Dublin staff over a head count of 2897 therefore leading to a "Direct tracking of participation" of about 69%.
Looking at the travel survey feedback and the participants of the Embedding Sustainability Workshops in 2023 events, one can already count about 889+410=1299 staff. A very large number of events are conducted per year (Ref4). To estimate the percentage of TU Dublin staff participation to sustainability activities we have also made calculation using the "Conservative estimate based on mixed/limited data sources" method. In this case we have first retrieved the list of member of 8 out of 16 sustainability groups. The sum of participants (including repeating participants) is 595. Of those there are 449 individuals/unique participants - that means 25% of participants repeat across groups. From the number of staff we reported per event we therefore considered that 25% of those would repeat in other events - meaning, in an event of 100 people, we consider only 75 staff to be unique and contribute to the total value. To the sum of staff registered on various events we then added the number of unique members in groups and also considered 25% overlap between members of group and participants of events. We extracted the number of staff that participated to 5 large events in 2023 (including those mentioned above) out of 50 to 75 events. The "Conservative estimate based on mixed/limited data sources" ended up to 1724 TU Dublin staff out of 2975, i.e. 58% participation. The same was done for events in 2024, which resulted in 1574 TU Dublin staff representing ~55% participation up to October 2024. Comparing with the "Direct tracking of participation" ocalculation method of 2022 which yielded 69% participation, one can easily conceive that an addition 10% participation would be achieved from counting staff participation in smaller events in 2023 and 2024.
In conclusion, we are confident the participation rate is between 50% and 100%.
URL References:
Ref1: https://www.tudublin.ie/media/website/explore/foi/documents/TU-Dublin-Annual-Report-2022.pdf
Ref2: https://www.tudublin.ie/media/website/explore/about-the-university/sustainability/documents/TU-Dublin-Travel-Survey-2022.pdf
Ref3: https://www.tudublin.ie/explore/about-the-university/sustainability/about/news-and-events/tu-dublin-smarter-travel-survey-2022-results-.php
Ref4: https://www.tudublin.ie/explore/about-the-university/sustainability/about/news-and-events/
The Reporting Tool will automatically calculate the following figure:
Optional documentation
Additional documentation for this credit:
The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.