RTE Interview John Cooke We had John Cooke from RTE come to visit us to interview some or members about the National Budget for 2019, and get some students reactions to it on climate action, youth issues etc. John is a reporter for RTE radio 1 who hosts the drive time segment of their show.
Guest Speaker Sinead McDonnell Sinead McDonnell is the EnvironmentalCoordinatorfromthe Limerick Council who came to give a speech on behalf of the charity GOAL at UL. Sinead spoke about Climate change on a microscale and the hurdles that she has to go through when interacting with the other members of the council. It was a very informative talk and it was nice to hear from someone who is positive and cares about the environment.
Waste UL Happy Market Another hugely popular event was the UL Happy Market. This market was set up towards the end of both semesters to help students leaving campus to sell unwanted clothes, books and other items, extending their life instead of throwing them away. This event also helped to raise funds for the society.
Smarter Travel Marchathon 2020 The Marchathon Step Challenge occurs annually across the country for the month of March and is run by the National Transport Authority. This challenge aims to encourage all staff and students to get out and get walking for health, for the commute and for fun. In collaboration with the UL Smarter Travel team, we helped to promote and encourage participation by setting up various sign-up stalls across campus in the lead up to the challange. Along with the SU team advertising the poster on their social media and putting them up around campus this helped to increase campus awareness about the campaign.
Media Social Media Presence Our society runs a comprehensive social media campaign over various platforms. We use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp and we also regularly post on the UL Green Campus blog. Twitter Facebook Green Campus Blog
Fundraising Bake Sale The first bake sale of this academic year took place on the 1st of October 2019. Our members prepared various delicious treats. We also offered vegan brownies to cater to people who do not eat animal products or are allergic to them. They were greatly appreciated and were sold out first. We offered treats from 9am to 6pm and made 100 Euro.
Social Conference trip to UCC On the 1st of February, two members of the environmental society traveled to Cork to attend the Climate Conference that had been organized by UCC’s environmental society. There were talks surrounding the need to protect the oceanic eco-system and need to reduce the use of single-use plastics; there were speakers who addressed the benefits of adopting a plant-based diet.
Social Society Nights Out! As well as putting in a lot of hard work throughout the year we certainly make sure to have plenty of fun with our society. We know how easy it is to get lost in your work so we frequently try to organize nights out such as Scholars, Stables and Escape Rooms. Society Meal Out Bowling!
Renewable Fashion Repair Cafe The first repair café of the academic year took place on the 15th of October 2019. People brought their clothes that needed mending and we repaired it. A lot of clothing got saved from being thrownaway.TheCraftSociety gave us a lend of their sewing machine as well as sewing thread and other equipment. The event sparked a lot of interest in sustainable fashion.
Awards submission for the National Smarter Travel Student Awards. Smarter Travel This poster displays the amount Student Awards of CO2 produced by each mode of transport. Unfortunately One of our society members, due to the pandemic no results Ellen Hogan, developed a poster were posted for these Awards.
Society Collaboration Astro Debate The UL Environmental Society and the Astronomy society collaborated to host a sustainability themed debate entitled ‘Should We Stay on Earth’. The Environmental Society debated that we should stay on earth. The people who represented Environmental society was Christopher Asmus, Dean Brennan and Devika Sukumaran. The Astronomy Society debaters were; Barthélemy Drabczuk and Tanner Garity. The debate was moderated by UL Astronomy club President Stephen Mullins.
Waste & Recycling Waste Segregation Campaign During the Spring of 2020 some of themembersoftheenvironmental society helped with the roll out of up-cycled waste segregation bins across 11 buildings on campus. The aim of the project is to have a consistent type of bins that promote segregation across campus. The bins provided clearly distinguishable General Waste, Recycling and Composting bins.
Awards bronze award, 40 for a silver and 60 for a gold. Time with our society President’s counts towards the PVA. Last year Volunteer Awards we had a number of members who became PVA recipients. The President’s Volunteer Award (PVA) acknowledges and supports the contribution that students at the University of Limerick make to their communities. 20 hours of community work achieves a
Arrival of COVID-19 Starting Online Meetings Following the National Lockdown due to COVID in March 2020, our societies’ meetings had to transfer entirely online. Initially we started with WhatsApp Video Calls and shortly after we moved onto Microsoft Teams which was supported by UL. While we were all based from home in different parts of the world (including Germany and America) we still aimed to make positive environmental change under the circumstances.
Living with COVID Preparing For The Next Semester To prepare and make plans for the next semester our society members met up online over the summer. These meetings focused on how we would aim to develop and run projects online for the first time as a group. The group would plan to participate in the C&S Online Recruitment Drive Platform at the start of semester where a number of new society members joined.
Awards 1st Place BICS Our society was shortlisted to categories we were shortlisted represent UL in two categories for were ‘Best Green Initiative’ in the National BICS Awards for our Green Guide project, and 2020. The National BICS Awards ‘Best Promotional Video’ for our recgonise the best clubs and Fridays For Future campaign. societies around Ireland. Due to the pandemic these awards Our society ended up winning were held online. The two in the ‘Best Promotional Video’ Category for our video ‘Do It For Your Kids’, which was part of our Fridays For Future campaign described previously in this portfolio. You can watch this video using the QR Code shown below!
Our Sponsors Surveyors, ETL Security Ltd, The Stables Club, and Don O’Malley We ran a very successful Consulting Engineers, totaling Sponsorship drive in October €3,500. We have established a 2019. We sent email requests similar sponsorship relationship to dozens of local and national with Signsplus who are donating businesses asking if they would 500 worth of materials/printing be interested in sponsoring our costs. We have also created society and projects we had a very successful working proposed. relationship with the UL Green Campus Committee who sponsor As part of the sponsorship some of our other printing costs. request to companies, we offered three different We are so very grateful to each sponsorship categories that of our sponsors for the kind interested bodies could support, who without their support us under,: “Friend” help many of our projects (€500), “Patron” (€1,000), and could not have been possible. “Corporate Sponsor” (€2,000). As a result, we were successful in getting financial sponsorship from five businesses; Student Life Services, Cuddy’s Quantity
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