UL Environmental Society Portfolio 2020 - 2021

PORTFOLIO 2020-21

Making Real Change on Campus

SOCIETY AIMS & OBJECTIVES This society was set up in January 2016 as a forum for students to have their voice heard in regards to Environmental issues, which are turned into real actions and solutions on campus. Our main objectives are the following: • To promote sustainability • To raise awareness of environmental issues • To organize environmentally themed events and excursions • To help improve the quality of life for all staff and students on campus • To help maintain the university’s Green Flag Our aim is not just to be one of the best University of Limerick societies, but to be a national exemplar environmental society. We aim to break the typical negative perception associated with Environmental Societies (e.g. boring, not fun, unrelatable, intense debates, protests etc.) and intend on being much more fun, welcoming, relevant and engaging toward our fellow students and the campus community.



A Message From on campus (and of course play fun Our President online games after each meeting!). The open and friendly atmosphere Hello everyone! Welcome to during each meeting is something this year’s edition of the UL I have not found among any other Environmental Society Portfolio, organisation and something I hope which showcases our projects from never changes. It was an honour the past year...and what a year it to be part of the society and a was! Many obstacles were thrown real privilege to be the president. I our way, from having to meet online hope you enjoy it as much as I did. for a full year, to internet connection issues, to the unfamiliar feeling of All the best uncertainty of when it would all be over. But, as is usually the case with Dylan Walshe the environmental society and it’s members, we pulled together and made the most out of the situation, even organising one of our most successful events to date, ‘The 12 Days Of Christmas’. Although this year was filled with challenges, it was also incredibly enjoyable to meet online with new and old friends, talk about environmental issues, and discuss what we can do



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Living with COVID 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 our college. 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 participated in the C&S Online Recruitment Drive Platform at the start of semester where a number of new society members joined.

Start Of Semester Online Recruitment Drive The group participated in the C&S Online Recruitment Drive Platform at the start of semester where a number of new society members joined.

Start Of Semester First Meeting Of The Semester We held our weekly meetings online every Monday evening at 7.30 pm via Microsoft Teams. As everyone was based at home and participating online, in an effort to cater to everyone’s interests, we chose a format of having a fun friendly catch up among everyone for the first few minutes of every meeting. We also encouraged everyone to have there cameras on if they were comfortable. We then discussed a number of sustainability related topics and project ideas. 1 hour into the meeting we would conclude our project discussions and then begin playing online games together for 30-60 mins for some optional fun!

Fun During Lockdown Fun Online Games After Meetings We had great fun this year playing online games post-meetings. Some of these games include ‘Among Us’ and ‘Broken Picture Phone’. Among Us is played between 4 and 10 players where everyone must work together to stay alive and do tasks. Broken Picture Phone is a game where you make a drawing that your friend has to caption without any clues or context. The next person has to draw that caption and so on. Like Chinese whispers! ‘Amoung Us’ ‘Broken Picture Phone’

Fun During Lockdown for Halloween. We came up with a fun pumpkin carving session Halloween where we caught up, had a Pumpkin Carving laugh and made something using our creativity. As our group was not able to run the usual in person workshops we came up with an idea of how we might all be able to do a hands on fun activity from home together

Campaigns ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’ was our main campaign of the year. It was an The 12 Days Of Online sustainability quiz with some Christmas very appealing prizes on offer to entice people to take part. The campaign and quiz aimed to educate the UL Community on a sustainable related topic, but also served to help improve our online reach and engagement. The campaign worked as follows: using informational posters we developed entirely ourselves, we posted on each of our social media accounts for the first 12 days of December, each poster with a different tip on waste and recycling. We chose the theme of waste as Christmas is a time of the year where there are huge amounts of waste generated from presents and wrapping paper etc. On the 12th day of our online event, participants could then take part in our online quiz to answer 12 questions related to

recycling/waste, the answers of which were found on the posters we had already posted in the few days prior. The development of this campaign was a huge joint effort by our members. Using Google Drive, we were able to design and develop the posters. Google Drive allowed us to see the progress being made in real-time. We designed 12 original posters which we then posted on our social media accounts per day. We coordinated UL Green Campus to help send out an email to all staff and students. We also coordinated Student Life to help promote our posts using their social media platforms. The 12 days of posters encouraged people to interact with us everyday and reminded them to come back on the last day for the quiz. Student Life social media also shared our event meaning past student graduates also got a chance to enter.

Plastic Bottle Collector on and also to reduce our carbon footprint from transporting the display outside the UL Library items. Three randomly chosen winners, who had to get all of As part of the process of the questions correct, were coordinating the campaign, then awarded: 1st winner - our group brainstormed ideas a refurbished iPad, 2nd and for a potential fantastic prize 3rd place each received an that would entice people to eco-hamper which included a want to take part in the quiz reusable cup, beeswax food on the last day. We came up wrap, toothpaste tablets, with a sustainable prize of a bamboo toothbrushes, a book refurbished iPad. All of our prizes on how to live plastic free, tote were eco-friendly/sustainable bag, and 2 x metal straws, items as this meant that not metal water bottle, and vegan only would people learn about chocolates. waste disposal/recycling but they could also see/be in with a chance of winning eco-friendly items which they could use as a substitute for non-eco-friendly items in their daily lives. The prizes were sent straight from the retailer to the prize winner with COVID safety in mind,



All of graphics we produced were developed with a Christmas theme, and we even updated our society logo to include a santa hat! The campaign was extremely successful. We managed to get 825 people to successfully answer questions about waste and recycling in the lead up to Christmas, and we had people interacting with our posts everyday. At the time our Instagram following increased by 110% (from 429 to 903), Facebook increased by 20% (from 611 to 732), and Twitter increased by 16% (from 316 to 366).

Later in the year we created a video which summarises this campaign as part of our submission into the ‘Best Event’ catogory at the UL C&S Awards. To watch this video scan the QR Code! Clip From Video Submission Best Event Submission



Images of Birdhouses erected around the UL campus!

Events UL C&S Awards 1stPlace Every year the UL Student a video for the online Hustings, Life Club and Society Team where all other societies get to holds The UL C&S Awards with vote who is the overall winner. various categories which can be We were absolutely thrilled when submitted under. We chose to we were announced online as submit our ‘12 Days of Christmas the winners in this category, Campaign’ under the category especially as it was our first time of Best Event. The first round of wining a UL C&S Award!! This the submission involved writing success could not have been a word doc to describe the event possible without the collective in detail. Fortunately we were 1 planning and hard work from of 3 societies shortlisted to make each of our society members. it through to the next stage. For To watch our video submission the next stage we had to prepare please scan our QR code bellow: Winner of Best Event

Events Event and Best Green Initiative Categories. Although we were National BICS unsuccessful at the awards Awards this time around, we were still delighted to have been shortlisted Our society was shortlisted to and to take part. represent UL in 2 categories at the online National BICS Awards 2021. The BICS Awards recognise the best clubs and societies around Ireland in various categories. Our society was shortlisted in the Best

Online Talks Chairman for Birdwatch Ireland for 3 years, Director of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Jim Wilson Group for 1 year, and has led expeditions Worldwide, in extreme landscapes such as In February 2021, a year into the pandemic, we the Arctic and Antarctic, as well as around had organised for a very special guest to join us to Ireland and Scotland. present a lecture titled Svalbard, land of the Polar Bear. Jim has over 40 years' experience studying Jim has worked with Exodus Travels and photographing all aspects of Ireland’s wildlife, (formally Zegrahm Expeditions), leading 15 years of broadcasting experience as a regular tours and lecturers in very extreme guest on RTÉ presenter Derek Mooney’s “Mooney climates, such as within the Arctic Circle, Goes Wild” on RTÉ Radio 1, and is an Author and which is what his presentation to us was Co-Author of several books on various aspects based on. In particular on a Small Norwegian of Irish natural history. He has been the National Island known as Svalbard, a place where

the northern lights are visible during winter us through some funny, and a little too close and where the summer brings the midnight a calls he has had with the Polar bears, where sun, with 24 hours of constant sunlight. With he got a little too close to a mother and her his great experience in photography, Jim cub, where he claims he ran so fast he “walked provided us with some stunning, gorgeous, on water”. and also shocking imagery of his time leading tours there. He showed us the beauty of the Jim gave us an awesome insight into a world land and the Polar Bear inhabitants, their most individuals will never get to experience power, size, and rituals. He also explained the and gave us some in-depth insight into the changes he has seen throughout the years first-hand experience. We are very thankful due to the effects of the climate breakdown, to Jim for giving us his time in presenting his from the melting of ice to plastic pollution lecture, and we are extremely excited for more seen on the shores of the island. He brought tales in the future. Pictured: J.P. McManus and Paul O’Connell





National Workshop colleges and organizations made presentations on their Green Campus environmental initiates and Network Meeting achievements. On the 2nd of March 2021, members of the society attended the Green Campus Network Meeting on Zoom. Different



Online Talks throughout different times of the year and swarming and apiary management. John McFadden John has many years of experience in beekeeping with Black Irish Bees and has Retired Traffic Garda Superintendent achieved qualifications in this area. turned Bee Keeper of approx. 600,000 Native Black Irish Bees out of Ballyshannon John politely took questions for the Co. Donegal, gave us a presentation at the second half of the lecture, and was able to end of March 2021 entitled ‘Overview of the provide many images and videos to help Honey Bee’. John gave us an insight into with his explanations, to help us further the species of honey bees in Ireland, what understand this line of work and what is bees forage for, the different bees in a hive involved in taking care of so many bees. and their roles, the population of a hive



Online Campaigns World Environmental Days A project that our Society worked on was researching and promoting existing World Environmental days, to be prepared to post on our social medias on those days to promote the event. Some of the international days included Global Recycling Day and National Wildlife Day. Working in together in groups we designed and created a number of different posters to help advertise each event.



Campaigns E.U. - Canada Trade Agreement (CETA). We were involved in getting the hadn’t done before but which was UL student body to come out and really good and shows we got make a statement to opposition of involved with the UL student body the E.U. - Canada trade agreement and with issues greater than just (CETA). The CETA is a trade a UL/on campus level. This had to agreement between the EU and be brought to a vote by UL student Canada. This was something we council.



Our Sponsors Life Services, Cuddy’s Quantity Surveyors, ETL Security Ltd, The Prior to the COVID Lockdown, Stables Club, and Don O’Malley we ran a very successful Consulting Engineers, totaling Sponsorship drive towards the €3,500. We have established a end of 2019. We sent email similar sponsorship relationship requests to dozens of local and with Signsplus who are donating national businesses asking 500 worth of materials/printing if they would be interested in costs. We have also created sponsoring our society and a very successful working projects we had 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

Proudly Sponsored by: Our Patrons: Our Friends:

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