TCD Environmental Society has appealed to students to join their campaign to retain College’s Green Flag, claiming that College is “in danger of losing the flag this year.”
The renewal of the flag was the subject of a meeting held by the society on their “Green Day,” which took place yesterday. During the meeting, representatives from the society explained that An Taisce, the body responsible for awarding the prestigious flag, has said that a 50% increase in student engagement in the environmental and sustainable actions and programmes on campus must be achieved in order to retain the Green Flag.
Aine O’Gorman, chair of the society, remarked: “We have to start showing that students are starting to get involved, basically that we care about the sustainability of our campus.” She appealed to the audience to contribute new and innovative ideas to help College keep its flag.
In order to save the Green Flag, a plan must be submitted to An Taisce by the end of November. At the meeting, the society outlined the targets they have reached so far and their goals for the future in nine areas of criteria, including sustainable transport, biodiversity and climate change.
Trinity first achieved the Green Flag status in April 2013 and was the first campus in a capital city to achieve this, which resulted in huge international interest and acclaim. According to O’Gorman: “It has huge prestige. We’ve had universities from Finland, universities from Hong Kong [and] Vietnam get in touch because of our Green Flag. If we lost it, it would be embarrassing for the campus with international PR and on a national scale.”
This meeting follows many recent initiatives run by the society in order to improve the environmental sustainability of campus, including the long running Green Week, which they have organised for the past 14 years.
