The Sustainability Challenge

In 2021, the Irish government passed the new The National Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021 that has led to the development of legally binding sectoral carbon budgets that seek to implement a minimum 51% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Where are we starting from? Where do we need to get to? What are the current directions? What are we packing for the ‘Journey’? What else should we be packing?

Course Overview

The climate change and biodiversity emergency affects us all, but in order to address this challenge we must first understand it. We need to understand what impacts human activities are having on our environment, and how these impacts are pushing planetary boundaries significantly beyond safe limits.

We must be equipped with the knowledge of what sustainability is and inspired and empowered to take the actions necessary to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In this webinar, we will discuss what sustainability actually means and identify what the larger challenges are when it comes to sustainability. 

Trainer Profile

Samantha Fahy holds a primary Science degree from University of Galway (1991), a Master in Optoelectronics from Queen’s University Belfast (1992), a diploma in Management from Trinity College Dublin (1997) and an MBA from Dublin City University (2010).  Samantha started her career in plasma physics and has over twenty years of experience in the management and administration of high technology complex multi-stakeholder research projects. 

In 2012, Samantha was appointed to ‘Sustainability DCU’ and has led DCU in a series of initiatives internally and externally including the establishment of the DCU Sustainability Council and the Irish Universities Associations Sustainability Working Group.  Driving DCU’s first Climate Action Plan in 2021 and Climate Action Roadmap in 2023 to delivering numerous novel and innovative programmes across the institution Sam has gained DCU a top 20 position in the International UI Green Metrics rankings for the last six consecutive years and successfully gained and retained DCU’s Green Campus Status under the An Taisce/International Foundation for Environmental Education programme.