Embedding Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Trinity Education

The Embedding ESD in Trinity Education project is an institution-wide initiative designed to meet Trinity’s strategic objective to empower “all Trinity staff and students… to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to act as agents of change, individually and collectively, in working towards sustainable development within planetary boundaries.”

The project aims to re-orient all Trinity curricula towards ensuring the development of key competencies for sustainability, using discipline-specific and interdisciplinary approaches. Embedding ESD within Trinity involves not only teaching about sustainability but also using pedagogical approaches to support development of key competencies for sustainability, with a particular focus on transformative learning.

Trinity’s SATLE-funded interdisciplinary ESD team is implementing a structured ESD work programme. This is a broad curriculum renewal initiative emphasising collaboration, peer learning, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary teaching approaches. As such, the project aligns with SATLE priorities of academic integrity, digital transformation and interdisciplinary collaboration.

SATLE priority area: Educational for Sustainable Development

Context

Trinity College Dublin has 17000 students and 3000 staff located at its campuses and affiliated hospitals. Trinity’s previous Strategic Plan and its newly published Thrive (Strategic Plan 2025-2030) place sustainability centrally in all activities of the university. Trinity has committed to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and aligned its actions on sustainability with its commitments under the HEA Performance Agreement 2024-2028. Trinity’s Climate Action Roadmap 2024 states an ambition to embed environmental sustainability holistically across education, research, operations, and partnerships. Our Sustainability Strategy 2023-2030 sets out an educational vision where students develop knowledge, skills and attitudes to think, plan and act with responsibility and compassion for themselves, each other and the planet. The Sustainability Strategy further outlines clear objectives for education, and within this context the Embedding ESD in Trinity Education project has been designed. Trinity’s ESD Implementation Plan includes the development of appropriate pedagogical approaches; developing common interdisciplinary modules, which develop ESD competencies; mapping ESD provision across Trinity’s undergraduate and postgraduate curricula; integrating ESD within staff development offerings; promoting the use of Living Lab projects within the curriculum; and including sustainability as a career options theme.

Key stakeholders in this university-wide initiative include all students, academics, and professional staff. SATLE funding has enabled recruitment and creation of an interdisciplinary cross-functional ESD team. This team comprises four ESD Fellows, two Academic Developers, ESD Student Interns, and a Project Manager, bringing specialised knowledge and experience to the initiative. The ESD team reports to a Steering Group comprising the Academic Secretary, Vice President for Biodiversity and Climate Action and ESD Programme Director (Head of Academic Practice) who provide strategic oversight and direction.

Goals and Key Activities

Three key goals of this work, including key indicators and targets (Performance Objective 1), will be addressed in the remainder of this application:

• Undergraduate Education: Proportion (%) and number of undergraduate students registered for interdisciplinary taught module(s) that address ESD themes (i.e. biosphere, society and economy related SDGs) and develop key competences for sustainability progressing from a baseline of 2.3% in 2022/2023 to 16% (2,354) by 2027/2028.
• Mapping and embedding ESD in Undergraduate and Postgraduate Education: This originates in the commitment to an increased proportion (%) of postgraduate programmes with ESD embedded in at least one module targeting an increase of 20% by 2027/2028 on baseline to be established in 2025/2026.
• Professional Development and Curriculum Design: The number of teaching staff reporting increased awareness of ESD competences and pedagogies following training aiming for a cumulative target of 200 staff over 4 years to 2027/2028. Curriculum renewal is envisaged through discipline-specific and interdisciplinary approaches to support the development of key competencies for sustainability, as identified by UNESCO and the European Commission.

The goals above are focused on embedding education on sustainability and related topics into the curriculum, underpinned by pedagogies that promote the development of the key competencies required of graduates to take action for sustainable futures.

ESD initiatives additionally align with the SATLE themes of academic integrity and digital transformation by focusing on embedding opportunities for collaboration and peer learning in ESD, with a particular focus on transformative pedagogies, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches.

Challenges and Successes

Embedding ESD in all the educational activities of a university is an ambitious project and some anticipated challenges have arisen.

Mapping ESD across undergraduate and postgraduate education has been a significant undertaking supported through the opportunity to explore the use of GenAI in analysis of programme documentation. This has been possible through the strong interdisciplinary focus of the project and scope to bring in relevant expertise from other teams in Trinity.

Professional development activities for staff have aimed in the first instance to raise awareness and develop a shared understanding of what ESD means at Trinity. This has been a necessary foundation to encourage staff to engage in further professional development for teaching and learning relating to ESD. We have aimed to identify where best practices already exist and build on these, providing opportunities for staff to meet and discuss ESD informally to identify their own good practices before embarking on curriculum enhancement.

Several initial phases of work have been successfully completed including: the development of an Education for Sustainable Development implementation plan 2023-2030; piloting and subsequent rollout of a common interdisciplinary module addressing ESD themes and developing identified key competencies for sustainability, which can be adapted for integration within all UG/PG curricula and within staff development programmes; completion of this module by 500 first year students 2024-25 with a further cohort of this size in 2025-26; development of taught modules within disciplines and a new cross-disciplinary elective module; continuing development of provision for postgraduate taught and research students; growing the suite of professional development opportunities for teaching staff; integration of ESD with the existing Special Certificate in Teaching, Learning and Assessment.

Strategic alignment with national policies and relevant SATLE priority area

Trinity’s approach to ESD is strongly aligned with institutional strategic objectives as well as national policy, focusing curriculum renewal on the development of key competencies for sustainability as identified by UNESCO and the European Commission. Through its emphasis on interdisciplinary and transformative pedagogies, Trinity’s ESD initiative reflects national priorities for equipping graduates with the critical skills, systems thinking, and anticipatory competencies that are essential for addressing complex sustainability challenges and supports the United Nation’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to achieve sustainable goals (SDGs) that help to create a better future for all.

Trinity’s collaborative approach to embedding ESD within Trinity curricula engages academic staff, students, and external stakeholders. This approach aligns with the National Strategy on Education for Sustainable Development in Ireland, ESD to 2030 (Government of Ireland, 2018), which emphasises the importance of building strategic partnerships and interdisciplinary collaboration. It states that collaboration defined as “international, inter-departmental and multi-stakeholder coordination, to facilitate information sharing, accountability and engagement on ESD (..) will be essential to embed and normalise ESD practice up to 2030” (p. 20). The national Framework is built around five priority action areas, derived from the UNESCO Framework for 2030 (UNESCO, 2019). These national priorities can be matched with Trinity’s ESD initiatives. National policy seeks to embed ESD in education and lifelong learning, reflected in our ESD Implementation Plan. The national Framework discusses offering learners opportunities to develop sustainability competencies and skills: these opportunities are core to our approach to ESD in undergraduate and postgraduate education. Capacity-building for educators is a further aim of national policy and is mirrored by Trinity’s focus on professional development for teaching staff in ESD. Transformative pedagogical approaches are part of our ESD Curriculum Design Framework, and will encourage and empower young people to be agents for change in sustainable development. This demonstrates the alignment of Trinity’s ESD initiatives with national efforts to promote sustainable development through education.

Furthermore, Trinity’s participation in initiatives like the LERU group report on ESD and the SOS Responsible Futures International Pilot Programme demonstrates alignment with broader sectoral efforts to integrate ESD into higher education across Ireland. By leveraging SATLE funding to build resources, professional development opportunities, and interdisciplinary curricula, Trinity contributes to the national goal of preparing graduates to address complex sustainability challenges and drive meaningful societal change.

Relevant policies and strategies cited here are:

• Trinity College Sustainability Strategy – https://www.tcd.ie/media/tcd/news-images/Trinity-Sustainability-Strategy-FINAL-Design.pdf
• Education for Sustainable Development Goals (UNESCO) – https://unesdoc.unesco.org/in/documentViewer.xhtml?v=2.1.196&id=p::usmarcdef_0000247444&file=/in/rest/annotationSVC/DownloadWatermarkedAttachment/attach_import_82603519-4d73-431c-9324-8e0dcc1b6b1e%3F_%3D247444eng.pdf&locale=en&multi=true&ark=/ark:/48223/pf0000247444/PDF/247444eng.pdf#815_18_Learning%20Objectives_int_En.indd%3A.121511%3A374
• GreenComp: The European Sustainability Competence Framework (European Commission) – https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/greencomp-european-sustainability-competence-framework_en
• ESD to 2030 – National Strategy on ESD – https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-education/publications/national-strategy-on-education-for-sustainable-development-in-ireland/

Innovation in specified SATLE priority area

Here, we describe three areas of substantive completed work demonstrating innovation and impact, showing both the inherent complexity of ESD and the necessity for a multidirectional approach to achieving change.

Mapping ESD in undergraduate and postgraduate education

The extent to which ESD is currently embedded in TCD undergraduate education is the focus of research co-designed by ESD Fellow Dr Cuisle Forde and a team of student interns using a survey to all Trinity students to capture their perspective on ESD in their curricula. Parallel research will corroborate survey results with those generated through AI leveraging course documentation, and a sub-set of results will be further corroborated by academic module coordinators ensuring rigour, and multiple stakeholder perspectives.

ESD has been mapped in postgraduate education by combining a customised Generative AI (GenAI) tool with an existing GenAI app, and comparing results with ‘manual’ mapping. Mapping uses a purpose-built set of criteria addressing not only the SDGs but also the UNESCO pedagogical approaches and competencies, combined with a scaling mechanism to judge the levels at which each component can be seen in the programme and modules. The mapping tools derived from this work will additionally be made available to the higher education sector.

Enacting Sustainable Development Module – transformative pedagogical innovation using interdisciplinary approaches

A key goal of the Trinity’s ESD initiative was to develop a “novice” interdisciplinary ESD module, initially targeted at undergraduate students. Objectives in taking this approach were to explore and develop innovative pedagogical approaches to teaching ESD; create a holistic learning experience connecting ESD challenges; provide a model and materials to support embedding ESD; and seed an institutional ESD community of practice.

More than 50 staff have completed this module, along with 500 undergraduate students in 2024-25, with a further 500 in 2025-26. A suite of open educational resources (OERs) arising from the module has been published to the Trinity ESD Resource Hub. Colleagues within and externally to Trinity can adopt/adapt elements within existing disciplinary or interdisciplinary modules to address ESD themes and develop key competencies for sustainability within a degree programme.

ESD Curriculum Design Framework

Building on the initiatives in curriculum mapping, and the design and implementation of the interdisciplinary Enacting ESD module, we have developed the Trinity ESD Curriculum Design Framework. The Framework encapsulates the SDGs using Rockström and Sukhdev’s (2017) “Wedding Cake” conceptualisation, the key pedagogical approaches informing our work, the UNESCO competencies, and appropriate teaching and learning activities to develop those competencies. The Framework consolidates the completed innovative ESD work at Trinity and underpins the next phases of curriculum change and academic professional development on ESD. Academics are empowered and supported to enact their own approaches to embedding ESD within their curricula. The Framework enables responsive design reflecting disciplinary nuances, and respecting the pedagogical autonomy of the academics, their disciplinary expertise and underlying teaching philosophy. Design of a new interdisciplinary elective module using the new Framework is underway, contributing to the goal of enabling all students to complete module(s) addressing ESD themes and competencies.

Outcomes

Impact

The Embedding ESD in Trinity Education initiative has delivered measurable benefits for students and staff, with impacts expected to grow exponentially over the short, medium and longer term. In summary:

• An Education for Sustainable Development Implementation Plan 2023-30 has been developed and embedded within Trinity’s institutional strategy and sustainability is central to the newly published Thrive Strategic Plan (2025). This has potential for replicability and wider sectoral impact by demonstrating a multi-faceted, comprehensive and innovative approach to ESD.
• Mapping Exercise: The design and implementation of methodologies for mapping ESD in undergraduate and postgraduate curricula at Trinity has delivered toolkits to support the mapping process. These will shortly be shared to allow wider sectoral impact and opportunities to learn about the most effective combination of approaches to this work. The mapping process is focused on the core objectives of enhancing existing best practices to enable all undergraduate and postgraduate students, regardless of degree programme, to complete taught modules within their discipline(s) that address ESD themes and develop key competencies for sustainability as part of their degrees.
• Enacting ESD Module: The “novice” interdisciplinary ESD module (5 ECTs) has been rolled out to 500+ first year students in 2024–25 with a similar number in 2025-26. More than 50+ staff members have completed this module since May 2024. This has had multiple impacts, with Trinity Business School adopting it as a mandatory module for first year undergraduates. Staff participants’ feedback indicates that many have been inspired to customise the transformative pedagogical approaches modelled in the module for use within their own disciplines. An institutional ESD community of practice and knowledge network has been seeded.
• Trinity ESD Curriculum Design Framework: The ESD Curriculum Design Framework is now being disseminated and used, but its development phases have had impact in developing a shared understanding of what ESD means at Trintiy, stakeholder engagement, embedding ESD goals within institutional strategy, and establishing the groundwork for long-term ESD implementation. As a result of the work completed thus far, we have a shared understanding of ESD among stakeholders, including senior management, University Council, and the broader college community. There is stakeholder engagement, with the development of a strong network of ESD “Champions” among staff and students, fostering collaboration and support across the University. This ESD “infrastructure”, and the work on curriculum mapping as well as the Enacting ESD module, have been the foundations for the Trinity ESD Curriculum Framework now being introduced and adopted.

Overall Impact to Date

The combined effects of the completed initiatives described here have been to increase awareness of ESD among key stakeholders and to develop a collaborative network of ESD advocates amongst staff and students. We now have an infrastructure to systematically progress the broader ESD strategic objectives.

Planned Longer Term Impact

We are now building on the impacts achieved to date towards further enhancing curricula using the Trinity ESD Curriculum Framework, and aligning teaching practices further with ESD principles. Graduates will be capable of contributing to meaningful progress in sustainability, supporting the UN SDGs. Key targets include:

1. Empowered Graduates: Equip approximately 6,900 graduates annually with the skills and knowledge necessary to understand and contribute effectively to sustainable development.

1. Innovative Teaching Practices: Alignment of curricula with sustainable development principles, fostering systems thinking and anticipatory competencies among both staff and students.

1. Global Sustainability Goals: Support the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by preparing graduates to address complex sustainability challenges and contribute to a more sustainable future for all.

Conclusion

The ESD programme benefits from contributions by academic staff and students across Trinity’s three faculties, working closely with the Sustainability Office and the Centre for Academic Practice. This joint effort integrates diverse perspectives and expertise, ensuring that ESD initiatives are seamlessly embedded into existing university structures for maximum impact.

Teaching staff now have access to a growing suite of professional development opportunities to support the adoption and use of the Trinity ESD Curriculum Design Framework. They benefit from a growing library of online ESD resources, including newly published OERs arising from the Enacting ESD module. The combined offerings support the integration of both discipline-specific and interdisciplinary approaches to ESD. Students benefit from the integration of ESD into their curricula, equipping them with critical competencies in sustainability, enhancing their career opportunities, and preparing them to address global challenges. Trinity’s ESD initiatives, supported by SATLE, are already driving significant benefits for staff and students and setting the foundation for transformative, long-term change.

Trinity’s ESD programme has also contributed to the European LERU group report on ESD, partnered with national HEI networks on ESD initiatives, and collaborated with the SOS Responsible Futures International Pilot Programme, amplifying its impact beyond

By embedding sustainability within teaching, learning, and institutional structures, Trinity is equipping its community to address global challenges and contribute meaningfully to a sustainable future.