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Building eco awareness and looking at green alternatives

Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology and Athlone IT focus efforts on reducing environmental impact

The first step to reducing our environmental impact is greater awareness. This was the focus of a Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology (IADT) Public Design Lab (PDL) research project carried out by Hilary Goudie. The project investigated the effect of persuasive technology in the design of a mobile eco-feedback app that aims to help people increase their awareness and habits around plastic consumption and recycling.

The PDL was founded with the express purpose of utilising the skill sets of design and the creative practices active in IADT to engage in community projects locally and beyond to create positive social impact. Significant relationships and collaborations have been cultivated with companies including IBM, Deloitte, Logitech, Accenture, Fjord, Allianz, Musgrave, and public-sector organisations such as Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.

Food loss and food waste awareness is the focus of the Efficient Food Project, a collaboration between Dr Jennifer Attard of the Circular Bioeconomy Research Group at Shannon Applied Biotechnology Centre at the Institute of Technology Tralee and Dr Rosanna Kleemann and Dr Tracey O’Connor at University College Dublin.

The project is creating a first-of-its-kind, in-depth database of current food loss and waste from primary production including the reason for the losses. This includes everything up to the farm gate, before the product leaves the farm. The database should be complete in March 2021 and the team will use it to deliver recommendations to help Ireland reduce food loss and waste from primary production.

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The Interreg Northwest Europe farm project, part-funded by ReNu2Farm, is a European partnership of 10 higher-education organisations, research institutes and industries which addresses the global threat posed to industrial agriculture by the depletion of the essential soil nutrients nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

In Ireland, ReNu2Farm is spearheaded by a collaboration between the Institute of Technology Carlow, the University of Limerick, Cork Institute of Technology and Teagasc.

This unique project is mapping regions in northwest Europe which have nutrient shortages and surpluses with the aim of exchanging recycled nutrients across the regions and fostering producer-consumer partnerships. Research at IT Carlow aims to ensure the ecological compatibility and safety of recycled fertilisers.

Athlone Institute of Technology (AIT) has teamed up with an Athlone-based fine chemical company to investigate greener and more economical alternatives to chemical production methods. Arran Chemical Company, which is a member of the Almac Group, is supporting the four-year industrial PhD project.

The project will attempt to uncover “greener alternatives to chemical production methods for the synthesis of oxidative products”. The project is expected to produce technology of interest to the pharmaceutical and fine chemical industries. “We are delighted to be supporting AIT once again and look forward to working together over the next four years,” Prof Tom Moody of Almac Group said. “Almac will supply the college with all the necessary biocatalysts needed for this investigation and, of course, guidance and expertise from our specialists in this field.”