72 Co-creating a Sustainability Community of Practice

Dr Alison Farrell outlined the development of a new Sustainability Community of Practice (CoP) at Maynooth University, established to connect staff, students, researchers, and professional services engaged in sustainability-related work. The CoP is grounded in Wenger and Trayner’s conception of practice-based learning, bringing together individuals who share a common concern and wish to deepen their expertise through regular interaction. Although still in its early stages, the group has rapidly grown to include representatives from across seven faculties and more than 40 departments and units.

The CoP aims to address fragmentation by creating a shared space where diverse practices — from teaching innovations to campus operations and community partnerships — can be surfaced, exchanged, and strengthened. Dr Farrell described the tone of the emerging community as inclusive, bottom-up, collaborative, and consciously embracing the “messiness” inherent in interdisciplinary sustainability work. Early activity has focused on convening facilitators, surveying members to identify needs, meeting with senior university leadership, and hosting an inaugural gathering to refine the CoP’s identity, purpose, and naming.

Planned next steps include expanding student participation, connecting with external networks, curating a bank of open educational resources, and contributing to institutional policy and curriculum development. The CoP is closely aligned with Maynooth’s current work on an institutional Education Framework, where sustainability, social justice, and environmental justice are key pillars. Dr Farrell noted that the community intends to build actionable projects while providing a supportive space for colleagues at all levels of experience to share challenges, successes, and emerging practices. The initiative reflects an important step towards a more connected, coherent, and institutionally embedded approach to ESD at Maynooth.

About the author

name: Dr Alison Farrell

institution: Maynooth University

Dr Alison Farrell is a Teaching Development Officer and Co-Convener of the Maynooth University Sustainability Community of Practice at Maynooth University.