30 Education for Sustainable Development at SETU

Dr David Ryan outlined how SETU, Ireland’s newest university, is embedding sustainability across strategy, operations, and education. Established in 2022, SETU serves over 18,000 students across 11 campuses, with sustainability positioned as a core pillar of its inaugural strategic plan.

The university’s sustainability agenda is framed around four interlinked pillars: climate action, biodiversity and nature restoration, regional leadership in the green transition, and education for sustainable development (ESD). Key commitments include achieving net zero by 2040, developing nature-centred campuses, and ensuring every graduate is equipped with sustainability knowledge and competencies.

Dr Ryan emphasised that SETU’s 5,000 graduates each year represent its greatest impact on sustainable development, as they bring sustainability thinking into their professions and communities. To support this, SETU is aligning with the national ESD strategy while developing its own institutional framework that integrates ESD into teaching, learning, and staff development.

The approach is intentionally broad, spanning science, engineering, business, and the arts, and connecting formal curriculum with place-based initiatives such as the Living Lab at Carriganore. Dr Ryan stressed that SETU sees sustainability not as a series of projects but as a whole-institution culture, with ESD central to the student experience.

Embedding sustainability into leadership, governance, and curriculum, SETU is positioning itself as a regional driver of the green transition and as a model for systemic, university-wide approaches to ESD.

About the author

name: Dr David Ryan

institution: South East Technological University

Dr David Ryan is the Associate Vice President for Sustainability at South East Technological University.