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Putting nature at the heart of everything we do Meet Jane Stout, Trinity’s new Vice President for Biodiversity and Climate Action, who tells us about her team, and her plans for the year ahead Among the most significant innovations of Linda Doyle, on taking over as Provost of Trinity in August 2021, was the creation of a new senior role: Vice President for Biodiversity and Climate Action. The goal to achieve ‘a sustainable and healthy planet’ is embedded in the college Strategic Plan 2020-2025 and is being enacted in various ways, most visibly in the rewilding of campus, but the creation of the new role is a real statement of intent of Trinity’s seriousness about taking concrete action to address the crises in biodiversity and climate. Jane Hackett Martina Mullin
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Jane Stout, Professor in Botany, has been appointed Trinity’s first Vice President for Biodiversity and Climate Action. An ecologist who has focused on biodiversity, and the contributions it makes to human societies and economies, since her undergraduate degree in Environmental Science, Jane has led numerous research projects and has direct experience in making positive changes for biodiversity across Ireland, primarily through her role in co-founding the highly successful All-Ireland Pollinator Plan. She helped instigate the Business for Biodiversity Platform for Ireland, which provides businesses with support to tackle biodiversity loss in their own operations. With her colleague Dr Aoibheann Gaughran, Stout also led the biodiversity audit at Áras an Uachtaráin for President Higgins, which resulted in significant changes in management across the grounds of the Presidential home. Aoibheann was a Research Fellow in the School of Natural Sciences, who pioneered a study of badgers which has greatly advanced understanding the spread, and ultimately the control, of tuberculosis in the species. Sadly Aoibheann passed away in December 2021 after a sudden illness; she is much missed by the School and the wider Trinity and research community. In addition to the Vice President role, Trinity has taken on a full- time Sustainability Manager, Jane Hackett. A Trinity alumnus with a BA in Geography and Sociology, Jane has worked on sustainability issues for over 20 years and has a broad range of experience encompassing behaviour change, climate action, environmental education and programme management. In her previous role with An Taisce, she developed and managed a number of highly successful national-level programmes such as the Green-Schools Travel, Safe Routes to School and Climate Ambassador programmes. Jane started in Trinity in July 2022 and we’re delighted to welcome her to the team. The already successful Healthy Trinity initiative will now be aligned with biodiversity and climate action, linking planetary and human health. This is important because our own health is so intricately connected with healthy ecosystems – indeed, the COVID-19 pandemic was exacerbated by biodiversity loss and environmental degradation. Together, Jane Stout and Jane Hackett, along with Healthy Trinity Operational Lead Martina Mullin and her partners, will lead and manage Trinity’s action on climate change mitigation and adaptation, and promoting biodiversity recovery, our health and well being. Jane explains some more about her plans: ‘We could set ambitious targets like net zero carbon and no net loss of biodiversity, which are themselves hard enough to measure and to achieve, but we need to go further than that: we need to bend the curve on biodiversity loss and get to biodiversity net gain, we need to greatly reduce carbon emissions, not offset the problem elsewhere. And we need to be genuine, not superficial. It’s not about league tables and looking good, we have a moral obligation to make changes in our operations, day to day, on campus (and there are considerable challenges and opportunities here), and to show leadership in how to act. And where we really have huge potential as a university is through education and research – this is where we should take responsibility and use our knowledge and influence to make big, long-lasting impacts. Our research already informs policy and practice – we need to elevate and coordinate our activities to make sure we make the best of our world-class researchers. Students need educating for the future they are going to experience, across all disciplines, from lawyers and doctors, to social workers and economists – all careers are going to require appreciation of the wicked problem that is sustainability, and we should empower students to take on this challenge. Thus as a university, we need to put nature at the heart of everything that we do, because it affects every aspect of our lives. We need to weave concern for biodiversity loss and climate change into our identities and embrace a new culture and future of healthy people, healthy planet.’
