Sustainability Success Stories
Learning from others’ experiences is a great way to start your sustainability journey. We are collecting stories from individuals and communities that will tell you what they did and how they went about it.
What is the difference between a ‘Case Study’ and a ‘Community Story’?
Well it’s really a question of level of detail.
A ‘Community Story’ is a quick and simple telling of the bare details of a communtiy project – it includes key facts and ideas whio did what and how, and why it’s useful to know about. It also has contact details for how to get in touch with the people runing the project.
A Case Study is a deeper look into a community action or project. It comes with a five page PDF that looks at a whole range of ideas and actions in the project. Many of the case studies have podcast episodes alongside them.
Our latest Community Stories
Aran Islands DZ (Ceantar Dhícharbónú na hOileáin Árainn)
Galway County Council identified na hOileáin Árann as their decarbonization zone. It is made up by three islands at the mouth of Galway Bay, off the west coast of Ireland, with a total area around 46 km2. From west to east, the islands are Árainn (Inis Mór), which is the largest; Inis Meáin, the second largest; and Inis Oírr. There is a population of 1,347 (as of 2022) and the area is designated as an official Gaeltacht.
Abbeyleix Bog Project
A loal community saw that their bog was being harmed by commercial harvesting of peat for horticulture. They believed this was not in the best interests of local nature and biodiversity. They began a campaign that took eight years to protect the bog with the agreement of the owners. The active raised bog habitat increased by 1,130% from 2009 to 2020. They created a vital local amenityfor the community and its visitors.
Togher Community Garden
This garden has made a habitat for nature so that biodiversity has increased in this space so close to the city of Cork. But at the same time it is clear that Mandie, Marie, and everyone else in the project sees how important it is to include many people and groups. “It was a challenge at the start to convince people that the garden wasn’t going to be vandalised and that if it was, then we would just fix the issue not highlight it in the community not to be negative about any vandalism. It was important to include the kids and teenagers…”
The Lixnaw Bog Conservation Project
The Presentation Sisters of the South West Province who owned a 20 acre bog in Lixnaw allowed it to return to nature. They themselves took on the costs of rewilding. At the same time they made sure to talk to the local people who had access to the bog. Long absent species of bog plants and animals were given a chance to return to what became a wetter bog and therefore a healthier bog.
West Kerry Dairy Farmers Sustainable Energy Community
West Kerry Dairy Farmers set up a Sustainable Energy Community (SEC) in 2020 to cut electricity use and carbon emissions in the dairy sector in the area. Led by local farmer Dinny Galvin, supported by a small steering committee, Dingle Hub, and SEAI mentors, the group co-created an Energy Master Plan (EMP) with outside consultants. They went on to run a collective solar PV meitheal . The SEC combined a collective tender for solar, and farmer-to-farmer learning to move farms toward energy efficiency and visible climate action.
Swift Conservation: a once common bird being brought back
Swift Conservation Ireland is a volunteer led initiative working on the conservation of the swift in Ireland. The project began with Lynda Huxley. Her interest in swifts began while working at ATU Mayo campus in Castlebar, where there is an established colony of the birds. She began recording numbers and studying nest sites on campus in the summer months, and noticed that fewer birds returning each year. She decided to set up a nest box project to provide secure breeding sites to help conserve – and then grow – their numbers
Boomtreebees – from tiny creatures to a BIG result
Boomtreebees is a conservation and natural beekeeping project in Ireland which is all about protecting the native Irish honeybee (Apis mellifera mellifera). They make semi‑natural habitat (log hives) to serve as nesting sites, and do research and education to share what they have found out about how to help bring back the Irish honey bee in the wild. They have helped Irish bees make more than 200 wild bee hives.
Hinterland West – making links along the food chain
Hinterland (often called ‘Hinterland West Galway’) is a community-rooted project that wants on transform food systems—looking at food insecurity,and inequity. It also wants us to be more connected to the land, and be more sustainable. It brings together research, action, creativity and education to help make a fair and sustainable food future for all. Since it was founded, Hinterland has focussed on reconnecting people with food, farming, and each other. They do this through growing, sharing, learning and imagining.
Buaile Bó Ballyloughane – a natural solution
A beach in Galway City was the home of a family of Dexter cows in 2024, to graze the headland east of Ballyloughane beach for several months as part of a project led by Galway City Council, working with a local farmer. Local schools and community groups were invited to participate in a programme to share information about this native Irish breed, farming, and its relationship to Irish biodiversity.
OURganic Gardens – a smallholding with big lessons
OURganic Gardens is an outdoor teaching garden in northwest Donegal. They teach people how to grow food and work with nature, not against it. It’s a place where people can come together to learn, volunteer, and enjoy the outdoors through classes and garden tours. It helps other people and groups do similar gardens in their own place.
Bounce Back Recycling: a lesson from Ireland’s ‘original recyclers’
Bounce Back Recycling (BBR) is a Traveller-led social enterprise that breaks down mattresses and bulky furniture by hand so their materials can be reused or recycled instead of having to be landfilled or incinerated. It brings together environmental aims (shifting bulky waste into the circular economy) with social goals (training and employing people from the Traveller community).
Farming Rathcroghan Scheme – Sustainable Farming in an Archaeological Landscape
The Farming Rathcroghan EIP project gives advice and support to farmers in the local area on how to farm in an historically important landscape, to look after and improve the landscape, while protecting bio-diversity, carbon sequestration and improving water quality. This is important because farmers need to work with forms and rules while at the same time make a living.
Taplin’s Fields (Bridgefoot Street Park Community Garden) – from wasteland to garden
Named in honour of a local community activist Richard Talpin, Taplin’s Fields is a community garden in Bridgefoot Street Park in the heart of Dublin in The Liberties. It changed what was once a run-down, overgrown site into a shared green space where local people grow vegetables, fruit, wildflowers, and where they can also experiment in biodiversity.
Carrickmacross Toy Library
This is a volunteer-led, non-profit toy-lending service that is about reducing waste and over-consumption of toys by allowing people who mind and care for children to borrow toys instead of having to buy new ones. The toys are also carefully chosen to be as sustainable as possible and many are ‘pre-loved’
Pocket Forests – bringing nature into towns
Pocket Forests works on restoring biodiversity, soil health, and community connection by making small, dense plantings of native trees and shrubs in built up areas. They use the ideas from the Miyawaki or “Tiny Forest” approach. They also use permaculture to make richer and healthier soil that has become poor by being neglected. Since 2020, more than 100 pocket forests have been planted around Ireland.
Burrenbeo Trust
Set up as a charity in 2008, Burrenbeo Trust is a non-profit organisation that connects all of us to our places and our role in caring for them. Based in the Burren, Burrenbeo Trust works to raise awareness of the importance of the Burren, and to encourage local communities to act as carers of its priceless heritage. Building on lessons learned over the past twenty years, Burrenbeo also supports ‘place-based learning’ across Ireland as a way that communities can learn more about their place and their role in actively caring for it.
An Mheitheal Rothar – Galway’s Community Bike Workshop
An Meitheal Rothar is a not for profit Co-operative and Sustainable Business run by a team that creates positive change. It was born from the idea that people could come together in a group or a cooperative, to help each other as part of a community. An Meitheal Rothar fixes bikes, sells bikes, and teaches people how to repair bikes. It gives bikes for people in need, it asks for more walking and cycling in Galway City, helps us re-use and recycling things more – what is called the ‘circular economy’.
Sligo Children’s Community Garden
Born from a shared idea, SCCG was created to give a welcoming outdoor space where children and families can connect with nature. They can learn about sustainability, and bring about a sense of community. The garden is in the heart of Sligo, and it is a place where biodiversity does really well. The main idea of “grow your own” is taken on by everyone, and where people can improve their awareness of their environment.
Investigate our case studies
Just three of our latest Personal Stories
Jenni has reduced her flights footprint to using ferries and trains
I travel from Inis Mór, an island on the west coast of Ireland to Finland by ferries and trains. I live permanently in Inis Mór but I am originally from Finland. So I visit friends and family in Finland once a year. I plan to travel this way every time in both directions.
Aran Islands’ Energy Co-operative
A community owned energy cooperative representing the 3 Aran Islands. Lifetime membership is open to everyone who lives on the Islands for a fee of just €100. The cooperative is non-profit with all of the benefits going back into the community. The co-op shows how ordinary citizens can have big impacts on their community – but set things up right on a firm base.
We didn’t really need that second car
The benefits are both immediate, sustainable and you send a clear signal of sustainability, environmental consideration and an active lifestyle to your kids. They will then, hopefully, be more likely and more comfortable making these types of decisions into the future – which they will very likely be forced to do anyway in the coming years to mitigate climate change.