Have you ever wondered about the impact of your daily shopping habits on the environment? From our food choice, personal care, household items and fashion picks we have so many options available at our finger tips. But what makes our shopping lists more sustainable?
Join our panel discussion in University College Dublin to find out more. This promises to be a thought provoking evening starting with a welcome reception and a Vision Ireland Vintage Clothing pop up at 7pm.
At 8pm we will be joined by Pat Kane, Aifric O'Sullivan, Miriam Keegan and Ciara Coleman for a panel discussion on their tips and reflection on sustainable shopping for fashion, food and household items.
Optional Workshop: There is a sewing workshop with Miriam Keegan (sew_sustainable_) from 7pm to 8pm, this is an add on event when booking with only 12 slots available, and a small fee to cover materials.
Location and time: 19:00 – 21:00, in the Moore Auditorium of the O'Brien Centre for Science, University college Dublin.
Tickets are free with an add on fee for the sewing workshop. Registration via Eventbrite.
Pat Kane is a sustainability advocate and a strategist. Pat is the founder and CEO of reuzi.ie, Ireland's one-stop shop for sustainably made, low-waste goods and an educational hub on all things sustainable living. Alongside this, she is a Partner and Sustainability Chief Officer of Pragmatica. Together with her team, Pat consults with businesses and organisations from small family businesses to large corporations, on how to up their sustainability credentials.
Miriam Keegan is an award-winning leading sustainable fashion educator, designer, business strategist, and advocate. Miriam has dedicated her career to the sustainability of the fashion industry and is now on a mission to teach the people of Ireland how to sew. Miriam is a Fulbright-EPA awardee and completed her Master of Science in Fashion and Apparel Studies with a Graduate Certificate in Social Responsibility and Sustainable Fashion Business at the University of Delaware, USA. Miriam has published research on the production and export strategies of apparel 'Made in Ireland'. In 2023, Miriam led the fashion brand Aoife Mc Namara to become the first fashion brand in Ireland to achieve BCorp certification, one of the most rigorous and respected sustainability certifications in the world. Miriam has just concluded her studies at UCD being awarded a Graduate Diploma in Carbon Footprinting and Life Cycle Analysis. Miriam has subsequently conducted if not one of the first ever life cycle assessments on an Irish-made apparel product, calculating the carbon footprint at all stages of its production. Currently working on human rights in the fashion industry with the Fair Labor Association, Miriam works with major fashion brands around the world to improve workers' rights in factories. Miriam's mission is to bring awareness, education and solutions for sustainability in fashion, whether it be for designers, businesses, consumers, or the education system through innovation, transparency and sewing. Miriam has a passion for sewing and has had the opportunity to tailor outfits for celebrities at the Oscars, the Met Gala Ball, and New York Fashion Week, including pieces for Vanessa Hudgens. Having once been a primary teacher, Miriam has also created the first-of-its-kind EPV teacher online summer course on sustainable fashion in the classroom, approved by the Department of Education.
Ciara Coleman from Vision Ireland- Ireland’s national sight loss agency, has a mission to transform the lives of people who are blind or vision impaired. Vision Ireland are well known for their charity shops across Ireland and as such are leaders in sustainable shopping options on the highstreet. The organisation has key goals in supporting sustainability in our communities.
Dr Aifric O’Sullivan (BSc, MSc, PhD) is an Associate Professor at UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science, Principal Investigator at UCD Institute of Food and Health and Vice Principal (International) at UCD College of Health and Agricultural Sciences. Dr O’Sullivan’s research aims to understand interactions between genes, environment, diet and metabolism that define nutrition phenotypes across the lifespan, with a view to informing personalised, sustainable, healthy nutrition strategies. A critical research goal is to foster the transition to sustainable healthy diets (SuHeGuide, MyPlanetDiet and PLAN’EAT). This ongoing research will show the nutrition and health implications of changing dietary patterns to be more sustainable, as well as informing recommendations, tools and interventions that will support dietary behaviour change to sustainable healthy diets in Ireland and Europe.
Chair: Tom Curran is an Associate Professor and Vice Principal for Internationalisation in UCD College of Engineering & Architecture. His research interests include air quality and waste management. He leads the Horizon Europe BioBeo project on bioeconomy education for schools with 15 partners in 10 countries and is also known as "Dr Fatberg" educating on fatbergs through stand up comedy and comics. He is a Principal Investigator in the Dairy Processing Technology Centre and the BiOrbic Research Ireland Centre for Bioeconomy. He previously served as the Chairman of the Environmental Sciences Association of Ireland (ESAI).
