Projects

In addition to working with four local communities, we also wanted to consider an online community investigating shopping and recycling habits. Working alongside the ACT Waterford team, Slí Waterford sought to identify the obstacles and impediments preventing young people (18–30) from taking action in relation to responsible consumption and recycling. While the majority of Irish citizens were concerned about the environment, a much smaller percentage took action on that concern. The aim of Slí’s contribution to the wider ACT Project was to produce a video series, Summer Call to Climate Action, to help people understand and overcome those impediments.

This “Greening the City” strand was led by a creative with a strong background in community gardens and citizen engagement, and was therefore ideally placed to work with this community. The greening of the city was informed by feedback provided by local and transdisciplinary audiences and communities. This community promoted planting in public spaces, gardens and balconies, and explored novel places to grow. An important aspect of the project was to inspire the community to begin using the Green again as a civic space.

Working with the Dunmore Road communities, creative Joanne Donohoe explored alternatives to everyday car journeys and encouraged people to consider taking the bus as a practical and sustainable alternative. Through conversations, shared experiences and local engagement, the project examined how small changes in travel behaviour could contribute to wider environmental action. By encouraging more sustainable transport choices, the initiative aimed to create a positive impact across the community — reducing reliance on cars, strengthening local connections and contributing to a healthier environment.

All of the issues around biodiversity, habitat loss and sustainable agriculture were explored through the lens of water. To give the project an immediate focus, water and river systems became the central theme. The explorations began with local water and river systems and expanded to include their wider catchment areas. These included coastal areas, estuaries, lakes, streams, springs, bogs and peatlands, reed beds, fens, salt marshes, flood plains and wet alluvial woodlands. While increasing tree planting and expanding renewable energy sources were among the most widely recognised strategies for tackling climate change, the restoration of water and river systems was often overlooked in the public imagination. The project highlighted how restoring river systems and their habitats could drive change across an entire catchment area. River restoration was shown to contribute significantly to biodiversity and included approaches such as re-meandering waterways, creating natural green riverbanks, removing man-made obstructions to reopen habitats for migratory fish, planting trees to provide shade and reduce water temperatures, and restoring upland wetlands to increase water storage and help prevent flooding. The community selected for this strand was Kilmacthomas, and the creative appointed was Kieran McBride.

Responding to the set theme, The Walls Project (TWP) worked collaboratively with the Ballybeg community to examine domestic energy use and efficiency. Particular attention was given to identifying real and achievable changes that the community could make to address climate change. TWP explored local issues within the Ballybeg community that affected people’s ability and willingness to take action. The multidisciplinary team, comprising artists, arts practitioners, engineers and scientists worked closely with the participating group to develop the brief for the artwork. The project took a practical approach to energy efficiency, focusing on the everyday actions people could take in their homes and daily lives to reduce energy use and make more sustainable choices.