The Greening of St. Patrick's Day
This year we worked with three established parades to capture their carbon footprints and initiated a prototype climate-positive parade. We also prototyped our own sustainability awareness campaigns to engage individuals, junior schools, transition year, and third-level students, businesses, and community groups, to begin an association with St. Patrick's Day and the Irish environment. We see this eco-reimagining of St Patricks Day as an opportunity to create a model that can be replicated across all our national events.This is an opportunity for Brand Ireland to elevate its strong association with the colour green to something that is both historically significant and in keeping with our Citizen's Assembly goal to become leaders of Climate Action.
Sallins, Climate Positive Prototype
Sallins is a small town in Kildare, with a population of 5,800 people. To date, Sallins does not have an existing parade. In 2022 we worked closely with the Sallins community to create a prototype Climate Positive Parade with sustainability as its core message.
The mission was to create an event that would centre around nature-based
activities, produce no emissions, create minimum waste, bring awareness
to the biodiversity of Sallins, and give back to the community & the environment.
We invited participation from local community groups, Tidy Towns Sallins, Sallins Biodiversity Group, Sallins Nature Explorers & Sallins Map of Life as well as local artists and the community.
The event ran on a small scale this year, with under 100 participants.
The theme was 'Sallins Biodiversity'. All costumes were either created in a specific workshop hosted by Imagination Station Sallins using materials that were diverted from landfills, or homemade from repurposed or recyclable materials.
Participants grew shamrocks in recycled containers in time for the event. All participation was on foot, there were no fossil-fueled entries, and no stages that required electricity, The event ended with a Zero Waste Picnic, a tree-planting and seed sowing ceremony, and biodiversity games hosted by the Sallins Nature Explorers.
We aim to expand the event next year with the support of Sallins Tidy Towns