11 November, 2025
Launch of ESD Spotlight Series 2025: Case Studies Compendium
By James Holohan
Posted: 21 November, 2025
The launch of the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Spotlight Series 2025: Case Studies Compendium has taken place at an ESD Celebration and Workshop event.
The launch marked the culmination of the Higher Education Authority ESD Spotlight Series.
The HEA Spotlight Series was a weekly online webinar series, running from October 2024 to November 2025, that showcased a different higher education institution’s ESD practice each week.
It featured 21 higher education institutions (public and private) across the island of Ireland (incl Northern Ireland) and involved 97 staff and student contributors sharing their ESD initiatives.
Each institution in the series showcased unique approaches to integrating the SDGs into their teaching, research, and campus practices, providing insights and inspiration for the wider sector.
The new compendium showcases innovative ESD practice across teaching and learning, research, and leadership in higher education institutions.
It also features additional ESD case studies and Open Educational Resources (OERs) gathered through a national call. The compendium in total reflects input from a total of 235 contributors across 42 institutions, organisations and international collaborators.
Case studies range from high-level institutional sustainability strategies to creative classroom-level initiatives, with both top-down leadership and grassroots teaching approaches to ESD in the sector. Each example highlights practical actions and lessons learned.
Dr Mark Kelly, who is currently on secondment with the HEA as the National T&L Policy Advisor for ESD commented ‘that the ESD Spotlight Series clearly demonstrates a willingness to share ESD practice and collaborate. The series provides an invaluable resource for all educators who wish to embed ESD across the curriculum. My sincerest thanks go to all the contributors and their institutions who were so willing to participate in the series.’
All the Spotlight recordings can be found at the Teaching and Learning website , as well as all the ESD case studies.
