Green Gown Awards: TU Dublin’s Enactus Team Wins Social Impact Award

We are excited to celebrate TU Dublin’s Enactus team for winning the Social Impact Award at this year’s Green Gown Awards (GGA) for their innovative project ReFridge!

The GGA are among the most prestigious recognitions for sustainability excellence in higher education, celebrating projects that drive real world change and impact through innovation, collaboration and leadership. We are proud to congratulate our outstanding Enactus TU Dublin students on winning the Social Impact Award for their project, ReFridge.

ReFridge is a student-led food redistribution social enterprise that aims to tackle the following issues: Food wase and student hunger. Our team from TU Dublin ideated a way of collecting surplus food from FoodCloud, a national non-profit redistributor, and bringing it to students facing food insecurity. ReFridge has achieved some outstanding grand scale impact. In under a year, ReFridge has already saved 2,000 kg of food, prevented more than 3,200 kg of CO₂ emissions, and supported over 1,000 students with access to nutritious and affordable meals.

ReFridge was praised by the judges as a “strong, student led initiative” that accurately represents community engagement and strategic collaboration across campuses. It’s alignment with the UN sustainable development goals, its innovative approach and tangible impact were key highlights of the initiative. Beyond the project’s impact on the beneficiaries, the panel recognised the projects impact on student skill development, employability and leadership- an embodiment of the true Enactus spirit.

In less than a year, the efforts from the TU Dublin Enactus team has transformed ReFridge from an idea into a project delivering real impact across their campuses. Through access to mentorship, training and collaborative networks, students are encouraged to develop ideas that address real-world challenges in meaningful ways. ReFridge’s success illustrates how dedicated students, working with the right support and partnerships, can create measurable impact in their communities.

Once again, congratulations to the TU Dublin Enactus team for this outstanding achievement! The recognition of ReFridge at the GGA is a massive step on the right direction to our goal: to shape the next generation of purpose-lead and responsible leaders.