Huawei and TU Dublin announce winners of the 2025 Business Sustainability Enterprise Challenge

Winner Students at the 2025 Business Sustainability Enterprise Challenge

December 2025: Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin), in partnership with global technology leader Huawei, is proud to announce the winners of the 2025 Business Sustainability Enterprise Challenge, a semester-long initiative empowering students to develop innovative, technology-driven solutions to local sustainability and societal challenges across Ireland. Notably, this marks the second edition of what is now an annual challenge, brokered by TU Dublin's Enterprise Academy, an initiative that is being mainstreamed across the university.

This year’s challenge invited third- and fourth-year Business students to create commercially, and technically viable “Tech for Sustainability & Society” business proposals aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Over the course of 12 weeks, student teams conducted research, evaluated data, and developed solutions addressing real-world issues through the application of Huawei technologies.

Following an engaging final poster session at the TU Dublin Grangegorman campus, Huawei representatives, joined by external partners, selected the standout projects based on innovation, feasibility, and potential impact.

The Green Horizon School Initiative by Mark Walsh, William Ennis, and Henry Bergin was the overall winner of the Huawei TU Dublin sustainability challenge. The project looked at ways to help Irish schools reduce energy costs, improve classroom environments, and accelerate progress toward national climate and digital-transition goals by combining rooftop solar generation, smart battery storage, IoT classroom sensors, and AI-driven energy optimisation to create healthier, lower-cost, low-carbon school campuses.

A central digital platform gives principals and caretakers clear visibility over energy use, indoor conditions, system performance, and maintenance alerts—enabling data-driven decision-making and improved operational efficiency. The initiative also enhances STEM education by displaying live environmental and energy data in classrooms, helping students engage with sustainability, climate action, and smart-technology concepts.

Joint-second prize went to: Aoife Kelly, Danny McGrath, Niall Fitzgibbon, Marcus Kavanagh and Aidan Henry for their project ‘Clean Rivers. Smart Future’ which looked at a system for monitoring pollution across Ireland’s waterways using solar, battery storage, AI and cloud; and

Next Stop: A Net Zero Dublin by Douglas Clarke, Adam Fitzgerald, Dearbhla O’Sullivan and Michael Donovan, which looked at how through the modernisation and electrification of bus depots could help Dublin Bus move toward a net-zero network.

Huawei played an active role throughout the competition, including the launch session on 7 October, a mid-term check-in to ensure technical accuracy and real-world relevance, and final judging in December. Students were encouraged to explore sustainability challenges across Ireland in areas connected to Huawei’s core business sectors – including telecommunications networks, cloud services, enterprise IT, smart devices, and digital power.

“We are delighted to support the next generation of innovators,” said Luke Mc Donnell, Head of PR, Huawei Ireland. “The students demonstrated remarkable creativity, strategic thinking, and commitment to sustainability. Their proposals highlight the transformative potential of technology for society.”

TU Dublin also celebrated the depth of research and ambition demonstrated by all participating teams under module co-leaders Dr Lesley Murphy and Dr Ciaran O’Carroll. “This challenge empowers students to engage with sustainability at a commercial and societal level,” said Dr O’Carroll. Dr Murphy added “We are extremely proud of their achievements and grateful to Huawei for their collaboration and mentorship throughout the semester.”

Winning posters, business cases, and project summaries will be published on the TU Dublin website, showcasing the students’ work and contributions to sustainable innovation in Ireland.