She was recognized as an honorary fellow of St Catharine's College, Cambridge in July 2018 for her scientific and social contributions.

Tilbury led several UNESCO projects on intercultural education and sustainability that involved policy dialogues as well as the identification of good practices.

[22] She led improvements in the carbon footprint of the university but also established the International Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRIS) attracting funding from various business, corporate entities and education foundations.

In 2009, she was selected as a Marie Curie Fellow by the European Commission[23] to broker interdisciplinary dialogues and build inter-professional capability in sustainability research and that same year was appointed to serve on the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe's Expert Group on Competences.

[26] Tilbury has acted as a government advisor to higher education agencies in China, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand as well as travelled in Africa and Asia to evaluate the investment and impact of sustainability programmes.

Daniella has also led higher education change efforts for sustainability that have been recognised with Green Gown Awards 2008, 2010 and 2011 in the UK and Australia.

[27] Tilbury led the multi-agency project” ‘Quality and Higher Education for Sustainability’,[28] as well as the Flexible Pedagogies research initiative.

During her time as president she attracted 600,000 euros of funding from the European Commission to establish the University Educators for Sustainable Development (UE4SD) initiative.

The main aim of the project was to change University education so that it can prepare students, regardless of course or specialization, to understand and apply global responsibility.

During her time as VC she brought in income and large research grants from the European Commission as well as from private foundations.

Tilbury was a member of the Board of WWF Australia and formed part of the governance team that brought Earth Hour to the World in 2007.

This involved her travelling and assessing field projects in Madagascar, Tanzania, South Africa, China, Japan, Korea, Venezuela, Brazil, Colombia, Italy, Morocco, Australia and the US