University of Oxford

Environmental Sustainability Strategy implementation

Oxford University is leading sustained, whole-institution commitments, and leveraging its leading role as a teaching and research institution, to create a positive impact towards a sustainable future.

Oxford’s Environmental Sustainability Strategy sets a dual goal of net zero carbon and biodiversity net gain by 2035 and lists ten priority areas in order to achieve these goals. The strategy is backed by enabling policies including funding, governance, and reporting mechanisms.

In the two years since the strategy was approved Oxford University has been taking actions to progress on the priorities that were defined in the strategy throughout the University.

Annual carbon savings achieved with the initiative:

• CO2t savings over the life cycle of the project: To reach net zero carbon by 2035 the University will have reduced and/or offset (offset will only be considered from 2030) a total of 270,000tCO2e over the full period of the strategy implementation.

Top 3 Learnings

1. Establishing impactful governance is essential to lead the process through challenges and uncertainties.
2. “It’s a team sport” - no environmental sustainability team can lead without buy-in from others across the University. Consulting in early stages of key steps is essential.
3. Students are the back wind of the process. Embrace their campaigning and harvest their critiques to push the process forward.