Oxford University has approved its Environmental Sustainability Strategy, with the goals of Net Zero carbon and biodiversity net gain by 2035.
Professor Louise Richardson, Oxford University Vice-Chancellor, said: ‘There are innumerable warnings of the impending dangers of climate change and biodiversity loss. We simply must heed them. Doing so will necessarily entail real changes to how we live and work. Just as we have had to adapt to demonstrate our resilience during the pandemic, adapting to the consequences of climate change will require significant, occasionally unwelcome, changes in our daily lives. These inconveniences will be a price well worth paying in order to ensure that we bequeath a healthy planet to future generations.’
The University will establish a new Oxford Sustainability Fund, which makes £200 million available for sustainability initiatives over the next fifteen years.
The Strategy includes two targets to achieve net zero carbon and biodiversity net gain, four enablers and ten priority areas in which the University will take action.
The four enablers to support the Strategy are governance, reporting, funding and offsetting. The ten priority areas are research, curriculum, carbon emissions from energy consumption on the University estate, biodiversity, sustainable food, sustainable resource use, international travel, local travel, investments and learning from the pandemic.
Professor EJ Milner-Gulland, Tasso Leventis Professor of Biodiversity, University of Oxford, said: ‘The University is making a serious commitment to restoring biodiversity both globally and in our own backyard. Biodiversity loss often gets left out of discussions about environmental sustainability, so I’m proud that Oxford has taken a lead.’
The university is committed to ensuring its investments are part of an integrated approach to achieving carbon net zero and biodiversity net gain by 2035, in line with broader sustainability targets across the University. The Oxford Endowment Fund has been actively managed for over a decade to be part of the solution to sustainability.
Read about Oxford University’s Environmental Sustainability Strategy here.
