Returning to work on site – environmental sustainability at Oxford University

This is an opportunity for us to re-evaluate our ways of working, and with that incorporate more sustainable practices. We adapted to working from home, proving we can adjust when needed, and hopefully we can adopt some of the changes we made for good.

Our new Environmental Sustainability Strategy was approved in March 2021. We are now working on implementing this throughout the University and encouraging staff and students to get involved with this process.

How can colleagues approach becoming more sustainable?

There are many ways to reduce our impact on the environment. We have put together some suggestions on how to rethink your working practices in our Returning to work on site – Oxford University Environmental Sustainability guide.

This guide offers ideas on several aspects of environmental sustainability that teams across the University can apply immediately. In each area, there are some quick and easy-to-implement suggestions, and others that will require more time, effort, and resources. The actions are arranged for Beginners, Advanced and Moving Forward. 

We invite teams to choose the parts that suit them best and implement them on a schedule that works for them. This can be done for departments, buildings, colleges, or smaller teams.

DOWNLOAD THE GUIDE

 

Working for Environmental Sustainability in Oxford University

Infographic detailing suggestions for ways to rethink and change working practices for Environmental Sustainability

Suggestions to rethink and change working practices for Environmental Sustainability upon returning to work on site:

  1. Join Green Impact
  2. Rethink your resources
    • Purchase sustainable alternatives to day-to-day products such as coffee and tea, cleaning material, recycled paper and more.
    • Reduce the use of paper.
    • Consider reusing and recycling items before disposing.
  3. Remind, advise and support your team members about the individual steps they can take for environmental sustainability.
  4. Consider the environmental implications of business travel.
  5. Choose plant-based or vegetarian food for meetings or events. 

Full details on how to implement these steps, along with additional ideas and references, can be found in our Returning to work on site – Oxford University Environmental Sustainability guide.

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