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Sustainability at Keble

Keble places sustainability at the heart of what it does from education and research to food and travel.

The College Sustainability Committee (which comprises students, staff, and Fellows) is responsible for sustainability in College and is a full committee of Governing Body. We look at sustainability through the lens of the UN-adopted definition following the Brundtland Commission (1987): “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” This definition includes, but is not limited to, areas such as CO2 emissions and biodiversity.The Sustainability Committee meets once a term to and is currently chaired by the Warden of the College. The Committee is made of representation from across the College including senior staff, fellows and student reps.

You can view the College Environmental Policy here.

Sustainability is now a standing item on all College committees, each committee must consider how any decisions will impact sustainability.

So far, efforts in sustainability practice have been focussing on four main areas in which we believe we can have the largest impact:

➤Energy
➤Travel
➤Food
➤Procurement

Although there are still a number of important projects ahead, the committee has thus far contributed to:

➤ The College has been measuring its CO2 emissions for several years. The measured CO2e emissions for the 2024-25 academic year were 3170 tonnes. This compares to 2903 tonnes in 2023-24 and 3620 tonnes in 2022-23. This includes scope 1, 2 and some scope 3 categories, including waste and student travel. The figures are calculated using the DEFRA conversion factors.
➤A full carbon and energy assessment of our main site and H B Allen Centre.
➤Changes in heating practices to reduce CO2 emissions. This is estimated to have saved 10 tonnes/month of CO2.
➤A substantial upgrade to the Building Management System (BMS).
➤Undertaken an insulation programme of the Victorian estate to increase energy efficiency.
➤A flight levy (£30 per tonne of CO2) introduced on all College and Keble Association funded flights. This mirrors the University levy.
➤A new “Green Roof” on the bar
➤Biodiversity study of rewilded sections of College
➤Introduction of composting, a reduction of pesticide use in all green spaces and introduction of wildlife habitats.
➤Reducing food waste through measuring and monitoring.
➤A reduction of meat served across College, our Freshers formal is vegetarian and high table on a Thursday is plant based.
➤All coffee and sugar are Fairtrade, the College has a Fairtrade policy and holds food sustainability certificates such as MSC and BRC and looks to procure food locally.
➤The College partners with Better Reuse to redistribute end of year waste from leaving students, which at the end of 2024/ 2025 academic year diverted 1297kgs of waste from landfill with 93% going to be reused, 5% recycled and 2% energy from waste.
➤Ran a reuse room in the MCR for students to reduce end of year waste from outgoing staff and provide items to new incoming students.
➤A dedicated staff member focused on sustainability – Jillian (Jilly) Mowbray, joint Colleges Sustainability Officer scheme.
➤Appointment of Dr Benjamin Franta and Dr Robert House to build sustainability expertise in College.
➤Awarded a Green Impact Award in May 2025 by the University of Oxford.

In addition, the College has already completed divestment from fossil fuels. Almost all of Keble’s investments are held by OUEM, who have a commitment not to invest in fossil fuels (see www.ouem.co.uk for the full ESG statement). The very small proportion that are not held by OUEM are investments being wound up, an investment in an Oxford-based Science start-up incubator, and housing.

The College is developing a policy on gift acceptance, currently any donation in excess of £250,000 is automatically subject to background checks by the University and such donations are referred to the University’s Committee to Review Donations.

Offsetting at Keble

At Keble College, we are committed to minimising our environmental impact and contributing to action on climate change. First and foremost, this means reducing our direct emissions as a college, and as a community. The majority of our direct carbon footprint (known as Scope 1 and 2) is from the use of energy on our main college sites. We have a relatively small transport footprint for college business, but we are aware that the collective emissions from staff and students travelling for work and study is substantial. We estimate that the emissions associated with staff and student travel are roughly 2.5 times higher than our onsite energy use.

 

Before we are able to fully decarbonise our energy use, and given that some emissions are considered unavoidable, we recognise the importance of offsetting carbon emissions through responsible and transparent practices. Our approach to offsetting is guided by the Oxford Offsetting Principles, a set of guidelines developed by leading experts at the University of Oxford to ensure integrity and effectiveness in carbon offset projects.

 

We would like to help our staff and students make an informed choice about offsetting. Particularly if members of our community take a flight, please consider offsetting it. We would like to make it as easy as possible for people to do so. We have included some providers at the bottom of this page who we feel are worth considering. If our staff and students do offset, please note that we will not discount these emissions from our calculations of our emissions partly because we won’t know whether members of our community have or not and partly because we remain committed to reducing our emissions as much as possible.

 

There is a range of providers of carbon offsets. Climate Impact Partners is based in Oxford and has a long track record of delivering projects with multiple benefits. The UN has a Carbon Offset Platform which allows users to search a database of projects.

What is Offsetting?

Offsetting involves compensating for carbon emissions generated by an activity, process, or organisation by investing in projects that reduce or remove an equivalent amount of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Projects that reduce emissions include renewable energy installations, energy efficiency investments and switching from the most polluting fossil fuels to cleaner fuels. Projects that sequester greenhouse gas emissions include so called nature-based solutions such as reforestation, afforestation and ecosystem restoration projects, while geological sequestration refers to emissions captured in power stations or directly from the air, and stored underground.

 

The Oxford Offsetting Principles have been developed to help organisations ensure that their offsetting efforts align with best practices and contribute to meaningful emissions reductions. They are comprised of four main elements:

 

1)  Prioritising cutting emissions. If investing in offsets, ensure the environmental integrity of credits used to achieve net zero. This includes selecting offset projects that are transparent and verifiable, allowing for independent confirmation of emissions reductions or removals. Prioritise additionality by choosing offsets that lead to emissions reductions or removals that wouldn’t have happened without your support.

 

2)  Transition to carbon removal offsetting for any residual emissions by the global net zero target date. Oxford University has a set a date of 2035 to reach net zero.

 

3)  Shift to removals with durable storage (with lower risk of reversal). Look for offset projects that offer long-term certainty in carbon sequestration or emissions reductions.

 

4)  Support the development of innovative and integrated approaches to achieving net zero. This includes approaches which deliver broader environmental and social benefits besides emissions reduction or removal. Look for projects that promote biodiversity conservation, community development, and sustainable land management.

Learn more and take action

To learn more about our sustainability initiatives at Keble, or to contribute suggestions, please contact our Sustainability Committee.

This page will be updated regularly to reflect developments. Last updated 05/01/2026.