College Sustainability Workshops
OCS has been organising workshops for bursars, students, and staff, providing information, resources, and support to help tackle the urgent need for sustainable change. The workshops closely follow the demands laid out in the Oxford Climate Action Plan, and are a collaborative project between students and staff. We have been working alongside Oxford Sustainability Guild (Founder Bart Ashton, bursar of LMH), with the aim of providing interactive workshops where students and staff could work together to understand, identify, develop, implement, share and influence sustainability issues in the colleges. Please get in touch with our team if you would like to attend these workshops in future, and if you would be keen to speak on one of the upcoming topics.
Past Workshops
Oxford Climate Society is currently planning and organising workshops to take place throughout this academic year. Please e-mail us if you have any questions or if you would like to attend our upcoming workshops.
workshop 1 | tackling carbon in colleges | MICHAELMAS 2019 WEEK 7
Tuesday, 26th November, 2019
This workshop addressed how to begin the process of decarbonisation in colleges, highlighting the importance of identifying which areas are the biggest contributors to carbon emissions in your college. This requires creating an initial rough carbon emissions audit, with information about energy, electricity, food, and travel, to know which areas are crucial for you to focus on.
We had three speakers at this event, covering the following topics:
Here are some resources for how to start the process of tackling carbon in your college:
Extra resources for students:
Oxford Climate Society has drafted a letter for you to send to your bursars or other relevant staff members, to enquire about carbon emissions at college.
This workshop addressed how to begin the process of decarbonisation in colleges, highlighting the importance of identifying which areas are the biggest contributors to carbon emissions in your college. This requires creating an initial rough carbon emissions audit, with information about energy, electricity, food, and travel, to know which areas are crucial for you to focus on.
We had three speakers at this event, covering the following topics:
- What is a Carbon Policy? (Bart Ashton, Founder of the Sustainability Guild)
- The Biggest Elephants in Buildings & Energy (Tom Heel from Low Carbon Hub)
- The Cost of Travel (Milan Klöwer, PhD Climate Physics)
Here are some resources for how to start the process of tackling carbon in your college:
- Slides from the workshop, including the talks from Tom Heel, Milan Klower, and Bart Ashton.
- The Low Carbon Hub is a social enterprise providing solutions for organisations wanting to reshape the way they consume, generate and invest in energy. They can provide tailored advice (including carbon audits) for colleges.
- Bart Ashton's sample carbon audit includes estimates of the breakdown of carbon emitting areas at LMH college including gas, electricity, transport and food.
- Bart Ashton has outlined some pathways to carbon reduction in these areas.
Extra resources for students:
Oxford Climate Society has drafted a letter for you to send to your bursars or other relevant staff members, to enquire about carbon emissions at college.
Workshop 2 | Writing Carbon Targets and Sustainability Policy | hILARY 2020 WEEK 2
Thursday, Hilary Term Week 2
3–4:30pm, 30th January 2020
We had three speakers at this event, covering the following topics:
Here are some resources from the Carbon Target workshop
3–4:30pm, 30th January 2020
We had three speakers at this event, covering the following topics:
- Oxford University Wide Carbon Target (Tom Yearly, Oxford Sustainability Department)
- Meeting the Target: Filling in the Details (Alison Grunewald, Low Carbon Hub )
- Workshop on Sample Carbon Plan and Sustainability Policy (Bart Ashton, Founder of Oxford Sustainability Guild and Bursar at LMH)
Here are some resources from the Carbon Target workshop
- Slides from the workshop, including the talks from Tom Yearly about the Uni-wide policy and Alison Grunewald's specific steps you can take to cut carbon emissions in colleges
- Bart Ashton's sample carbon policy
- Bart Ashton's sample sustainability plan with discussion questions
- The Low Carbon Hub is a social enterprise providing solutions for organisations wanting to reshape the way they consume, generate and invest in energy. They can provide tailored advice (including free carbon audits for small colleges).
Workshop 3 | Sustainable Food | hilary 2020 week 6
Tuesday, Hilary Week 6
3–4:30pm, 25th February 2020
Habakkuk Room, Jesus College
We covered three topics at this event:
Here are some resources from the Food Workshop
3–4:30pm, 25th February 2020
Habakkuk Room, Jesus College
We covered three topics at this event:
- Oxford's Place in the Global Food System (Dr Marco Springmann, Oxford Martin School)
- Local Sustainable Food Initiatives (Nina Osswald, Good Food Oxford)
- College Case Studies
- Ben Gibbons, Head Chef at St. Anne’s College
- Markus Gerber, Head Chef at LMH
- Henry Grub, researcher and OxPOCH project leader
Here are some resources from the Food Workshop
- Slides from the workshop, including the figures about the carbon contribution of different foods from Marco Springmann, information about local initiatives from Nina Osswald, and lists of tangible changes which have been made in local colleges in our College Case Studies.
- 'What caterers can do' – a list of impactful changes colleges can make from Dr Marco Springmann.
Workshop 4 | Buildings & Energy | Trinity 2020 week 5
Tuesday, Trinity Week 5
3–4:30pm, 26th May 2020
Virtual Zoom Event
We had three speakers at this event, covering the following topics:
Below is a video recording of the workshop, with talks from the speakers at the following times:
00:03:40 Councillor Alex Hollingsworth
00:35:20 Oliver Smith from 5th Studio
01:05:30 Richard Dorey, Low Carbon Hub
3–4:30pm, 26th May 2020
Virtual Zoom Event
We had three speakers at this event, covering the following topics:
- Oliver Smith, Director of the design agency '5th Studio', sharing experience with renovations and energy refits on listed buildings, including a recent extensive renovation of Trinity College, Cambridge
- Oxford City Councillor Alex Hollingsworth, Cabinet Member for Planning and Sustainable Transport discussing how the City Council and Colleges can work together on sustainable planning projects
- Richard Dorey from Low Carbon Hub, sharing experience with sustainable building and energy projects in Oxford and information about their new project 'Energy Solutions Oxfordshire'
- Slides from Oliver Smith about 5th Studio's experience with Green Retrofit of Listed Buildings
- Slides from Low Carbon Hub with information about Energy Solutions Oxfordshire
Below is a video recording of the workshop, with talks from the speakers at the following times:
00:03:40 Councillor Alex Hollingsworth
00:35:20 Oliver Smith from 5th Studio
01:05:30 Richard Dorey, Low Carbon Hub
Workshop 5 | Virtual Conferences | TRINITY 2020 WEEK 8
Monday, Trinity Week 8
15th June, 5-6:30
Virtual Zoom Event
We had three speakers at this event, covering the following topics:
Below is a video recording of the workshop, with talks from the speakers at the following times:
00:02:20 Ken Hiltner
00:37:15 Celia Popovic
15th June, 5-6:30
Virtual Zoom Event
We had three speakers at this event, covering the following topics:
- Ken Hiltner, Professor in Environmental Humanities at the University of California at Santa Barbara
Carbon-Neutral Conferences: Why and How - Celia Popovic, Educational Developer and Director of Teaching Commons at York University
Tips on how to plan a virtual academic conference - Peter Robinson, Project Manager of Digital Humanities at Oxford IT Department
Virtual conference technology at Oxford
- Notes from the workshop
- Pros and cons of virtual conference platform options (sent to us by NomadIT)
- Case studies of two Virtual Conferences which took place in 2020
- You can find out more about Ken Hiltner's Nearly-Carbon Neutral Conference approach here: https://hiltner.english.ucsb.edu/index.php/ncnc-guide/
Below is a video recording of the workshop, with talks from the speakers at the following times:
00:02:20 Ken Hiltner
00:37:15 Celia Popovic