Oriel College is working to improve our sustainability profile for future generations. We are committed to being part of the University’s efforts to improve environmental sustainability, through taking actions such as decreasing our energy consumption, increasing the biodiversity of our land and reducing the carbon footprint of the food we serve.
Oriel College is fortunate to have a number of expert academics working at the forefront of sustainability-related issues, as well as a number of undergraduate and postgraduate students. The Oriel Environment Group (OEG) was set up to make use of these invaluable resources, and to aid the College in achieving its sustainability goals.
The OEG aims to support the development of an engaged and proactive environmental community in the College that helps establish the College as a leader and partner in environmental activities across the University and beyond. The Group are a voice and resource for environmental issues throughout the governance structures of the College.
The OEG is chaired by Professor Yadvinder Malhi, Frank Jackson Senior Research Fellow in Biodiversity and Conservation at Oriel College.
We need to drill down into the college level and work out what is possible in terms of, what do you do with energy, when our buildings are listed, old and leaky; and what can we do with biodiversity, when we have limited green space?”
As Director of the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery, Malhi oversees research on how to “halt and reverse” ongoing biodiversity loss. His hope is that working on smaller-scale projects through the OEG will have wider impacts, “with students going on to use what they have learned and enacted on a national and international level.”’
