Sustainability

Green Templeton College is committed to a sustainable future.

We recognise that the actions and choices of our community have a huge impact on the college’s environmental footprint, with around 250 students living in our accommodation and many more coming to dine and use the facilities. We are committed to embedding sustainable working and thinking through education.

Active travel

Green Templeton encourages active travel in all its forms, with a focus on cycling and walking around Oxford. Each year the college recycles unclaimed bikes and it facilitates bike sales and exchange, and bike-rental. The college also has a travel plan to encourage staff who live beyond Oxford to use public transport.

Awards

Green Templeton is proud to have achieved a Green Impact Gold Award for the second time in 2022.

Green Impact is a United Nations award-winning programme designed to support environmentally and socially sustainable practice within organisations. The ethos is about changing behaviours and making physical improvements to improve our sustainable practises in and around our buildings and college life in general.

Staff, students and fellows have all contributed to the college achieving this award with a wide range of initiatives across our estate including in accommodation, catering and events, and promoting sustainable activity among our entire community.

In unrivalled recognition for the college in 2022, Food and Beverage Manager Harriet Quint and Hannah Chase (Graduate Entry Medicine, 2018) also secured individual awards in Vice-Chancellor’s Sustainability Awards at the Sheldonian Theatre on Wednesday 13 July.

Catering

Meat-Free Mondays

At Green Templeton we have completely meat free Mondays in our catering provision. As part of doing our part to combat climate change, conserve resources and improve health, we have one plant-based day each week. When the kitchen is open, it means a range of tasty vegetarian and vegan dishes to fuel you through the day!

Bring your own box initiative

Takeaway lunches are served from the kitchen and strong emphasis is put on diners bringing their own reusable box. Where boxes are provided, we have chosen to use a bagasse type box for 95% of our packaging needs. Bagasse is a natural by-product of sugarcane refinement. It is the fibre that remains after sugarcane stalks are crushed to extract their juice. Bagasse pulp requires minimal processing and elemental chlorine free (ECF) bleaching to turn it into a woven high-strength paper that is biodegradable and compostable.

Bring your own cup 

Our water dispenser and coffee machines are available for use by college members with their own cup or bottle at any time. Discounted college-branded KeepCups are on sale at the Lodge

We have introduced a discounted tea and coffee option for event or conference attendees to bring their own reusable cup for tea and coffee breaks. Reusable coffee cups help reduce waste and keep the environment cleaner and healthier which is in line with our sustainability initiatives. Get in touch on email to find out more events@gtc.ox.ac.uk

Fairtrade

Fairtrade sugar, bananas, tea, coffee, chocolate and biscuits are used for conferences and events. Activities have also been organised during Fairtrade Fortnight in 2020, 2021 and 2022.

Food waste

The catering team prepare food to order and offer small portion options in the dining room to minimise food waste. Remaining items at the end of food service is delivered to local food banks across Oxford, including Gatehouse.

Local suppliers

Baskervilles (greengrocer/eggs/dairy) – Abingdon
Bidfood (frozen/ambient/alcohol) – Bicester
Bonners (greengrocer) – Covered market
Hedges (butchers) – Abingdon/Botley
Jolly foods (butcher/bread/cheese/fish) – Caterton
Phillip Dennis (frozen/ambient ) – Witney
Savona (ambient) – Kidlington
Oxwash (laundry) – Oxford

Sustainable centrepieces

Living centrepieces have been a feature of college activity in place of cut flowers.

The Welcome Receptions in 2021 features edible pea shoots that were later planted in the college gardens and the produce used in the kitchens.

#SwitchUpYourLunch initiative

In 2021 and again in 2022 Green Templeton has joined the campaign spearheaded by Good Food Oxford and served an exclusively vegan lunch in the college dining room as part of a pledge to improve Oxfordshire’s ecological footprint.

Estate

Accommodation initiatives

• Double-sided printing as default
• Ecopure water refill system in the dining room
• Electrical equipment with best energy rating
• Improved domestic handbook recycling information
• Installation of water saving shower heads
• Local controls on radiators in rooms
• Low energy lighting throughout our sites where possible
• Pack for Good scheme participation, giving students the opportunity to donate unwanted items such as clothes, electricals, books and furniture to British Heart Foundation
• Provision of storage facilities to enable students to take public transport when travelling
• Recycling electrical waste throughout our sites
• Recycling food, plastics, cans, paper, timber, metals, oils, cardboard and batteries throughout our sites
• Recycling of clothing, books and other items through British Heart Foundation collection at the end of the year

Decarbonising property assets

• In summer 2021 twelve flats at the college Rewley Abbey Court site were completely gutted and refitted. The stairwells were fully enclosed and uPVC double glazing installedamong the significant upgrades to the sustainability credentials of the block. Twelve more flats are being renovated in summer 2022.
• Capital expenditure programme with specific energy reduction targets
• Energy review and report across college site
• Secondary glazing and heat loss reduction programme in planning

Engaging community actively including by encouraging

• Recycling with care as everything in the recycling bin goes to landfill if it is contaminated
• Reporting dripping taps immediately
• Reusing bags for shopping
• Sharing ideas through the GCR and Sustainability Working Group
• Turning heating down or off before opening your window
• Turning off lights, computers, chargers and any other electrical equipment when not in use
• Taking glass bottles to the recycling bins externally
• Taking shorter showers
• Washing clothes at 30°C

Gardens

• Composting green waste throughout our sites and reuse of compost on our gardens
• Herb garden
• GTC Allotment

Laundry

Since September 2021, the laundry team has used OxWash to wash all Dining Room linen such as table cloths, napkins and tea towels.

In its Oxford lagoon, OxWash uses water reclamation to reuse the water from a previous rinse cycle for the next wash cycle. This saves up to 60 per cent of the water consumption versus a typical commercial washing machine and 70 per cent compared to a domestic washing machine.

OxWash is implementing microfibre filtration in 2021 to capture more than 95 per cent of all the fibres shed during washing. This process prevents plastic pollution of waterways and drinking water.

Disinfection of OxWash washing is performed using ozone, biodegradable disinfectants (PAP) and quaternary ammonium compounds. Generated using renewable electricity and oxygen from the air we breathe, ozone is an extremely powerful disinfecting agent against many microorganisms.

Automated dynamic dosing of biodegradable detergents prevents surplus chemical usage. OxWash works with partners to get a maximum clean with minimum chemistry addition to our washing process.

Fellowship Appeal 2020

Green Templeton’s sustainability agenda has been supported by the generosity of our fellows, including through the Fellowship Appeal 2020: Climate Change Imperative. These funds have enabled the purchase of a voltage optimiser for the Woodstock Road site and the planting of hundreds of trees around Oxford hospitals.

The voltage optimiser irons out voltage fluctuations, with a proven record of reducing electricity consumption and cost. Financial savings are ringfenced in a Revolving Green Fund for re-investment, to fund initiatives that will support further carbon reduction.

A collaboration with the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare’s NHS Forest project aligns perfectly with our human welfare mission. Tree planting is a social investment, bringing NHS staff, patients and local communities together, as well as an environmental investment because trees are health-giving and absorb carbon dioxide.

Student-led initiatives

GTC Allotment Club

Ella Dunlop (Clinical Medicine) launched the Green Templeton College Allotment Club in March 2021 with help from the Annual Fund. All college members are welcomed and encouraged to help out. Find out more by emailing allotment@gtc.ox.ac.uk or join the mailing list by sending a blank email to gtc-allotment-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk.

Sustainability Talks

A series of Sustainability Talks were organised by Constanze Cavalier (MSc(Res) Biochemistry) and Lore Purroy Sánchez (MPhil Development Studies) to find speakers who could highlight their efforts in sustainability in their field and identify the challenges and opportunities in their disciplines to give the opportunity to open a discussion around sustainability in their field.

Sustainability Working Group

Green Templeton brings together a core group regularly that has representatives from across the community to help ensure that sustainability is embedded in the work of Building Committee and development of the estate strategy and as a conduit for suggestions on possible projects supporting sustainability. It reports to Building Committee, of which its chair is a member.

Current members

Chair: Paul Klenerman, College Champion for Green Issues and a Governing Body Fellow.

Paul is Sidney Truelove Professor of Gastroenterology at the Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford.

Elaine Huckson, Operations Manager.

Elaine is the first point of contact for sustainability issues for those unsure who to contact. She works to coordinate on the college community efforts and tracks progress against goals and awards in this area.

Teresa Strike, Domestic Bursar.

Teresa is responsible for all the domestic estate functions within college. This includes the Lodge, the gardens and grounds, accommodation, housekeeping, maintenance, catering and events, and all relevant health and safety compliance.

Geoff Lye, Associate Fellow, and taking a lead role in the college’s response to the Climate Emergency.

Geoff is an expert on helping organisations address climate change. He is a Board Trustee of the South East Asia Rainforest Research Partnership (SEARRP) and co-founder of Volans Ventures.

Sarah Levy (DPhil Law, 2021) and Graduate Common Room (GCR) Environment Officer.

Sarah’s research focuses on the laws surrounding Canadian sealing activities, a topic chosen as a result of passion for both marine wildlife conservation and Inuit issues

Ujunwa Ojemeni (Master of Public Policy, 2021) and GCR Environment Officer

Ujunwa’s most recent role was at the Office of the Honourable Commissioner for Energy & Mineral Resources Lagos State, Nigeria, focused on policies, investments, and strategies to deliver reliable energy to the citizens of the State.

Other members include GCR Environment Officer Julia Knox, Bursar Dr Timothy Clayden and Principal Sir Michael Dixon.

If you would like to share your ideas or thoughts on sustainable issues please do get in touch!