Wadham's Sustainability Targets

We are committed to achieving the ambitious targets outlined in our Sustainability Strategy, which will deliver a a net-zero campus by 2035. This will require significant investment and the College has set a target of £10m to implement the first phase of the strategy. All College members are working together to achieve our sustainability goals.

We and our project team were pleased to be shortlisted for a 2025 Oxford Preservation Trust award for our North Range roof-restoration project in Wadham's historic front quad. Essential and swift repair work was required to preserve the roof structures in this 400-year-old building, which we did in an environmentally-conscious manner.

The Gardens team is working to increase Wadham's biodiversity. The team has installed new bug hotels around the College grounds, alongside the bird and bat boxes in different areas of the gardens, and there is a hedgehog house behind the chapel. The gardeners use their new electric mower to maintain the lawns.

We are committed to reducing our waste year-on-year. Our first internal waste audit took place on 2 June 2025. Through this, we reviewed our waste practices and the audit provided valuable data to help us target our efforts to reduce waste and improve recycling. This document provides a summary of the findings and recommendations.

Our Housekeeping team is always on hand to advise College members on correct recycling.

Some of our energy-saving measures are as follows:

• We have rolled out Eyesense, a smart distributed Energy Management System, across the main College site and the Dorothy Wadham Building.
• Hot water gas boilers are changing to electric sunamp cubes.
• To reduce water usage, we replaced dual-flush toilets with single-flush toilets with water-saving devices during staircase refurbishments. Water-saving devices are being fitted to showers.
• We no longer use electric heaters in our Library's reading rooms; instead, blankets are available for students who prefer to work in temperatures above 18⁰C.
• We use natural and breathable paint in our maintenance work.
• We are replacing our lighting with LED bulbs. These automatically dim when not in use.
• New energy-efficient appliances replace end-of-life equipment.
• We have added secondary glazing to listed buildings where conservation approval allows. New building developments are double glazed.