Sustainability success in Vice-Chancellor's Awards
The University’s commitment to sustainable research was celebrated at this year’s Vice-Chancellor’s Awards, with the Sustainability team in Estates Services receiving a Highly Commended accolade in the Research Culture category.
The recognition highlights the team’s successful partnership with Research Services to embed environmental sustainability into research practices across the University. Together, they delivered an ambitious programme to roll out the Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF) environmental sustainability certification to more than 400 laboratories in just 10 months.
The achievement was particularly significant as it helped safeguard access to substantial research funding while driving meaningful improvements in laboratory sustainability.
This was an intensive project involving many stakeholders and a tight timeline. We were delighted to reach the finish line with such an impressive level of participation. This success provides a strong foundation on which to build as we continue our journey towards more sustainable research practices.
Joseph Arroway-Myatt, Sustainable Laboratories Coordinator
Laboratories are essential to research, teaching and discovery at Oxford. They are also among the University's most resource-intensive activities, consuming significant amounts of energy, water, and materials. By facing into this challenge, Oxford is once again demonstrating its commitment to environmental sustainability. Continuously improving the sustainability of research practice is both necessary and inevitable, and we are seeing a growing shift among funding partners, who increasingly recognise the importance of this.
Tom Heel, Associate Director of Environmental Sustainability
The Vice-Chancellor’s Awards celebrate outstanding achievements from across the University community, recognising the contributions of academics, researchers, and professional, technical and support staff from colleges, departments, libraries, museums and central services.
This year’s awards attracted 170 entries across 13 categories, with more than 1,000 individuals included in nominations. Vice-Chancellor Professor Irene Tracey presented the awards at a special ceremony at the Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities on 4 June.
Further information about the winners, highly commended entries and finalists is available on the Vice-Chancellor’s Awards webpage.
