A Commitment to Sustainability

27 March 2024

Beatrice McWilliams, JCR Environment & Ethics Rep, writes:

Hertford’s sustainability working group met again at the end of Hilary term in order to discuss where the college is at, and what the next steps should be to improve our sustainability. With a number of senior college staff members and student representation, these meetings are a great way to check-in about recent work and refocus efforts.

In this term’s meeting the main focus was on energy at Hertford. A large portion of this was discussion surrounding the ‘Energy Use Reduction Plan’ report produced by Hertford undergraduate students Eleanor, Ruby, and Molly. The aim of this report was to look at how the College could reduce its energy use through the three main strategies of behavioural changes, retrofitting, and alternative heating. As part of this, they also suggested plans for retrofitting a property Hertford has recently acquired to reduce energy usage as much as possible, which they term the ‘Go All Out’ house. By focusing on improving insulation, adding solar panels, and an air source heat pump, this house could act as a template for other properties both in Hertford and other colleges too. The amazing work of these students has set out many potential steps for the college to look further into and will act as a guide for the sustainability working group going forwards.

A further topic of conversation was surrounding Hertford’s shared sports grounds with Exeter college. As the only sizeable green space in college, it has potential for being a great place to improve our on-site biodiversity. There is also work to be done to improve the usage of the grounds by students following a dip after COVID, and to look into improving the sustainability of the buildings at the site. By increasing biodiversity alongside these other ventures, the sports grounds will hopefully become a better place for college members, the local community, and wildlife.

There is much for Hertford to work on to improve sustainability, and the termly commitment to a sustainability working group meeting is an important step in working towards our ambitious goals.