Wadham Sustainability Working Group HT21 Report

I went to my final Sustainability Working Group meeting as Ethics and Environment Officer this week! It’s been a bit of a slow year for sustainability, what with Covid restrictions – in some ways we’ve even gone backwards. But good progress is still being made, and college staff are working hard to make the college more environmentally friendly.

Some key college updates:

  • Due to lockdown, we’ve seen a significant rise in the food waste (by almost 30%) that goes into Wadham’s compost bins – this will be good for the gardens! This year about 50% of the compost used in the college gardens was from composted garden waste.
  • We’ve made about a 12% annual energy saving this year!
  • We have reduced the red meat on Wadham menus by almost 90% this year.

Notes for students:

  • Please stop washing dishes in bedroom sinks, it’s messing up the plumbing on main site.
  • Remember to dispose of Vegware containers (from takeaway dinners) in the red bins, not the recycling or the general waste.
  • Every time someone cleans their teeth and they leave the tap running they use approximately 12 Litres of water (taps use approx. 6 litres a minute and brushing of teeth is recommended at 2 minutes). Brushing your teeth twice a day therefore 24 litres a day, by as many as 240 students – we might be using up to 5,760 litres to clean our teeth at Wadham! By turning off the tap while you brush you can personally save 6 litres per clean and 12 litres a day.

Wadhlove,

Freddie

Celebrate Fairtrade Fortnight 2021 with us!

Fairtrade fortnight banner

For the next two weeks, Fairtrade brownies will be free with takeaway dinners! And don’t miss out on a motion coming to an SU near you this Sunday, which will hopefully increase the SU’s support of Fair Trade even more…

Also check out:

Join The Oxford Fair Trade Coalition virtual event on 4 March with Traidcraft and other players in the supply chain. 

Take part in Oxford Brookes’ virtual baking competition 

Visit the Choose the World You Want Festival 

Wadham top Oxford college in the NUS Student Switch Off Campaign Quiz

A big thank you to everyone who took part in the NUS Student Switch Off Campaign Quiz this term!

In only three days, the college went from zero engagement to placing first among Oxford colleges and second on the national leaderboard. This work winning fifty Wadham students vouchers for a tub of free Ben and Jerry’s icecream!

Here’s to winning first place under the next E&E Officer/s :))