Our decarbonisation work at Wolfson College, at the University of Oxford, has been featured in a recent short film by The Royal Academy of Engineering.

The series of five short films aims to explain why reaching net zero by 2050 requires a new approach and to share examples of how we can tackle this complex and broad challenge. The videos are intended to be a guide for people across the world who are responsible for eliminating net emissions from human activities in less than three decades.

The five episodes each focus on a different aspect, with the second episode focusing on decarbonising the built environment. The decarbonisation of Wolfson College is featured as an exemplar project, based on the work we're currently undertaking to help their estate achieve net zero quickly and well before their target date of 2030.

"The aim of our work here is to decarbonise the Wolfson Estates. Like many buildings of their age, their energy demand is dominated by space heating. The structure is concrete, but most of the walls are made of windows, and they lose a lot of heat. In trying to decarbonise the buildings, we're trying to massively reduce the heat loss." - Ali Shaw, Principal Engineer at Max Fordham

You can watch the 3-minute snippet on Wolfson College below:

The video explores how our complex networks of buildings and infrastructure contribute to climate change, how there’s no single solution to decarbonise the built environment, and how instead a strategic combination of different policies and actions could catalyse a transition to a net zero built environment.

You can read more about the series of short films and watch the full episodes here.