Sustainability Officer | Jilly Mowbray

Jillian (Jilly) Mowbray is our College Sustainability Officer and sits on Keble’s Sustainability Committee. Based in the central University Environmental Sustainability Team, she works with nine Oxford colleges, including Keble, advising on a range of environmental sustainability issues and promoting sustainability at the College.

What does your job involve?

My role involves supporting the nine colleges I work for in their sustainability goals. This can include working with the sustainability committees, staff training, helping draft strategies and action plans and working on reporting or sustainability initiatives — it’s a really varied role! Being based in the central university allows me to share information as to what the University, as well as the nine colleges, is doing and to communicate best practice: it’s a fantastic vehicle for sharing knowledge and resources.

What were you doing before this role, and what drew you to sustainability?

I’ve always had a passion for nature and our planet, and our effect on it. I studied Geography at the University of Aberdeen, including a “Liquid Geography: the Geography of Vine and Wine” course which led me to work in the wine industry. After a few years, I wanted to focus my career on an area I felt was important to take action on, so returned to study Sustainable Development at Queen’s University, Belfast. After my return to study, I worked in local government roles as a Climate Change Officer and in nature-based solutions. They were challenging but rewarding roles which offered great opportunities to learn.

How have you found working at Oxford and across the nine different colleges?

It’s fascinating getting immersed in college life in Oxford. It’s been great to work in an environment where the vision is so long term — colleges have such a long history and look, time-wise, long, long-term into the future. Sustainability is a huge topic, spanning many areas such as food, energy, and travel, and so the challenge lies in working out what the priority is at any given time for each of the colleges I work with. Each college has its own needs and projects in motion, and I need to be agile in order to answer to their various needs and spread my time equally between them.

What would you say are the biggest sustainability challenges colleges are facing?

Decarbonisation of heating and moving away from gas, as well as the funding for these projects, as colleges are no longer eligible for central government funding. While the electricity grid is decarbonising, gas is a fossil fuel, so the switch from gas to electric heating is key. Thankfully, the buildings themselves at Keble may not be as heat inefficient as some fear: older buildings tend to retain heat, as they have smaller windows and thicker walls. In fact, it tends to be the buildings from the 1960s onwards which are more problematic: built in a design-focused period, they tend to have thin walls and single pane glass, and as a result lose heat. 

Can you share some of the highlights of your role thus far?

One of the big highlights has been meeting really enthusiastic staff and students who are keen to make a difference. It’s been great seeing some exciting projects that have already taken place across colleges, such as ground source heat pumps being installed under quads, the green roof installed at the bar in Keble, disinvestment work and biodiversity projects.