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Our approach combines academic excellence with a deep understanding of real-world impact

Decisions made this decade will determine the future of our planet – to stop the climate crisis, we must shift global economic and financial systems towards sustainability. This transition must happen quickly, but it must not leave anyone behind.

Through solutions-focused research, and by bringing enterprise into the conversation, we can help build this cleaner, fairer and more prosperous future.

Introduction to the Smith School

The Oxford Smith School was established to bring business and enterprise into the climate change and sustainability conversation. Our vision of a Net Zero future is supported by our research, teaching and partnerships. But, at the heart of the Smith School, there are people - people that drive forward the conversations and bring a fresh perspective to the table.

Video transcript

We find ourselves now at these critical points in human history we are pushing up against the limits of the planet in a way that is by definition not sustainable.

The decisions that we make in the next decade are going to be incredibly important to address the ecological, but also the social crisis that we face.

If we are to get to Net Zero and sustainable development and reorder the relationship between nature, society and economies, business is an absolutely critical component. it's you know the cause of, but also solution to this mess that we find ourselves in.

The idea behind a School of Enterprise and the Environment is helping private enterprise and public enterprise identify the things that they have to change to address the climate change problem. Basically, it is an industrial revolution and we're trying to advise on that revolution.

The school is a bit of a haven for those of us who share this passion and this interest, and who want to apply the best and the most rigorous tools of academic inquiry to unearth new knowledge that can help us.

So, we are always asking: what's the application of those research? how can we innovate? how can we change the system? how can we do better? what are the tools that we need? As well as ensuring that our research gets out of the university and into the hands and minds of the people you need to use it.

So, we have people working in water, in energy, in finance, in law in food and infrastructure all of which has this collective focus on thinking about enterprises and sustainable development.

We need changes in law, changes in corporate law, but also changes in litigation. and to get those changes right, you've got to understand the underlying physical science. and so that requires the sorts of collaborations that we excel at, putting physicists together with lawyers and economists and business scholars and then think about how the ecosystem of actors has to change.

So for example a Smith School’s work on water security in some of the most fragile areas of the planet has already helped millions of people and is on course to help possibly even 100 million people. and then of course our students are critical in this.

We launched this new masters in Sustainability, Enterprise and Environment which tries to be realistic rather than the idealistic about the world and we give students the broad knowledge base and skills that they need to go out into the world and lead impactful change.

It takes a systems level view of really looking at the complex economic ecological and social systems that we operate in.

All the research in the world is only effective if it's then implemented in terms of what people do, how they think about things, are they invest.

What we're trying to do is to define best practice, to define the future of sustainable finance and investment. But we’re also trying to translate that, and so we spend a lot of time working with practitioners to turn theory into practice.

Our links span industry, government, public enterprise, policymakers, non-governmental organisations. so, we can really take our research to the people who need to adopt it.

I had a career in finance it was a lucrative career, but I never felt anything at the end of the day. what I do now I feel something.

Research is meant to change lives, seeing the impact of research translating into the policy documents that's very exciting to me.

Honestly, I think this is the challenge of our time, we need some really committed people who can be inspired and in turn can inspire others, and that's the central we're trying to create.

So, if you're listening to this and you think you have something to contribute to the Smith School, please let us know

Policy brief

A clean energy transition powered by modern renewables can turbocharge the UK economy, and net zero transition

Transition to clean energyResearch shows that moving to a clean energy system by around 2050 in line with global climate commitments is expected to save the world at least £10 trillion ($12 trillion) in energy costs, compared to continuing our current levels of fossil fuel use.

A new Smith School policy brief applies this research to the UK context, and explores the feasibility, challenges and benefits of a fast net zero transition.

Our research

Our ground-breaking fundamental research drives real-world change, working with partners in public and private activity, business, markets and government.

The SSEE is home to the Oxford Sustainable Finance Group and Oxford Sustainable Law Programme.

OUR CORE DISCIPLINES

HIGHLIGHT

World Forum on Enterprise & the Environment

Disruption. Collaboration. Action.

The World Forum is Oxford Universityís annual high-level, high-impact flagship event on enterprise and the environment. 

The latest World Forum took place on 22 September 2022. In this critical year, the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment brought together world leaders in policy, business and academia to embrace bold ideas, identify priority solutions to get their firms, industries and countries to net zero and investigate how real progress can be made. 

IN THE NEWS

Solar and wind farms can easily power the UK by 2050, scientists say

Wind and solar power could comfortably supply all the UK’s energy needs by the middle of the century, according to an Oxford Smith School team. “I think the public would be stunned that we could power not just the entire electricity system but the whole energy system of this country with wind and solar,” said Professor Hepburn.