Sustainability

Playing our role

Sustainability plays a major role ahere, influencing both our day-to-day operation and our future decision-making. Our people are decision-makers and individuals interested in leading change. To lead the way in sustainable practice, which is one of our strategic goals.

• we measure our greenhouse gas emissions and publicly report on them
• we set a public emissions reduction target consistent with keeping within 2° of warming and have committed to being carbon neutral by 2030
• we have committed to 100% of our undergraduate programmes directly addressing issues of sustainable practice

Read our Simple Pledge Towards Sustainable Practice

Sustainable strategy

We have adopted a commitment to ‘doing the right thing’ as one of our key organisational values. We take sustainability seriously. It’s one of our core values, and shapes everything we do, from our operations and teaching, to our engagement with businesses, communities and other institutions.

Our goal is for every student to graduate with the skills and knowledge to become sustainable practitioners in their chosen fields. We're also working towards using our campus as a ‘sustainability model’ for others to follow.

Our vision for sustainability includes:

• developing a framework to ensure we meet our sustainability objectives
• exploring the challenges, and asking the hard questions
• focusing on student engagement by weaving sustainable practice into all our programmes
• making long-term sustainability goals to work towards
• turning vision into practice by ‘walking the talk’

Benefitting communities

OP is involved in a number of initiatives, including community projects and volunteer work, to ensure we set a good example – both to our students, and those who work with us on sustainability projects. We are committed to being a socially-responsible organisation and want communities, both in New Zealand and overseas, to benefit from our actions.

Teaching sustainable practice

We integrate sustainable practice into all our educational programmes – as well as providing a range of qualifications in sustainable practice.

Our students are also involved in research projects with a sustainability focus, enabling them to develop new responses to environmental and social challenges. Our goal is that every graduate may practice sustainably and make a difference to the world – and that every student graduates with the skills and knowledge to act as a sustainable practitioner.

Working sustainably

Our goal is to minimise our environmental footprint, and to share our journey with others. We have a range of on-campus initiatives, from the Living Campus project and Sustainable Lens, to the Waste Exchange initiative, energy monitoring and sustainable purchasing.Explore more about these initiatives, and others in our Make a Difference Guide