The Smith School conducts research in various disciplines including finance, enterprise, economics, and law, with a collective focus on thinking about public and private sector decision-making and sustainable development.

Concepts such as stranded assets developed by Dr Ben Caldecott help make these risks concrete and guide sustainable finance and climate-aware decision-making across public and private sector entities.

The School led the development of the Oxford Offsetting Principles, which are considered industry gold-standard[3] and contributes to global understanding of net zero, the clean energy transition,[4] and sustainable cooling.

[6] The School’s Sustainable Law Programme has been engaged by leading environmental lawsuits such as Lliuya v RWE AG to test legal responses to climate change.

Since 2015, the REACH programme has been working with government, UNICEF, academic institutions, private sector and civil society partners to improve water security for 10 million people in Africa and Asia.