The Oxford Sustainable Group is a sustainable development company operating across Europe and managing four stock market listed companies,[1] as well as its own portfolio with a value of between 2.5bn and 5bn Euro,[2] which makes it one of the largest sustainable development groups in the region. If compared to renewable energy companies such as CEZ Group which has a stated investment of 1.1bn in Romania,[3] Ziarul Financiar quotes the Oxford Sustainable Group as investing 1bn Euro in Romania,[4] which would make it of comparable size at least in this region. The Group is referenced across Wikipedia in various sustainable categories.
According to the Oxford Sustainable Group website,[5], the Group is involved in investment in own projects and development of more than 800MW of renewable energy, sustainable development and renewable agriculture. International media has reported the following activities:
The Group has been referenced in the Financial Times[6], New Energy Finance[7] as launching the 200m Euro Oxford Renewable Energy Fund.
In the UK, the Oxford Sustainable Group launched Sol et Libre, Solar Consolidation and ISIS Solar, according to its website, a project to provide free solar panels for thousands of homes. This has been reported by The Times, Ali Hussain of the Sunday Times, [8], the Mail and journalist Jo Thornhill[9]. It was the first company to complete asset sales in domestic solar and the first 'second generation' UK solar company.
The Group's stated aim, listed on the Oxford Sustainable Group website, is to generate a high profit through following a sustainable strategy, "By generating a high return we are able to prove that when correctly using a true ethical and sustainable approach, returns will exceed the market norm. Therefore more profit can be returned to investors and reinvested to generate local and global benefits and so on in a virtuous circle. The philosophy is simple. If we generate high returns, more investors will be attracted to our projects and therefore we can allocate more money to projects which have a positive benefit on society, a classic 'win-win' situation."
The CEO and major shareholder of the Oxford Sustainable Group, Hadley Barrett, has been quoted in a number of international publications such as Investment Week,[10] New Energy Finance,[11] Focus,[12] and Eesti Päevaleht.[13]