Energy and Carbon Management
A three million pound carbon management plan (PDF) to save energy has been given the seal of approval by Kingston’s Board of Governors. It’s part of the University’s strategy to meet stringent HEFCE targets for universities to cut green house gases. The cash will be invested in energy saving projects across campuses to help cut emissions by 35 per cent over the next decade. But crucial to the success of the university’s energy drive is the support of staff.
TARGET: We aim to reduce CO₂ from scope 1 and 2 emissions by 35% by 2020 on 2005 levels |
Nicola Corrigan, the University’s Sustainability Facilitator said "We can only meet our targets with the help of our staff and students. We can all learn a lot from our students, they saved 7% which is £6,000 on energy bills in halls of residence with a “switch off” campaign making students more aware of simple things they could do. "We are now running a campaign aimed at staff called ‘Green Fingers’
The University has been working with the Carbon Trust to carry out energy audits to identify energy wastage and also received over £320,000 from Salix (an organisation that helps the public sector) to fund further energy saving projects. They have so far included; a heating zoning project to only heat areas as and when needed, energy efficient lighting such as sensor lighting that switch off when no one is in the room, variable speed drives to make heating and cooling equipment more efficient, renewable energy including solar hot water, improving insulation on roofs and pipe work, installing Powersave on all student computers and new water saving devices in toilets.
The University has also installed better metering, monitoring and controls through its building management system and will pretty soon be able to identify areas where the most energy is used on a building by building basis across all of its sites.
Neil Latham, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Corporate Affairs and University Secretary, chairs the University’s Carbon Management Group. He commented, "For some time we have been working to make Kingston a sustainable organisation and our recent climb from 46th to 15th in the Universities Green League table demonstrates our commitment. Reducing the University’s carbon footprint is a key part of our sustainability strategy – and reducing energy consumption also helps the University to save money".
Make a pledge here to support the 'Green Fingers' campaign and you could win £100 worth of vouchers.
Some myth busting information about whether switching computers on and off is better than leaving them on and more.
Find out how much money would be saved if everyone turned their computers off when they're not using them.
255 staff responded to a recent survey of attitudes and behaviour in relation to energy use at the University.
See how much energy each campus uses and whether staff are cutting this during the 'greenfingers' campaign.
Copies of all the leaflets, stickers and posters are available for download or contact Nicola Corrigan.